The day began with Carl taking apart the carburetor on the outboard motor and me making a list of all that needed to be purchased to provision the boat. After 3 months all supplies had run down.. I made breakfast while he got the carburetor back together. A couple of calls to Dick, Rita and Barry it was decided that Carl would go with Barry to see if he could find a part for our propane tanks and I would go shopping with  Dick and Rita.  Being they had a truck I got them to stop at every store I needed so I could really stock up.This took a few hours. Carl and Barry were done quite a bit earlier. So Carl headed back to the boat to work on a couple of things while waiting for us to return. Dick took us to a place called Pop Casey's for lunch. This little diner had been there for over 60 years and it was great. The original owners great granddaughter waited on us, it is still owed by the same family.. Not many places in this country that can say that.. I wish Carl could have seen it, however I did bring him a piece of homemade pie. We headed back to the boat and I called Carl and had him bring the boat over to the end of the dock at the marina. Since I had  way to much stuff to take over in the dingy.  He was shocked..I told him I bought a bunch of things.. I figure we may not have transportation for a while so I got everything I could think of.. Windward Spirit was loaded and Rita took Bella for a walk, while we took the boat back to the mooring ball.  I put away the refrigerated foods, the rest I could do later.. Then it was back to Barry and Elaine's house. Carl sat with the guys by the fire-pit and talked while , I cooked the meat on the grill and Rita and Elaine brought the food out to the table that Elaine made. Dinner was great.. Elaine even made salmon pie,a New England dish, Carl loved it... Thanks Elaine for all the great meals..As night began to fall it was time for us to head back to the boat, as we prepared to move on the next day.. I can't tell you enough of how happy we were to spend time with Dick and Rita..They are good friends of ours and we really miss them.. Just a little bit of home.. We wished each other safe travels and they were gone.Tomorrow the Cape Cod Canal...

Today was the kind of morning I like to wake up to.. not to early...Carl got in the dingy and headed to the fuel dock to find out if they had diesel and if we could use the dingy dock. No they didn't have diesel but yes we could use the dingy dock. Still having trouble with the outboard motor we chose to just row the boat to shore to meet Dick and Rita. As we are crossing a small boat with lots of people in it passed by and said look there's a real sea dog,  only we went sure if they were talking about Bella or Carl...So we just waved and laughed.. No sooner had they passed when one of our oars broke in half.. Yep just snapped.. I grabbed for the oar and we used them like canoe paddles to get to shore. Not the best way to start the day, but so is the way of our adventure.. Vowing to fix it later we tied up the dingy and headed up the street. There is this really cool high school built in the 1906 and we wanted to check it out while we waited for Dick and Rita to pick us up. Fairhaven High is a unique building, the town has maintained it to its original structure and added on to increase the size while still keeping the architectural lines of the building. How magnificent that the town has not taken the building down and replaced it with a new one. That is by far the neatest high school we have ever seen..Behind it they were having a Saturday market, so we checked  out a little of that and I got Bella peanut butter dogie treats..She loves peanut butter... Rita and Dick were waiting in the truck to take us on a tour of their area. Saying that the town Rita grew up in isn't quite what it used to be we headed for Cape Cod. We  stopped to see a immense railroad bridge that covered the Cape Cod Canal, which we would be taking in a couple of days. It was constructed by the CCC a job program that was used to help put our country back to work after the depression.We were told the current was fast in the water and boy they were not kidding, it hauled...5 knots..We will be checking the tide charts on that one, before trying that...We stopped in the town of Buzzard's Bay where Rita and I did some shopping. Next stop was dinner. The Lobster Pot turned out to cost more than Carl and I usually spend so he had chicken and I a fish sandwich with chowder to share. I must say I liked Rosie's better.. Next we got to see the house Dick grew up in and check out the area.. That was pretty neat.. We loved that part..Back to their RV where we traded DVD's, the boys had a beer and Bella chased a ball and it was time to head back to the boat before dark. We had a lovely day with our good friends and enjoyed all we saw. Once on the boat Carl went to work on the oar and I wrote post cards. When all was done it time for a movie and off to bed. Tomorrow we get all our stock for the boat and start checking the weather to move on..

At 5 am the clock beeped with it charming sound for us to awake and embrace the day.. Ready to go and out of port by 6am.. The seas were about 2 to 3 ft coming from the north east , not on our tail.. Yeah... It was a great day of motoring as the winds are still on the nose.It was overcast but never rained on us.. I was even able to cook without wearing any coffee. We  arrived at New Bedford Mass at about 12:30 PM. They have something we have never seen before it called a hurricane gate. Its a stone wall about 15ft high  with a gate that closes, it encompasses a major part of the city from the sea.  I tried to take a picture of it but it is hard to get in a photo, but you'll get the idea. Also there was  a fort called Ft Phoenix that you could barely see. It looked like a big rock. Who ever built that was using there heads not easy for the enemy to detect..Also there were 6 power boats racing by , but I wasn't fast enough with the camera to get their pictures. Once inside the wall there were fishing boats all around,back in the day this was the biggest port for whaling in the Northeast.  We called our friends Dick and Rita  who are from this area up on vacation, and were put on the phone with Barry, Dick's brother in-law. He lives here and we were directed to a mooring ball we could stay on.. How cool is that.. No anchors and way inside the harbor great spot. Just a short trip over to a boat ramp where we could get out and take our dingy.. This port is off to a great start.. Dick and Barry picked us, I was so happy to see Dick I kissed his face all over, don't tell Rita. They took us to Barry and Elaine's house where Dick and Rita have their RV. What a wonderful home this is... They have 10 acres so it was like being in the country while in the city.. I ran to give my buddy Rita a huge hug and kiss, I missed her so much.. It is the biggest treat of all to spend time with good friends from home.. Bella was real happy too, she remembered them and was able to run all over the place and have a great time. Wide open spaces..That's the life for her...A fire was built and we sat around it and talked the day away. Elaine and Barry are long time sailors from here and were giving us some good advise about the extreme tides and waterways we are yet to encounter. Carl spent time in the basement with Barry going over charts. So much to learn..glad to have their help. We have certainly picked a challenge for our first big trip..As night loomed in the air and a large rain storm came it sent all inside for shelter. Once the rain had stopped it was time to head back to the Windward Spirit for some well needed sleep. All this fun can wear a person out.. We still have a few more days of fun with them. So I do need my rest..Oh happy days...

Still sitting on the hook waiting on our weather window. It seems like the winds have calmed down some but the waves are still 5 ft still with following seas nothing to do but wait. Had grits for breakfast, followed by  an afternoon matinee  of The Legend of Bagger Vance. So to say it a lazy day is putting it mildly.We checked the weather once an hour hoping the seas would calm, but we needed a wind direction change. About 3 pm we hopped into the dingy and headed over to shore for a walk and ice cream. You can never have to much ice cream...Walked to the state park beach and was told Bella wasn't even allowed on the sidewalk so on we went. Stopped  a store that carried New England's version of South Winds, ( a sailor magazine for free) only to be told they were out and didn't have a clue when more would arrive.. Thankfully the homemade ice cream was fantastic .. I mean melt in your mouth good. Maybe even better that the Candy Store back on Madeira Beach..And that's saying a lot.. We saw a man with a surfboard and asked where they surf at, just maybe we could go surfing, a few blocks is what he said..All I know is they have some really big blocks.. We walked about a 1/2 mile when we asked someone else and they said it had to be about a mile more to go.. To far to walk with surfboards....Then we passed a beach club, what the heck is that.. So of course I had to go find out.. Yep, people paid lots of money to have a special place on the beach that others couldn't access.. Sure they had a bar and food, but still hundreds of dollars a year for only May to October..Plus you had to pay a another fee to eat there too. Crazy is all I can say when there is a state park for free right down the street..Back to the boat just in time as a fast moving high intensity storm rolled through. Wow what a blast, literally..It was time to make the sushi and ready for bed as the winds had changed and NOAA said the sea's would be good in the morning . So it up early, rise and shine for us....

High sea's stuck in a port, oh the life of a sailor...Here we sit in Rhode Island just waiting on the wind to change direction and  the sea's to calm a little bit. These are not seas we are use to. It is hard on us to have to wait with little to do. It doesn't make for lots of fun, we would love to move on..The sound of the buoy at the channel entrance calling us to sea..It will have to wait just as we are..The day was spent cleaning the boat and just puttering around. The skies were gray with rain looming all around us.The weather report was for showers and thunderstorms but we only saw a little bit of rain. I cooked the fish we were given for brunch, grilled fish and eggs, boy was that good. Fluke fish, a fish we have never had before boy was it mild and good, plus Carl did a great job cleaning it no bones. The big excitement of the day was when we watched a commercial fishing vessel towed in by the Coast Guard , I guess they don't have Sea Tow.They even got the boat turned around so it was stern into the slip.  It was pretty cool to see.  We wondered if the Coast Guard gives them a bill, does anyone know? No matter that's our sea soldier's or should I say savior's hard at work.. We watched a couple of movies, even a scary one, not our usual.  As the sun set the winds increased and a warning was posted on the TV for mariners. Every 15 to 30 minutes it warned of high sea's,  thunderstorms and 50 mile an hour winds.The weather service advised for mariners to head to port for cover. Were mariners watching TV, that's my question..That was scarier then the movie. We had never seen that back home. Sure they advise of bad weather but not for boaters to head to port.That goes to show you how important sailing the sea's are to people up here. Carl choose to drop another anchor in case it got to us in this harbor. The rest of the day was not much to report.. Hoping for the sea's to calm and us to travel on, that would put a big smile on our faces....

The early morning sea's seemed just right for the day. We had set our sails and were moving along, enough wind to sail, with sea's about 2 feet.  I went down into the cabin to write the mornings blog.  While down below when I noticed the waves were getting rougher and we were healing over more.. I looked up to see what was going on when Carl said the winds were gusting to high and he had to drop the sails.That he couldn't sail by himself and I wasn't as much help. Sails were dropped and we motored on.. After about another hour the sea's were increasing and it was getting real rough out there. We had 4 ft following sea's on our stern and it was pushing us about pretty good. Carl decided it was time to find a port and wait it out. It is better to play safe then sorry..Into Point Judith we headed, with Jerusalem on one side and Galilee on the other..Where are we Israel... This is a fishing port, commercial boats as far as you can see. Just as we anchored Clyde and Ron in a fishing skiff came over to talk to us. Told us the fishing was good , then gave us bait and a fish.. Yep free fish...Gotta love that...Carl cleaned the fish and we both tried our hand at fishing.. Carl had to make another pole as we only had one and I wanted to fish. After about an hour of fishing all we caught was a rock fish we threw back and we gave up fishing.. I don't know how people can just stay there for hours and fish , it drove me crazy... I know I know...Next we dropped the dingy and headed over to Jerusalem to check it out...  There are not docks for the public to tie up to , so we asked to tie our dingy to a  commercial fishing dock where fisherman got ice, loaded and unloaded there boats. They said we could tie up at the stairs and we headed to town. This is a tourist town with a fishing industry big time. As we disembarked we saw barrels of skate fish, all covered in salt, that are sold to lobster-man for bait in their traps. We walked through the small town and were amazed at how many cars were parked there. The are 2 fairies that run to Block Island about every half hour and they are packed. Lots of people on our trip have talked about Block Island, I guess it quite a place to see. In town we saw a head stone dedicated to some fisherman lost to sea, we said a little pray, tipped our hats and went on. I picked up a couple of post cards and we had a couple of drinks with a clam roll ( Rosie's were better) and we headed to the other side of the channel. They had a state owned fishing pier that we tied up to. All day we had watched people fishing and kids jumping off it. We heard their laughter and joy throughout the day.. Nothing sounds better the the laughter of kids having fun.  Not much to see there, mostly homes. But we found a field that Bella could get a good run in , so we played there until her tongue was hanging out and needed water. Back to the boat we went. We settled in for an early evening as we hope to get up and hit the sea's at 5 am ... Who the heck our we and were did our former selves go...

Leaving Branford's harbor we headed out to  Long Island Sound, the water was about 2 to 3 ft sea's with you guessed it the wind on our nose.. Branford was a great stop and we were glad we did it. Again today we had our usual fuel problem 3 times, we are beginning to think that all this bouncing around in the water is causing it. There doesn't seem to be any other reason.While traveling up the coast of New England I marvel at how different we have become towards the sites we now encounter. When we left Florida just the site of a lighthouse would get us very excited and have me running for the camera. But as we head farther north they become a daily occurrence so I no longer run for the camera unless they are something special..Now don't get me wrong ,they are still quite amazing to see, just a lot more common than before. We are also astounded by the number of prams and little sailboats we have encountered along the way. Sailing up north seems to be part of the heritage of the people here. To set upon their waters is learned at an early age. We see kids as small as 5 or 6 years old learning to sail, by time they become teenagers they are true sailors who know what they are doing. As our country was founded with people sailing over from other lands, its seem only appropriate the inhabitants of the New England coast would carry her strong sailing tradition. Everyday we pass by many of small towns always with small sailing boats, rich in beauty from her rolling hills to her rocky coast. The homes are very different than what we see back home very Cape Cod, I think. Plus old buildings that they have left standing, where you can feel the history of our country. All of this is New England .And we are lucky to have the chance in our lives to see and feel all of her..

Our last day in Branford  started out with Carl being hauled up the mast again to replace the mast light with the new one he bought.. I must say we  are getting better at hooking him to the halyard and getting him up there.. After that he had to take a look at the stove as it wouldn't light this morning.. Poor Carl always something.. We had one empty tank and the other was 1/2 full so propane was put on the list of thing to get.. He talked to the man with the anchor and it was just what we wanted so we told him we would be by later to get it. Since Ralph is going to be driving us around and it would be easier to put the anchor on the boat from a dock , we decided to move the boat back to the town dock.. As we approached the dock we saw 5 adults and 3 kids that looked like they were reading a play or something. They had lots of items on the dock with them. As we tied up the boat we saw they had a bushel of crabs , bags of lobster, and a bucket of eel's..Creepy... I asked what they were doing and they just said they were Buddhist and were returning  them to the sea.. They had gone to the store and purchased all of them to save them from being eaten. Buddhist are vegetarians  and don't believe in eating anything that has a face. Asked if I would like to throw some back I figure what the heck it may be good for my karma, being I cooked so many of them.When they were done, I asked the little boy if he wanted to see the boat and was answered with an big smile and yes.. Ralph blew in and we disembarked the boat and headed for the car. He took us right to met the guy with the anchor and Carl was able to get him down to $176.00 with 20 ft of 3/8 chain attached. Next stop propane.They only had one young girl working and she wasn't very knowledgeable about filling the tanks, Carl had to help her. This took some time as she had to keep running back to the store to wait on customers..Crazy who would let her be alone like that...I asked Ralph if they had any clam shack close as I would love some clams. So we head down to the docks for lunch. We stopped at one place way to fancy/pricey for us, next stop the Lobster Shack, they didn't have any clams but they had lobster rolls and sausage and peppers  roll for Carl.. Ralph and I had the lobster roll, man were they good!! The ones I had at the clam shack we not this good.. Now I know how to make them...It was so cool to have on in New England... Dropped back at the boat we said our goodbye's and thanked him for having us with an open invitation  to Fla any time they want to come.The propane tanks were tied on, so it was time to fill the diesel , water and pump out as we were leaving in the morning. Back on the hook ,Carl  went to work on the anchor. He had to braid a line onto the chain. He looked up how to do it in his Chapman's Manuel. I was pretty impressed..  The stove wouldn't work so Carl called Bob Smoot for some advise( Bob is a repair man with a propane company) and I cooked dinner on the grill.. Branford was a lovely stop..The town had that old New England look and the people (other than the town jerk) were great. It was so nice to see where Ma Slater grew up.. it made me feel even closer to her than I already do.. This was magnificent....

The promise of breakfast turned out to be true.. Bunnie had sent down her husband Ralph to pick us up at the dock, he was just who I thought he would be, with a warm friendly face. Back to there house we went for some good home cooking and family. All were present Aunt Dot, Sandy, AJ and his girlfriend Nina, Bunnie, Ralph and us breakfast on the back porch..It was a pleasant way to start our day.. Feeling so welcome and at home.. After our morning meal Carl & Ralph headed out to the West Marine to pick up a new chart for Maine (ours was so old it was no good, Carl got it at a swap-meet for $2.00 and it wasn't worth that) a swivel for the anchor,a mast light and a hausepipe cover for where the anchor line comes out of the deck. We lost our other one somewhere along the way.Once when only us girls were left, I got to color my hair and take another shower.. love it... All of the day was spent with telling stories, having a cosmo or two with plenty of food. We showed them pictures of our trip and what we had done. The girls keep looking at me like I was crazy and saying they could never do it..Well we all know I'm a little crazy so that was no surprise.. After a fine dinner of Marconi with sauce, meat balls and sausage( mine had no meat) and salad with cheese bread that Aunt Dot made.Never in our life had we seen that kind of bread.. It had an Italian name but I can't remember it. It is traditionally served at Easter, but they had some in the freezer an shared it with us.. Thanks so much.. Dinner was awesome..Even brownies for dessert..Back to the boat early as they got up for work at 4:30 in the morning!!! I complain at 6am, they are tougher than I am.. you get it girls...Carl installed our TV how nice to have one again. They had sent us a brand new one.. lucky us..Tomorrow Ralph will take us to get an  anchor Carl found on Craigslist, and a few other things.. That's all the news that is the news...

The seas were calmer and so was Bella, the sweater trick is really working. It is about 2 to 3 ft sea's with wind on the nose so we are slapping pretty good.But  today she is just sleeping while we motor one. It a beautiful thing... Next stop Branford Ct....Not much to report about the sail over other then we can't get over the rocks, so we are sailing a little farther off shore then we had been. We arrive in Branford and it is a small town with a huge boating problem.. Many marina's and tons of boats some of the prettiest sailboats we have seen. We traversed the Branford River following it as far as we could go.. This town looks like New England, or what we thought it would be like..However there is really no place to anchor,so we tired to tie up to an abandoned dock poles. We were told the tide drops 6 feet and we were only in 9ft of water... Not good.. so we moved to another dock someone told us about. A quick call to Bonnie and she sent down her nephew Todd who works for the town to help us out. He told us we needed to move because where we were, we were in other peoples dock space,so next location town dock.   We just get tied up, when Bunnie and Sandy arrive to greet us and take us to their home. And so does the town Jerk.. Some man with a dingy who wants us to move our boat so he can load his boat with his family and friends. Carl is busy on the boat so he refers the man to Todd. The guy becomes a real jerk and calls the police.. really the cops... He tells them that Carl is not cooperative  and wants and officer sent down. The man never even talked to Carl before he called the police.. Todd's father in-law is a lieutenant on the police dept, so Todd called him and now he is sending an officer also.. This turns into a absurd mess.. I finally say to the man why don't you ask him if you can cross his boat.. The guy does and Carl says yes,then Carl changes his mind since he called the cops. The police show up and are not to happy with the stupidity of this stuff. They tell Carl he can stay there for 4 hours before he has to move.. I tell Carl just to move the boat since he will have to later and I want to have fun with the cousins.. Carl leaves with the boat and the female officer tell me how sorry she is that this happened and the people of this town are really nice and are glad we are here..Once at Sandy's, Bonnie's and Aunt Dot's house I take a shower and we relax on  the back porch and just visit. These people are wonderful.. I mean really very nice...AJ who is Bonnie's son is there with his college buddies so the conversation is lively..Carl arrives at the house just after they leave. The boys meet him on the road and give him a beer for his trouble..  I was gonna do my laundry but Bunnie wouldn't let me, she says she likes to do things her way and does our wash.. I wonder if she wants to come along, I could use someone like her aboard..She even took Bella for a run in the yard, since they don't have fences..What a gal....Pizza was ordered and the wine was flowing and we had a great time just hanging out on the back porch..At the end of the evening they drove us back to the boat with a promise of French Toast for breakfast.. We could live with that...

An easy day sitting on the hook waiting for our weather window. Stamford Ct. is a nice quiet harbor, with the lights of the city on one bank , nice homes and boats on 2 banks and Long Island Sound on yet the other.By the way Stamford Ct. is the 9th safest city in the U.S, no worries here!! It was rainy and cold all day so we spent the day inside consuming hot chocolate and soup for our meals. It was the kinda day were you like to snuggle up on the couch with blanket and watch movies, sounds good right... Only we don't have a TV so no movies... but there is always dominoes,.. or a good book. Carl spent a lot of the day charting our course for the next couple of ports. Today we are headed to Branford Ct. with a stop at a Aunt Dot and Bunnie's  home. Yeah it's time for a .. Hot shower and laundry.. Oh how I look forward to these stops.. Maybe even a home cooked meal.. What am I saying I cook home cooked meals.. if you like beans..only I do it on a boat..Bella decided it was her turn to give us payback for all the rough sea's and wouldn't go out to do her duty unless I went with her...Really... you want me to stand in the rain and watch you poop.. So on went the raincoat, I put Carl's on that way I would look like a big yellow balloon and everyone would see me.. That little event sure gave us something to laugh about.. I'm quite the snappy dresser...It's in the 60's today so,those of you who know me well can just imagine how many clothes I have on , lets see, 2 shirts and 2 pairs of socks.. Yep, I'm from Florida ....Today was a break in the trip to laugh and talk over all we  have been through and seen..  Man have we seen agglomeration of many different things, plus have learned some valuable lessons. On thing is for sure sailing up north is nothing like sailing the Gulf.   The water back home is smooth and doesn't have rocks...People always talk about sailing the islands, I challenge them to try this... I'm starting a list of what we learned on our summer vacation..I'm sure it will be long, we haven't even gotten to Maine yet. .As night fell and the rain stopped and we enjoyed  a couple of glasses of 100 year old Grand Mainer, ( Thanks Barb), nothing like Grand Mainer on a cold night  .Off to bed with us mate's  for tomorrow  it's back to the high sea's adventure with more stories to follow.. Bye for now..

The day was gray and overcast as Windward Spirit set out for her next day of adventure.. As we look back at New York City we marvel at the wondrous bridges and all the history we passed through..Imagine how many ships traveled up the East River as we did without any power or arriving to view Lady Liberty for the first time in their new county!!The apprehension mixed with enthusiasm for what lie ahead.. New York is a city like no other. We are very fortunate to have sailed through her waters as many have done before us.. Traveling up the East River headed to Connecticut with the water very rough and many of the rock obstruction buoys amongst us, we choose to take a break after an couple of hours for breakfast. Anchored at a yacht club break water called Larchmaont Harbor to escape waves while cooking, a race between yacht clubs in the area's pram's occurred. This was astounding.. Hundreds of little boats arrived for the race.. there had to be at least 200 of them. Each flying the burgee (little flag) from their club. Breakfast was enjoyed as we watched from our prime seats..We have seen them before but never so many!! Before the race was over we were off again. As it was rough out and Bella was still very nervous, I took a chance and put on her sweater to see if it may help to calm her down. Thank you Peggy and Bryan that worked.. Oh happy day.. I think it was like a security blanket for her. She still wanted to be close to me but laid down and was calmer.. Next stop Stamford Harbor Ct. We could have pushed on but the weather was looking bleak, so in we went..Carl took this time to find out why our anchor light stopped working so up the mast he went.. He fashioned himself a bosun's chair and hooked onto the halyard and I hauled him up... Better him than me its a long way up there.. He needed more tools so he had me drop them in a bag hook them to the spinnaker halyard and send them up. It took two trips up the mast, but he got it fixed.. It was perilous just watching him up there... During dinner while enjoying a pot of beans, (we tried the orange lentils that I picked up in Charlotte S.C , not as good as regular lentils) we watched a tugboat moving 4 barges, 2 at a time. It is unbelievable how he can move them around in such a small space. He had a sailboat moored right next to where he was working, glad it wasn't ours!!! Carl says he could put a nickle up a elephants butt and he would never even notice..These guys are good .As he left, he hooked up 4 barges and headed out into Long Island Sound.. Just before sunset out came the larger sailboats from the area yacht club for their lesson in sailing.. With so many different elements the day had brought us, it has made it quite enjoyable...This is what life is made for... Having all the ups and downs of our adventure, we wouldn't have it any other way.. Mistakes we have made,  sailing lessons we have learned and still will learn,  are what life''s great joys are made of...