Fog is very common on Block Island

This is entirely unofficial; but me thinks that anyone who loves Block Island and stops at virtually nothing to get and be there, goes as often as time and family allow and has participated in at least one anchor drag, bumping encounter or has (without qualm) rafted up at the dock, mooring or on the hook; surely the word to describe them is Blockhead. Think about how it works with a positive slant, then on the flip side with a Lucy intoned, “Charlie Brown; You Blockhead!”
While we may not deserve Blockhead status, I must confess, I did fib; but not intentionally! Here goes the story of O (not that one!!) rtolan 🙂 and her two-engine motor trip from Three Mile Harbor, past Montauk and on to Block Island’s New Harbor aka Great Salt Pond.
That long-lasting weather system was finally in its last throes of watering the entire east coast on Wednesday and we began making noises about heading to Block instead of waiting until Thursday. All set to go after visibility improved; but wait! ..the current is against us and if we delay until 1pm we will receive a mega speed boost. So we waited and for much of the 36 mile trip our speed was around 8kts; motoring mind you as the wind ranged from zero to eight knots.

Looking into Lake Montauk, home to more sport-fish boats than you can shake a fish at

We passed by Montauk, out on the end of Long Island, a place we had talked about visiting in our old power boat days but the high cost of a marina stay put the kibosh on that every time. Doesn’t look like much from the outside and we did learn that plenty of good anchoring can be found further into the lake. Odd structures along the beach turned out to be camper trailers.

A long line of trailers lined the beach

The fog returned as we left Montauk behind and made way in Block Island Sound, which at this point is basically in the Atlantic Ocean. Forget the fog; how about those swells? NOAA did not lie; the swells were a good five feet but spaced far enough apart to be tolerable. Radar on of course and not much was happening; only one boat came within a half-mile and we never saw it, just heard the engines.

The entrance to New Harbor comes into view about a mile out and we follow a couple other sailboats in at 6pm. 90 town moorings and all are full. No Harbormaster at this late hour, so no one to assign us a private one. What’s a girl to do? Not leave, that’s for sure. We found a good spot in 7ft of water between the private moorings and the beach near Breezy Point. Low winds and no thunder storms should make for an uneventful night.

Just because we anchored one night doesn’t mean we care to do another, especially as the anchorage will fill to bursting with each passing day. Three items on our must-do list between 6pm Wed and 11am Thursday: dump trash and recycling, buy groceries and last but most importantly, eat Killer Donuts! How convenient that Payne’s is on the way to town, making a breakfast stop possible and then another on the return trip for the next day’s feast.

Foodie Notes: Payne’s Killer Donuts are fantastic- sugar, sugar/cinnamon or plain. I’ve read the secret ingredient is sour cream which explains the almost gooey-in-your-mouth feel as you inhale them. Soft and best eaten fresh, they are still very good the next morning.

Check out the Block Island Depot for reasonably priced local produce and eggs. You can find a decent variety of cheeses, grains, crackers, beverages, grain-fed beef products and my special recommendation: Talenti Gelato (priced less than at B.I. Grocery down the street). They make sandwiches, salads and breakfast stuff too.

Perhaps that title should say “for” instead of “in” since we were holed up there exactly 72 hours.

The complexities, some self-imposed, of coastal New England summer cruising mean you can’t harbor hop whenever you darn well please. Popular places, which we adore as much as the next boater/cruiser, quickly fill up on weekends (weekends begin on Thursday in July and August) so plan accordingly. Oh wait, now the weather has collapsed? Find a safe harbor and tuck in; if conditions improve you simply leave for the next desired place. But wait! What if the weekend has arrived? Power boats have the speed advantage and if we want to burn more diesel than the next guy we can out-race another sailing vessel, maybe even out-sail them too! Or since we are so wide we’ll push everyone aside and nab that last mooring which is now more desired than that first cup of morning java.

A diverse neighborhood for sure. This house seemed to encourage deer to stop by

After participating in and watching plenty of Block Island at-anchor dramas, only a mooring will do for this cat. If you don’t nab one of the town moorings, at 3pm the harbor master will assign you a private mooring one night at a time. Early the next morning you can join the circling buzzards in the town mooring field attempting to grab a soon-to-be available ball, assuming any open up. Sounds exciting right? What if you don’t get a mooring? Three choices: one, you leave; two, you anchor, finding room even if there isn’t any and expect the depth to exceed 25ft; three, try to get a slip-ha! If that isn’t insanity. You will be rafted at Champlains- great for power boaters who love loud music and making new friends while climbing over their boats too intoxicated to know when they’ve arrived at their own. Would you believe this isn’t for us? Not before, not now.
If you survive being anchored for a day, you just get assigned another private mooring for the night and start the process over. The private mooring owners need to tell the harbor master if they will be using their mooring, otherwise one of us transients may get to use it. The owner gets a piece of the nightly fee of course.
Where is Ortolan then? Not at Block, not with rain, wind, fog and a nasty forecast. 3 Mile Harbor is only two miles long, but the distance into town (East Hampton of the famous Hamptons) is three miles. The real weather didn’t end up as bad as predicted and if not for our anchoring phobia at Block we’d have headed there sooner. Monday was extremely calm (so much for 15-25mph wind) so we took Bunting up harbor and around the jetty to the beach. Landing the dinghy here would give us a short walk to a nearby market and deli.
Due to our keen interest (mine especially) in weather conditions, the electronics are usually on which means the displays over the table showing wind speed, depth and air temp can be on, as well as the Garmin chart plotter with Sirius XM radio and the “weather” screen selected. The VHF can be on also. We pass the time listening to the Coast Guard make frequently barely intelligible announcements and much eye-rolling ensues when we hear of a hazard to navigation or a vessel in need of assistance and the location (lat and lon) is rattled off before you could possibly pick up your pen, never mind find a piece of paper. Half the time no other reference point is mentioned; like we’re supposed to know where Cow Neck is for example. But I was freaked out to hear announcements one day from as far away as Delaware Bay and Atlantic City. Hadn’t we left all that behind us?

He’s washing in the rain, just washing in the rain… when else have we had extra fresh water?

We saw this hard-working clammer every day. Took this shot shortly before we left the harbor.

By Tuesday, the dew point was off the scale and even though we didn’t get rain until late evening, between the fog and mega-moisture surrounding us, it felt and sounded like sprinkles all day. Once this stalled front moves on, so will we.
Foodie Notes: fresh donuts made with a Dreesen’s doughnut robot fry machine can be found in East Hampton at Scoop du Jour; was too far a walk for us initially, but after a couple of days we would have gone for it had we not become glued to our seats. Not a great donut destination, but one we’d have liked to check out.