October 1st- Block Island RI to Old Saybrook CT

The last couple of days have been difficult. It was a constant onslaught of cold rain and wind. We spent most of our days in Evergreen. Every once in a while the rain would lessen. Ollie and I would bail out the dinghy and go on a quick commando raid. Generally it would start raining again during the process and we’d high-tail it back to the boat. 

We woke today to wind but no rain. Time to move! The forecast called for the wind to calm in the afternoon so that was a plus. Anchor up. Two reefs in the mains’l. Just a scrap of the Genoa out. We shot out of Great Salt Pond doing seven knots. Normally we are fair weather sailors but it felt great to get moving again. The wind was off the beam and our sails were well balanced. The autopilot,  Ray, did most of the steering. 

We didn’t quite make the fair tide at The Race. The Race is the entrance into Long Island Sound and there is a lot of water moving through on the ebb and flood tides. Around the same time the wind started to slow. The sails were unburdened and we pushed into the sound. By the time we were near Old Saybrook our sails were furled and we were moving along under power. We had some problems with our Yanmar diesel last season but all is well now. There was a lot of debris in the water due to the recent weather. We made it into Old Saybrook around sundown and grabbed a mooring.

Moving along.