I can see Newport from my house, well the bridge anyway. And Jamestown Island. That’s where we spent the weekend after all – Dutch Harbor on Jamestown, followed by a lovely but short sail around Beavertail Point into the fog around Newport. No place I couldn’t drive in 35 minutes or so.
But it doesn’t matter – the change in mindset sleeping on the boat just shuts it all down and makes you feel like you’re a thousand miles away.
Newport is a cool place, I suppose if it wasn’t so close we’d go there more often. The marketing people in the Maryland Chamber of Commerce might try and declare themselves “America’s Sailing Capitol” but they are full of bologna. You can keep your shallow water, fickle light winds and crab pots.
Where but Newport do you regularly sail into the harbor with 12 Meters under full sail? Classic schooners and ketches and other big beautiful boats are all over. Everyone sails…as we approached the harbor my wife was wondering when to drop the sails. “When we get there!” of course was my reply. So we did…just like every other boat. Very few boats drop their sails outside and motor in, they almost all sail right into the harbor and it’s beautiful. We even saw one daredevil J/24 zipping through the mooring field with her spinnaker up! Too risque for me.
We saw some beautiful boats – racing thoroughbreds like the sleek new Titan and the imposing Rambler berthed on the same dock as the classic J Boat Ranger, along with some amazing sailboats that one could venture to call almost ships. Sailboats (and power) of every shape and variety abound, and the town just bustles with the feel of it.
We also paid a nostalgic visit to our last boat, the Beneteau first 40.7 Shadowfax, who found a new home just down the bay from us in Newport. What a great boat that was, it was a little like meeting an ex-girlfriend and discovering that she’s still “got it”. We made a lot of happy memories with that boat too.
But seeing her also made us realize that at the end of this season we will have spent as long with Evenstar, and on the whole we love her more that the last. Many good memories there, and a lot of good family together time.
It sort of shows that it doesn’t matter so much where you go together, just that you GO.
