Cuttyhunk, MA to Newport, RI //
We’ve been living it large in newport! Or at least it has felt like it 😅. After navigating through generally rough seas, we were longing for some downtime. We knew Newport would be one of our “big stops” in this trip as we had never spent quality time in the town itself. It would also allow us to re-provision and wrap up some projects we had wanted to finish since departing Boston. We ended up mooring with Oldport Marine for two nights and then headed over to Newport Yachting Center Marina to weather the first of this season’s Nor’easter, which turned out to be relatively mild (at least where we were situated). Problem is, it’s very easy to get used to docking at a marina for an extended period of time... Our wallets, however, were not so keen on it.
Nevertheless, we were happy to get to use their facilities (ahem... shower every single day!), do laundry at the local Seaman’s Church Institute down the street, and explore the local scene. We provisioned at the Stop and Shop, a 15 minute walk from the marina, and Tom picked up a Defender order (our 3/8's chain!) by renting a Zipcar and driving to Waterford, CT (the shipping costs would have been cost-prohibitive) aside from gathering other supplies from the local chandleries.
While Tom ran some errands I took the day to do some light grocery shopping. And on the way back ended up stumbling upon the Newport Mansions. As an architectural designer in the New England area, perhaps I should have been aware of them. In a sense, I was -- yet I had never visited Newport myself before -- and so I thought it would be walking amongst the kind of houses you would see around the snazzy parts of Brookline, MA. Boy, was I off. It was a surprise at every corner Just stunning. You can see some in the pictures below. I figured Great Gatsby had to be filmed in one of these -- and at least I got that right! Obviously, we all know the story takes place in Long Island, but to my surprise, parts of the 1974 version were indeed filmed at the Rosecliff house! Cue Netflix.
Back at the marina we noticed a few sailboats were getting ready for a rally to Bermuda. We met a few people that were crewing on other boats and of course felt really inspired. But no worries, we were not about to change our cruising plans. A few days later we hosted Dan and Allyson aboard along with their little buddies of joy, Emma and Thomas. Best of part of our time in Newport! They live about an hour away, so we felt lucky we were able to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon, dockside on Sparidae, catching up with them on their own cruising experiences aboard Sarah. We talked about the Caribbean, stormy weather conditions, and life aboard. They have been a great resource to us for this trip and we are forever grateful for all their help and advice.
Next on, we are waiting for favorable weather to begin our heading into the Long Island Sound. We thought we might be able to cruise on the outside of Long Island but the winds have been relentless, so the safer route it is!