A "typical" Saturday morning . . .

I'm not sure what a typical Saturday morning, or any morning for that matter, should be like while cruising. We've only been at this now since Wednesday. But, we've taken a BUNCH 'O pictures as you can see below.

So, how do pictures like this get up here when were on the boat? Well, here is how they got uploaded this morning. At about 6:00 a.m. I got up and found everyone else on the boat asleep as usual. I wanted to make sure that the family had the dinghy available for getting to shore later so I packed a bag and grabbed the hand held VHF. My bag had the laptop, two dead laptop batteries, my camera, a dead camera battery, a cell phone with a nearly dead battery, the respective chargers and a big extension cord. The radio is for hailing the launch to town and for talking with the family while off the boat. I can charge all of this stuff on the boat with the Honda generator but given the early hour I thought it might be best to refrain from firing it up on the bow of the boat.

I got the launch at about 7:15 a.m. and for three dollars I got a short ride into town. Then it is a short hike of about a mile or so into town to the Island Free Library. The library doesn't open until 10:00 a.m. but the building and surrounding area is a free wireless hotspot. I noticed this yesterday and expected that there might be an external outlet or two on the building.

Sure enough, when I got to the library there was already someone with the same idea on the side of the building. Luckily, there was a spare outlet. So, I plugged in, charged up the batteries, edited photos and blogged. I even managed to charge the cell phone up and checked in with the family. They're having breakfast and will be into town soon. I'll probably walk back down to the dinghy dock at the Block Island Boat Basin and meet them there for another hike today. Yesterday was to the South East Lighthouse at Mohegan Bluffs and today may be the North Light at the other end of the island.

I'm still trying to upload webalbums to Picasa but can't seem to get it to work. So I've been having to post pictures four at a time to the blog page. If anyone knows how to get the webalbums to work and could send me an email or comment with instructions, I'd sure appreciate it.

For now, the four at a time method works but it is slow. As you can see below, Block Island is GORGEOUS and it photographs well. Enjoy the pictures and hopefully soon I'll be able to get more up.

End of another day on the Block . . .

Here are a few sunset shots from the boat. I thought they might make nice screen saver/wallpaper photos for anyone enjoying our blog from their desk . . .

Drew meets a Block Island buddy . . .

Yesterday Drew met a buddy on the beach, John. He lives here on Block Island and attends junior high on the mainland. Drew and John hit it off and spent a fair amount of time collecting rope on the beach.

Here are Drew and Emily taking a rest on the way to Mohegan Bluffs and another shot of Jo and Jake planning our next trip out to sea.

Mohegan Bluffs.

The South East Light House.

A day at the Block . . .

Andiamo! Andiamo!

Life aboard is not all salted cod and sea biscuits. At least not on Jubilee and not at Block Island. Aldo's Bakery, available on VHF Channel 68, floats by every morning and calls out Andiamo, Andiamo!!! That means it is time to have cinnamon rolls and chocolate croissants. YUMMM!! Click on the pictures to make them bigger and yes that is icing on the tip of Jake's nose!

Mom on board . . .

Here are a few photos of Joanna on board. The first is her at the helm on our way over to Block Island. As you can see, she's a natural. The second picture is of the happy crew celebrating our landing in the Great Salt Pond. The third is one of story time in the cockpit.

Drew's first shark . . .

Drew was fishing yesterday for flounder but he caught a shark instead. This was about a 27 foot Great White. No not really. But it could have been. Instead it was a three foot shark and we were sure to do the responsible thing, catch and release. It was amazing to see how powerful a three foot shark actually is and with any luck we won't be catching ones that are any bigger!!

Running from waves . . .

Things to do on an island . . .

This is some of what we did yesterday. Since I'm still having a bit of trouble connecting Picasa web albums to Blogger, I'm just going to send photos up to the blog until I figure it out. A picture is worth a thousand words anyway and here is about 4k. It was a really nice day. Click on 'em, to see the complete picture.

BLOCK ISLAND . . . Finally!!

Hello again!! This time from the Island Free Library on Block Island, RI. We finally made it out of the Noank/Mystic area and over to Block Island. The trip over was fairly uneventful but the family was definitely "impressed" by the conditions. We motored over in four hours in southwest winds of 15-20 knots with gusts to 25 with seas of 3-5 feet. The family requested a motoring trip as opposed to a sailing trip and given that it was our first time out in open water that was fine. The boat would have sailed beautifully in those conditions but we'll just have to take things one step at a time.

Joanna did a great job on the helm when I would go below to check our position on the computer. Drew did really well along with Jo as navigators and Jake kept an eye on our engine temp and RPMs. Emily was wonderful as usual once she got used to the motion of the boat.

You can click on the charts below to see our course and to see where we are situated on the Great Salt Pond. It is fantastic to finally get some place and now that I'm getting the hang of posting pictures on the blog I expect to be sharing a lot more. We've been taking a BUNCH!

So, why the heck did it take so long for us to get over to Block Island? Good question. Long story short, ROCKS. Lots of 'em. On our second time out of the dock, to go to the pump out station again, I made a wrong turn. BAD idea. I was supposed to go left of a mark but instead went right. Ooops!! The upside was that everyone got to experience the exceptionally stout construction of the Pearson 424 first hand. It is a REALLY tough boat. Taking on a rock pile at five knots and coming away with just a few minor fiberglass scratches is pretty good.

But, those few "minor scratches" had to be fixed at the Spicer's Marina Boat Yard. They did great work and did it very quickly. We were only up on the blocks for five days but living out of the boat on the blocks wasn't really that much fun.

This is what life was like for a while while we were getting repaired . . .



After the repair and being put back in the water we still had to get the sails on, have the rigging tuned and taped and complete the final checks on the engine. We finally got all of that done on Wednesday the 27th and the minute we were done we took the boat out of the slip, watched out REALLY carefully for any more rocks and headed for Block Island.

This is a picture test . . .still working out this blogging thing

Here are a few more pictures. This is some of what we did in Noank. The kids, Drew especially, had gotten in to fishing and everyone is really getting into the swing of things with the dinghy.