Mattapoisett to Point Judith

We finally left the Mattapoisett Boatyard - our home away from home - Thursday, Sept.14th. We said goodbye to Cheryl, Dave, Carl and their staff, who have been absolutely wonderful to us us while we worked on the boat and learned how to handle her. Thank you so much for everything! You really made life a little easier for us!We headed out to Pocasset, on Tom's advice. The forecast winds didn't materialize although the rain did. We met the captain of Windmill, from New Hampshire, who helped us avoid the shallow area of the anchorage. A day later we witnessed what could have happened to us when another boater was left on the bottom in low tide! Henry Mitchell was in the neighbourhood visiting friends and dropped by with gifts of fishing gear to help us on our way. Thank you Henry!! We hope to be posting photos of tuna soon! We stayed another day and enjoyed sunshine and sand and a spectular sun set. We met Greg and Bart, Rider and Eric abound Alefe, San Francisco.
Sunday morning we departed for Cuttyhunk. We had quite a nice sail, making between five and six knots most of the way. We anchored in Cuttyhunk and then went exploring. We visited the few shops and the World War 11 lookout before heading back to the boat where the Raw Bar approached us with clams on the half shell. We all tried them and have the proof!Monday morning we set sail for Newport with a weather report stating that the dense fog would burn up by 9 a.m. Well, it didn't. We sailed several hours, keeping an eye on the radar and an ear out for boats. All hands were on deck. The fog burned up around 2:30 p.m. just as we were approaching Newport. We managed to get in safely. We visited the Seaman's Institute Tuesday morning to do laundry, check email, have breakfast and shower before touring the town. We had lunch at the Black Pearl, at Stephen's request. Wednesday morning we decided to head into Long Island Sound via the Race, paying careful attention to the timing of the speed of the currents. Well, we had a foul current and the wind direction was not as advertised, again. With the wave action, we stirred up the sludge in our fuel tank and lost our engine, again! We were close to Point Judith so we made a course change. It took over two hours to go the two miles to the breakwater at Point Judith Harbour Refuge, but we had no room for error. Tacking upwind was quite difficult against the current. At one point we were sailing backwards! We made it in and Doug worked on the 'beke changing fuel filters and bleeding the lines. Once he got the engine going again, we went into the Point Judith Pond to calm waters where we are now.