Trip Reports…Block, Cutty, Block

Maybe it’s getting repetitive, but we made a few trips out to Cuttyhunk and Block Island over May & June. They are nice places, there is usually stuff to do, and of course they are off shore so they are cooler than being on the main land.

The challenge is to find somewhere new and cool to go…that we can’t drive to in an hour or less. There are lots of places around here to go, but while visiting Mystic or Battleship Cove by boat is fun, it is so much easier and convenient to make the 45 minute drive. So this puts you in “Island Mentality” which drives you offshore to places you can’t drive too. That limits the places you can hit on a weekend and still get off the boat for something more than a visit to the town dock heads.

Perhaps we were at Cuttyhunk a little early. Nothing much was open – we walked to the Fisherman’s Club for breakfast to find it opening “next week”. The status of Soprano’s pizza was indeterminate. However we had a nice time walking about and going to the beaches. Perhaps it is better to wait until July & August for Cutty, but you can’t go too late in August either.

Block Island is an easy destination for us – about four and a half hours under power, the wind can make that shorter or longer of course. We sometimes head out directly on a Friday night if we can get ot early enough, otherwise we drop anchor in Dutch Harbor as I mentioned in a prior post. Too many visits can make you feel you’ve “been there, done that”, especially going in to the shops, but there are enough restaurants to mix it up and when the water gets warmer the beaches are always a favorite.

Of course all three of these weekends were during the “Battle of the Dented New Sprit” which meant that we were assured of a nice down wind sail home every weekend. Lots of fun to do wing and wing…not! Knowing the sprit was sitting there not installed caused me to chafe a bit at the down wind sailing and yearn for the spinnaker.