Wickford, Rhode Island

August 21-22, 2012

Whoosh!  Up went the anchor Tuesday morning after I swam another ¼ mile in the lovely, flat water.  It was great to be back in the water after several days of unswimmable harbors, but was still really hard to swim that far.  I also can’t swim a straight line to save my life, which must be hilarious to watch.  But I am so inspired by my friend Lana, who completed a triathlon last week, as well as my high school friend Ben, who became an Ironman this month.  So I am going to keep plugging away until I get back to New Jersey, when I will sneak in some cycling in between wedding festivities and visiting with friends.

Historic Wickford

We got underway, leaving Dutch Harbor for Wickford, RI and by the time I finished cleaning the dishes, taking a shower, and tidying up, Chris was pulling into Wickford Harbor and it was time to do the fuel/water/pumpout routine.  We grabbed our friend Bryson’s mooring and took the dinghy to shore.  Bryson’s mother Muriel lives right on the water, with a dock, a pool, and one of the most amazing harbortown views you could imagine.  We spent the day swimming in the pool, catching up with Muriel, eating lunch in town, and browsing some of the shops in this historic town.  Chris stayed back and pulled up all the floorboards to clean the bilge and attempted to locate the source of the odor coming from the forward head.  Isn’t that lovely?

the bilges are clean as a whistle, but the head smell remains…

Enjoying the colonial architecture of Wickford

In the evening, we went to dinner with Cindy and Bryson.  Bryson proceeded to scare the dickens out of me with his stories of ocean passages gone awry.  Bryson is an experienced sailor and I know his rough trips span a lifetime and were few and far between.  But it got me thinking that night and I wondered if bringing the kids along for some of the longer passages would be difficult and miserable for them, and thus, Chris and me.  Something to think about.

Wickford has amazing sunsets

The next morning, we packed for our trip to New Jersey.  The rental car came at 1600 and we loaded it to the hilt with laundry, clothing, and all of the gear we no longer needed.  We hoped there would be room to bring back all of the “Caribbean Gear” still stored in our house, included the school supplies donated by our amazing friends back in Ho-Ho-Kus (we will be donating these supplies to less fortunate schools down in the Caribbean).

The kids with Muriel, Bryson’s mother

We jumped in the car at 1800 and hoped that we waited long enough to miss the traffic on I-95 through Connecticut.  On the car ride, we talked about what we had missed about home, what we were looking forward to doing, our favorite parts of the first part of our voyage, and, of course, Aunt Carolyn’s upcoming wedding!  The trip was uneventful and we pulled up to our friends’ house at around 2230.

The Armitage clan comes to visit from Newport

more Wickford sunsets

moonbeams leading from Patronus to the sky…

The first part of our trip was officially over.  We had travelled to 27 ports in 52 days.  We had been together as a family almost 100% of the time.  We came to see Patronus as our home.  We met untold numbers of new friends and acquaintances.  We had seen a few storms and we had dealt with a few minor maintenance issues.  We had witnessed the beauty of Nature, the silence of the night, the strength of the sea, the grace of dolphins and whales, and the wonderful, wonderful Wind.  We had emerged different people, after such a short amount of time, and we look forward to what is yet to come.

“Cruising has two pleasures. One is to go out in wider waters from a sheltered place. The other is to go into a sheltered place from wider waters.” -Howard Bloomfield

swinging on the boom in the moonlight

see you soon, Patronus!