While we normally anchor, sometimes it’s just easier to get a mooring. With our friends the Keats arriving along with some stronger winds (and a potentially choppy harbor which would make for a long wet dinghy ride) we decided to pay for a mooring to take advantage of launch service and showers.
The Keats arrived Saturday afternoon loaded down with peaches from their farm share, blueberry muffins and coffee cake from Jeff’s mom, and hot dogs from a local Boston butcher. After lunch ashore Leslie and I decided to visit Linden Place, the mansion built by the DeWolfs with connections to both the Colt and Barrymore families. Cute as the town is, Bristol is a sobering reminder that they were the center of the slave trade at one time. Bristol produced some of the best rum which was brought to Africa on some of the fastest, locally crafted ships, where the rum was traded for slaves brought down to the Caribbean.
Early evening we went back to the yacht club, took the launch out to the boat, and settled in on board to catch up and to watch the ospreys hunt. Leslie and I got up early the next morning to go explore Colt State Park. Though the Colt family is probably most famously known for firearms manufacturing, Samuel Colt was more famous for buying and running local companies (ie. a bank that was later merged with Bank of America and another company that became United Rubber). The park was once part of a local cattle farm and the stables and grainery (a most amazing stone building) is now park offices.
A heat wave had arrived and it was too hot to do anything too physical, so Leslie found a local vineyard down in Portsmouth to visit. Neither Jeff nor Emily nor Trip were too impressed, so, to compensate, we stopped at a local brewery on the way back. After a late lunch, we again headed back to the yacht club to enjoy showers and drinks on the back deck before going out to the boat. The next day was more heat avoidance, with another trip to Colt State Park and Bristol’s town beach, followed by a run up the road to the local Audobon Society for some hiking trails and and aquarium. Of course that was again followed up by showers at the yacht club and a round of drinks from the bar before heading back out to the boat.
Once we said goodbye to the Keats it was off to Warwick to see if we could get the fridge fixed. The fridge crapped out Memorial Day weekend and we had been relying on ice to keep things cool. Trip had been attempting to troubleshoot for weeks on end and was finally at the point where we needed professional help. Luckily one was available just a couple of hours away. Though we had been assured that our 6 foot draft would not be a problem, the shallow water in the inlet did make us hold our breaths a bit and were happy that we were coming in at high tide. We got to the marina’s fuel dock and topped off fuel and emptied our holding tank, and got directions for where we’d be berthed. Two of the guys on the fuel dock gave me a map of the marina (yep, it’s that big), then took a golf cart off to our new dock so they could help bring us in.
The marina is under construction (recently acquired by Safe Harbors) and is absolutely huge. We discovered that it was faster to go by dinghy from end to end, only to snap the spring on the recoil of the outboard. More bad luck was to follow – we were hungry and the irish pub on the property was closed on Tuesdays. One of the fuel dock guys recommended a tiki bar at one of the other marinas, and Trip decided he was game to row, only for us to get down there and find out that bar was closed on Tuesdays as well. We snagged a bag and block of ice on the way back to the boat and I made drinks in a hurry as Trip set out to study the outboard problem. With a little bit of ingenuity, he figured that we could heat and rebend and set the spring for the outboard. I had mentally been pricing out new outboards and what it would do to our cruising season, so this was a welcome reprieve!
The technician showed up first thing the next morning and I went off to get some laundry done and to give them room to work on the boat. More good news – there were no serious problems with the fridge, the technician had vaccumed it out and pumped new refrigerant in so we were good to go. There were some pretty serious storms in the forecast, so Trip called the office and they agreed to let us stay another night free of charge. In the end, we were only ever charged for the technicians work – they let us stay at the dock for free (normally $3/foot per night). We celebrated by heading off to the air-conditioned irish pub where I had one of the best orders of fish and chips ever and several drinks to cool off before heading back out into the heat.
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