Post #3: Uncharted Waters

 September 11, 2020

We departed Newport at 9:15 a.m. bound for Stonington, CT. We sailed past Beavertail Light at the tip of Jamestown Island near the entrance to Narragansett Bay. I learned a few years ago that German U-Boats  patrolled around this area during WWII.  In fact, U-853 was sunk in the Battle of Point Judith on May 6, 1945 after it “took down” the SS Black Point, the last US merchant ship sunk in the Atlantic during the war.  How come we never learned about this in high school history??

Point Judith is a small fishing town at the tip of RI, known to many as the home of the ferry to Block Island.  But to mariners it is also known as a Harbor of Refuge.  Since 1905, the US Army Corps of Engineers has deposited almost 2 million tons of stone to build a series of breakwaters to protect commercial (and now pleasure) vessels from heavy seas in the area.

Pushed by favorable winds from the east, we made better time than expected so kept going past Stonington all the way to New London, some 9 miles further, and the farthest west we have ever sailed.  We are literally in uncharted waters now—well, at least for us.

We’d read about an “enticing small anchorage” with moorings available through the Shennecossett Yacht Club.  We hailed them on the VHF only to be told curtly, “We have no moorings for transients due to Covid-19 restrictions.” David replied, “But it’s ok for us to anchor, right?” “Not in the harbor, no.”  In other words, no room at this inn, folks.

We headed further to the Thames River.  I called 2 marinas around 4 p.m., looking for a mooring.  Their phones went directly to voice mail so I left our request but never heard back from either one.  So we anchored near the moorings with a view across the river that wasn’t exactly “enticing.”  Is this what traveling during the pandemic is going to be like??

Fortunately the rolling from the ferries and the loud pounding noises from the factories on the river ceased around 11 p.m. and we finally fell asleep. 

As Scarlett O’Hara once said, “...tomorrow is another day.”  Sometimes, when things don’t seem to be going the way you’d like, you just have to turn around and the world might look different: