Playing a bit of catch up . . .

Well hello again, this time from Cuttyhunk Pond on BEAUTIFUL Cuttyhunk Island. If you're saying, Cutty where? Then click here for some info on this little slice of heaven. Or just click on this picture. I put a red arrow on the picture to show where we are.

The pond is a wireless hot spot which is amazing for a place with a one room school house. But, before I go on and on about this wonderful place I'll back up a bit and fill in some details about where we've been and what we've been up to over the the past few days. While I do this, I'm going to have to take short breaks to finish the blueberry chocolate chip pan cakes Jo has made this morning. Fanflippin'tastic!

So, after the fireworks at Block Island we decided that the weather would be best on the 4th of July to make the move to Newport. It was a really good move because the weather really turned foul for the next two and a half days after we arrived.

Newport was a bit of a shock to our systems after being on Block Island. We went from this fairly remote setting to what seemed like the big city compared to Block. Newport isn't really that big but was much busier than Block. Block Island is a truly amazing place. Nearly half of it is protected land that is looked after by the Nature Conservancy. We'll likely stop off at Block again when we head back south but for right now we're northbound.

We went to Newport to provision the boat and get the supplies we would need for our stay at Cuttyhunk. The added bonus of being at Newport on the 4th of July was a second fireworks show. It poured rain but we were under our canvas in the cockpit and it was a great show. I'll put some pictures up as soon as I can but right now the internet link from Cuttyhunk is a bit slow so it will have to wait for a stronger connection.

While we were provisioning the boat, we watched the weather carefully and realized that Saturday was the day for heading over to Cuttyhunk. This worked out great because we only had a mooring in Newport until Saturday. We were amazed to be able to pick one up on the 4th of July but I guess it was just good luck. And, given the weather we were really glad to have it.

So, yesterday we went over to Cuttyhunk from Newport. It was a beautiful day and we sailed a bit but the winds were pretty light so the motor was on almost the entire time.

The only glitch we had on the trip was a loose alternator belt. We had to stop for a while so that I could get some tools out and tighten up the belt. But after that, we got into Cuttyhunk without incident.

I'll have some more on Cuttyhunk soon and hopefully a lot more pictures. They're on the computer but still having some difficulty getting them to the net from here.

Now we're in Newport!!

Hello from Newport, RI!! We're on the boat right now in the harbor. We came in yesterday ahead of some nasty weather.
I'm using some wi-fi I found in the harbor and have my wireless antenna duct taped to an old fishing pole. The connection is a bit
sketchy right now but when we get a chance I'll be posting some really cool fireworks shots. We got a double dose of fireworks this year.
The first was on the beach at Block Island and the second was here in Newport moored off of Fort Adams. Two really nice shows.
The weather right now is not nice but it should clear by Saturday and then we'll be off (hopefully) to Cutty Hunk Island.

Pictures should hopefully be up in a day or so.

How YOU doin' ? Our side trip to New Yawk!!

Another trip we took, while waiting for the boat to be done, was to my brother Jeff's for baby cousin Jack's second birthday. Here is a good comparison of the different cannon ball techniques used by West Coaster (Jake) and East Coaster (Uncle Jeff) . . .

This trip was the first opportunity for me, my brother and my sister Samantha to be together in one place with all of our children. Here are some shots of all of us and of the birthday bash for Jack.

The birthday boy certainly enjoyed his Thomas the Train cake. At one point he just started using the train as a fork. Yummm!

Here are some shots of baby cousins Jayden and Ashely, Samantha's twin daughters. Ashley is in yellow and Jayden is in pink. They're both a couple of cuties.

Baby cousin Liam, Jack's new brother was a big hit too. Here are a couple of shots of Drew, Jake and Emily taking turns with Liam.



Here is Drew reading to baby Jack. Did we mention that Drew is now an American Red Cross certified baby sitter?

Here is shot of Jo hanging out with Jack, Jake, and Liam.

Me and Jeff hanging out at the pool.

The Mystic Aquarium.

While the boat was up on the blocks we really needed to be away while the work was being done. So, we went to the Mystic Aquarium with the kids for a couple of days. It is a really nice aquarium with a lot of great stuff to see. Especially nice is the fact that you can use your tickets for two days after your initial purchase so you get three days admission for the price of one day. We managed to make it two out of three days but had boat work and errands to run on the third day.

The biggest hit with the kids was birds not fish. The Birds of the Outback Exhibit allowed the kids to get into a large enclosure with a bunch of birds and they were able to feed them seeds fastened to popsicle sticks.



The Mystic Aquarium is one of only a few (maybe two) aquariums in the country with Beluga whales. Here are a few shots of the kids with the whales. The first is one of my favorite shots of the trip. Emily running with a whale . . .


Another big hit with everyone was the Cow Nosed Ray touch pool. The pool was about three feet deep and filled with with what you'd expect in such a pool, sting rays with cow type noses. You were permitted to put your hand in the pool up to your elbow and if you stayed really still the rays would swim by and graze your hand.


Here is a shot of the kids checking out a serious set of teeth. This set of jaws is just slightly smaller than the set that was on the shark that Drew caught the other day. You haven't seen those pictures yet? Well scroll down and have a look. The blog is a bit out of order right now because I'm posting some stuff from Mystic that I didn't have time to do while we were there. If you're just arriving, you'll find a bunch of our more recent Block Island photos below.

Our first visitor to the boat . . .

While we were still in Noank, my old college buddy Eric stopped by to hang out with us for the day. We took him into Mystic by dinghy and toured around a bit. Then we grilled him a steak and had a really good dinner at the dock. Here are a few shots of Eric's visit and we need to thank him for taking some of the great family shots of us that we couldn't have gotten without his help.

He's considering coming over to Block Island to visit us for the Fourth of July. And this is a good time to mention our open invitation to all our friends reading the blog. If you'd like to stop by for a visit on the boat, we'd love to have you. Just let us know when would be good and we'll tell you were we are. Looks like right now we'll be heading to Newport, RI to provision after the Fourth and then on to Cuttyhunk Island at the very end of the Elizabethan chain of islands near Cape Cod.

A short rewind . . .

I had meant to post some of the pictures below earlier but we ran out of time in Noank before we headed off to Block. So, here are a few earlier photos that are a bit out of sequence with the time line of our trip.

Here are a couple of shots of our friends in Portland. We had some great dinners with them before we departed from Portland. Things were so hectic on the night we left that I forgot to bring the camera with me to the Lucky Lab to get a picture with Charles DeAnna and the girls. But we'll get some shot of them when they come out to the boat. Also, I managed to get in a great lunch with Francesca, Amy and Sandra at Karama on the afternoon we left but let's not mention that to Jo as I was a bit delayed in helping with the packing that day.

Here is a shot of us with Ruthanne, Jeff, Gabe and Audrey at their house after dinner:


And here we are on another night just before leaving with Gus, Claudine, Griffen, Barrett and Aden:


This is a shot of us hitting the hard streets of New York after landing at JFK.

But it wasn't long until we had a police escort to the boat, my brother Jeff.

This is the first breakfast on the boat. Cinnamon rolls seems to be a big hit wherever we go . . .


This is a shot of Jake and Emily checking out our evacuation options in the event of a flood. Safety first, that's their motto.


Here are a few shots of Drew crabbing, touring around Mystic, and hanging out with his buddy Gabe before taking off from Portland.

Dog steals car . . .

Forgot to post this yesterday. Thought these were pretty funny. This guy was left in the car at the Block Island Boat Basin and was hanging out in the back seat. But, in the second picture he really looks like he's thinking about getting behind the wheel and taking a ride.