Help me find a week's cruise destination

[Rich Stidger]

Every year I take my work crew out for a week's cruise. Besides being fun, it's a small payback for the hours they give me each Spring and Fall to commission and de-commission.

I am located in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. In past years we have gone to Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Cuttyhunk, Fall River Battleship Cove, Prudence Island, Newport, Jamestown, and Greenport, NY. We have repeated many of these destinations several times.

My crew is now asking me where we could go to this year. The constraints are 7-9 days max and to places where anchoring is available for our h40.5 that draws almost 5 feet. These guys like to walk around and see different things. Gift shops, restaurants and beaches are completely unnecessary. They have liked all of the above places that we have visited in the past, but they really would like a new place to visit. I should note that one of my crew is deaf so any attraction that relies on sound for enjoyment would be less desirable.

So to all of you in my neck of the woods, what can you suggest and what are the attractions at your suggested destination?

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Napatree (sp?) and/or Mystic?

Tarpaulin Cove, on Nashuon Island,decent anchorage if the wind is out of the North-Northwest-West. The island is privately owned by the Forbes Family Trust, but they allow the beach to be used by boaters anchored there.

Hadley Harbor, on the eastern end of Nashuon Island, is a very protected anchorage that is nice to stay at.


Padanaram (Dartmouth).

Fairhaven and New Bedford, which have a lot of maritime related sightseeing exhibits.

 

[petersea]

I second Don's idea. NapaTree (Watch Hill) Mystic and you could even throw in the Thames River (Downtown New London,Groton sub base/Electric boat/ Fort Trumbull/CG Station) and a side trip to either of the casinos. Sooo much to do in Mystic. aquarium, seaport mystic, village shopping area and downtown etc. Watch Hill, very nice place to anchor out (Napatree) is a nice little village with shops etc but mostly beach (Watch Hill Yacht club is there also and Misquamicut light house). Also in same area is Stonington Harbor, (make sure you have some Stonington scallops)that has a quaint New England village as well as is the home to Connecticut's commercial fishing fleet. An awful lot to do in that area and should make everyone happy ! It seams like there is always something going on in the area from July 4 fireworks to the Blessing of the Fleet Festival in Stonington and the antique boat parade in Mystic, just depends on your travel dates. If you have never seen a sub surface in the Race or go up the river to the base it is an awesome site to see. Fishers Island Sound is a great place to sail (not as big as your Narraganset Bay but very pretty scenery) You could even do a night At Block Island on way home or on way down if you wanted. All very do able in your time frame !

 

[Stu Jackson]

A 40 foot boat with only 5 foot draft

and you're wondering where to go?

Heck, Rich, you can go anywhere! You have a shoal draft boat.

Don't you guys have Cruising Guides back there?

Come here, but it'd take more than 7 to 9 days. But you'd enjoy BOTH the trip and the destination. See ya soon!:dance:

Just give me a window on your arrival time, so we can check out your electrical system!

Your cruise reminds me of when I helped a friend of a friend commission his boat many, many years ago. Washed, cleaned, scrubbed, elbow grease flying all over the place. Never did get an invite to go for a trip. How'd ya guess he had a motorboat???:naughty:

Have a great season.

 

[Al - s/v Persephone]

Go East, Young Man

Rich -

If you haven't been there (from the water, by road doesn't count), and have any sense of sailor history, you have to do New Bedford/Fairhaven.

Walking through the old historic waterfront and up the hill past whaling captains' mansions to the magnificent New Bedford Whaling Museum is a not-to-be-missed sailor's pilgrimage.

It's a daysail (30nm from Newport to the entrance to New Bedford Reach, plus 5nm up the reach past the old forts, and then through the hurricane barrier nto the harbor.) The municipal marina on Pope's Island is only a couple of bucks per foot, well-run & secure, and only a mile walk over the Fish Island bridge to the above-mentioned attractions.

I'd plan a full day in New Bedford, and leave next morning to go up Buzzard's Bay and through the canal to Plymouth. Plymouth _is_ a tourist town, but done first class with much to see. (5nm down the reach, 17nm to the W entrance, 7nm through to the E entrance, 15nm to Plymouth can "1" and 5 nm all the way into Plymoiuth Harbor to the Brewer's Marine marina, close to the Mayflower replica.)

If you can't time the east-bound (flood) current (giving a 5-6kt boost at peak, which you won't want to buck at ebb) to do it in a day, you could stop over in Onset, a pretty little town of past glory as a fashionable summering place in the late 1800s and early 1900s. (You could hit it on the way back for similar canal-timing reasons.)

(If you come up Buzzards Bay with the SW wind against full ebb, you'll be well advised to take advantage of your shallow draft and stay just outside/E of the deep ship channel where it's worst - you'll have plenty of water, even if a big tanker wouldn't, and substitue 2-4ft chop for the 3-to-5ft square waves.)

Given more time (or an inadvisably faster pace with no room for weather) you could substitute Provincetown from New Bedford, for a 30nm downwind run on the prevailing SW winds from the E entrance at Sandwich.

Coming back that way is usually not fun under sail, except as a stabilizer for motoring. Hence my comment about more time, as I'd close reach across Cape Cod Bay from Provincetown to Plymouth, and then from there back to the canal's E entrance.

Fair winds,
Al
s/v Persephone

 

[CaptainJB]

Great Location

I used to keep my boat in Stonington great cruising grounds

Now in Florida and love the 12 monts sailing but miss all the places to go

Why not go to Greenport, Shelter Island and Sag Harbor (playground of the Hamptons)

 

[tweitz]

Gardiner's Bay is beautiful sailing, Sag harbor is a great destination and the various ports in Shelter Island and Three Mile Harbor are all excellent. You could also go up the Connecticut River to Essex.

 

[Benny]

Rich, think outside the box. Take a weekend or two and position the boat 100-200 NM aways and start your 7-9 days trip from there. I believe you could have the Chesapeake Bay or Maine coastline within reach. I have a view about sailboat speed. If you have limited time to sail then the distance that you can travel away from your home port is defined by the speed of your boat and half the alloted time. After you have covered that radius distance in all directions you would need a faster boat to expand your trips. We are not ready for a trawler yet and probably will never consider a power yacht so in order to expand our cruising grounds we do it on stages. When going to the Bahamas we sail the boat to Miami a week or two prior. We may leave the boat in the Bahamas for a month or two and travel back and forth a couple of times. A trailerable boat offers huge range but limited accomodations. Paying a few days of slip fees on a marina is still cheaper than buying a faster boat.

 

[IWM]

if they like "to see different things," how about Provincetown? seriously a trip through the CC canal and on to Ptown is an interesting trip.

Van

 

[Soundbounder]

Since you have previously sailed east to MV etc, and southwest to Greenport, why not try Fishers Island Sound.

Watch Hill, Mystic, Noank, Stonington, West Harbor, New London all have something to offer.

Watch Hill, Mystic, and Stonington all have walkable towns that are attractive.
Noank and West Harbor have smaller villages, but they are still very nice.
New London has worked hard at restoring their waterfront downtown. There are a lot of restaurants and bars, plus some nearby museums.
If you want to sail a little farther, you can visit Essex on the CT River also.

 

[Rich Stidger]

Thanks to all for your thoughtful responses. My crew is googling your suggestions and I'm sure we will find an interesting new destination.

I'll post again with their decision....

 

[Tim R.]

if they like "to see different things," how about Provincetown? seriously a trip through the CC canal and on to Ptown is an interesting trip.

Van

Too interesting for me. If you go thru the canal then head to Marblehead. Much nicer and less "interesting".

If you decied to head east, I can give you lots of great places to go. Are any of the crew experienced sailors? Are overnight passages out of the question?

 

[Maine Sail]

Rich

If you get your boat to Maine I have a spare mooring you can use. Sail her up on a three to four day "guys weekend" and leave her on my mooring then drive the family up to Maine and cruise the next week. You could then do another guys weekend and bring her home or just cruise Maine and sail her home at the same time. Oh and Maine does not really start until Casco Bay anything below Portland is basically Northern MA/NH..

 

[Rich Stidger]

If you get your boat to Maine I have a spare mooring you can use.

Very generous offer Maine Sail, but the logistics involved are daunting. It's easy to get up to Maine, but then we would need transportation back to Bristol, RI where we would have our vehicle. Then there becomes the problem of getting back to Maine and not leaving a vehicle there but instead somehow getting a vehicle at Bristol to use upon return.

I did this kind of trip once to the Chesapeake, and it was a real pain. It involves either rental cars, buses, or imposing on friends to make long distance drives to drop-off/pick-up, etc. The only way it would reasonably work is to have my wife drive to Maine at the end of the guy's cruise, have them drive our car back to Bristol, get their truck & leave our car- then we would drive our car from Bristol to home upon return.

Besides that, my wife and I are going to skip our regular every-other-year cruise to Maine this year because our daughter is providing us another grandchild this summer. So we really don't have the time to do our Maine cruise. That will probably happen next year.

 

[Rich Stidger]

If you decied to head east, I can give you lots of great places to go. Are any of the crew experienced sailors? Are overnight passages out of the question?

Tim,

By "east", do you mean toward NY City? I sailed in Long Island Sound and Fisher's Island Sound for over 15 years and found that the places east of there were less interesting and less numerous than places to the west. But maybe I missed some good spots.

My crew are a father and son. They are experienced as far as they have been sailing with me on short cruises like this for 10 years or so. This once-a-year cruise is their only sailing experience. I don't think any of us would be comfortable on an overnight where at some point they would be essentially single-handing. So, yes, I would say that overnight passages are out.

 

[Tim R.]

Check your compass Rich. Maine is east as in "downeast". A term originated from boats sailing to maine downwind using the prevailing winds from the SW.

 

[Rich Stidger]

Check your compass Rich.

East? West? I suppose I could tell you that my compass was broken but I actually just wrote the reply without thinking. Actually, that doesn't make it any better.

I guess I shouldn't write answers that require thought when I'm in a rush.

Thanks for re-calibrating my compass, Tim.