imageOur passage to Dutch Harbor, Rhode Island was most enjoyable. The sea state was remarkably calm throughout the passage. The wind slowly clocked from the North (which suited us just fine as we headed down to the mouth of the Chesapeake) to the East, which made for some good reaching, and then South. We had our sails up almost all of the 373 nm passage but motor-sailed some of the time in order to reach Dutch Harbor in daylight. As one would expect, we encountered quite a bit of shipping off both the entrance to the Delaware and the Hudson and then masses of unpredictable fishing boats off Long Island. It appeared to William and I that Howard and Karen handed over their shift to us when the shipping was getting interesting, for example we had 4 cargo vessels that passed within 2 mm inside the space of 45 minutes, one of which was on a direct collision course had we not taken avoiding action. The 4-hour watches go fast at times like that!

Dutch Harbor is a delightful, large anchorage, protected on the East and South by Conanicut Island and on the West by Dutch Island. We took a mooring the first night as there was a possibility of fairly fierce squalls coming through the area but in fact they didn’t materialize so we anchored the second night. Mooring fees were rather steep at $60/night. William and Karen had a day off, exploring Newport the second day, which involved a 15 minute walk to Jamestown where they caught a ferry.

Next stop was in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, a mere 40 nm further East. This time it was motoring all the way but it was well worth it, we enjoyed exploring the stalls of the small vendors in their ‘Harbor Days’, a brief swim for some of the crew (W&K) to cool off, then a fun evening in a cleared out boat shed for the captains briefing followed by a dinner, partly catered and partly provided by the boats.

Now we are on our last leg of the rally, now with about 12 boats, from Mattapoisett through the Cape Cod Canal to Rockland, Maine. We had hoped to see some whales off Cape Cod but missed them this time. At least a couple of the other boats reported sightings. This will be an overnight passage, mostly motoring so far…..