Newport and Cuttyhunk

We first visited Newport towards the end of last season, as we brought Shiloh to Barrington for the winter. There is a definite smell of money and that is reflected in the mooring costs, but there's also a more "collegiate" atmosphere in some parts of the town, and it was possible to anchor most of the times we visited. The ratio of dive bars to fancy places is pretty favorable for the grubby cruiser, but we took a mooring at the Ida Lewis Yacht Club as they share reciprocity with our own Harlem Yacht Club. The sail out to Newport was very rolly with some strong seas left over from a passing storm, the swells were about 10 ft with occasional 15 ft monsters. It was at least comforting knowing we'd have a mooring at the ILYC.

The clubhouse sits on Lime Rock (aka Ida Lewis Rock), probably wouldn't fly these days since it was almost certainly a bird nesting habitat. It's necessarily compact but they fit in the essentials, meaning a bar and a kitchen. The club is named after Ida Lewis, who tended the lighthouse after her husband became infirmed, and who also rowed out to rescue mariners who'd wrecked in storms. We spent 2 nights here waiting out some foul weather. The club itself was nice, but there is no stand-around bar area to meet other members, so we didn't get to chat much.

After Newport we caught a favorable wind to Cuttyhunk island, the furthest one west in the Elizabeth Islands chain northwest of Martha's Vineyard. Cuttyhunk's biggest feature is its remoteness, there is only one ferry in and out per day, and there are only 18 permanent residents. There are a few small beaches, an Ice Cream stand, a few lobster and fish shacks, and a deli/market. That's it. Not even gas is available.

Given the lack of services, the $55/night mooring fee might be a bit extortionate, but we took one for the first two nights of our 7 night stay while we got acquainted. We stayed that long only because we were able to get anchored on the NW corner of the pond, and my brother and his new fiancé came to visit. We enjoyed milling around and spending some brain-free time on the beaches. After they'd left some weather blew in with 25-30 kts of wind. We kept a nighttime anchor watch while boats dragged across the weedy bottom, but we held fast through 2 360 degree wind shifts.

Of course, there was time for some maintenance, and after more than 300,000 watts of solar power generated, we replaced our trusty solar controller with a newer and more efficient model, and fixed some lingering issues with the main mast.

After a week in Cuttyhunk we had mostly exhausted all there was to do, and we are eager to move on up the coast towards Maine. With the weather as unpleasant as it is, this is very nearly just a box-ticking exercise so we can say to ourselves that we made it where we had originally planned, but I'm hoping some of the awesome New England sailing everyone talks about shows itself to us soon!