I once sailed a boat to....Coatue?

[Kyle]Which is part of the island of Nantucket. Perhaps I was being a bit too specific...

Nantucket Harbor is composed of a basin about 5 1/2 miles by 1 mile, enclosed by a great sand spit that is between 150 and 450 yards wide, which ends in an area called Coatue. Since yesterday's sail presented us with a veritable minefield of a mooring field that was waiting to tear off any of our underwater appendages, we anchored about a mile and a half from town in a private spot off Coatue.

Our next day started out sunny with a light wind. We spent the morning readying the dinghy and when the strong current switched in our favor, I started the long row into town. By the time we finally got there, Footprint's mast was about half a pinky width high at arms length. We went to the town dock, but could not find the harbormaster. The guy at the store next door said they take long lunches out of season and wouldn't likely be back for a while. We told him we were interested in showers and he said they were still locked up and turned off; try one of the marinas. He then asked if that was us he saw rowing in from way around the corner in the little orange boat. I said it was. He said he was concerned, but that as long as we seemed to be making progress, he'd just keep an eye on us. He seemed pretty impressed that I actually rowed that far. More boat cred.

Once on shore, we went to the next marina and asked about showers. The young women in the Dockmaster's office told us they were all locked for the season, then remembered that they had just opened a couple on the other side of the complex, and told us we were welcome to them. We also asked about dockage rates, mostly for curiosity's sake: $3.50 per foot per night off season, $5.50 in season, moorings slightly less. Holy crap!! Glad we anchored. The showers were marvelous, however - great torrents of hot water.

Refreshed and rejuvenated, we ambled into town. We had a quick lunch at a taco stand (Nantucket is well known for it's Mexican food - on Nantucket!), then went to the excellent whaling museum.

Whaling does not seem at all like it was pleasant, but it still beats being whaled. What a gruesome business. A bull Sperm whale had been dying and came ashore here in 1997. Many of the islanders were involved in first trying to save the whale, then processing the remains after he died. This gave many of the islanders a first hand look into the industry that was so important in the island's history and made for an interesting perspective into the presentations..

After the museum, we had a long walk around town. This place is just beautiful. I kept catching my breath at how pretty it all was and how lucky I was to be able to see it. The entire island is a national historic district. The houses were mostly weathered wood shingle with the occasional colonial brick thrown in. Many of the roads were cobbled with ballast from the old ships. It just looked like Nantucket.

We stopped at a grocery store for a few provisions, and arrived back at the dinghy after the harbormaster had left. We rigged the sailing kit (even more boat cred) and had a really nice downwind sail back to Footprint, talking about our day and laughing with each other as we went. It was a really good day.

Martha's Vineyard to Nantucket

Maryanne fishing, first views of Nantucket, and not all Nantucket residents are rich.

[Maryanne]Despite spending 3 days in Martha's Vineyard, we only got to explore the island for one day - the other days were spent riding out some pretty rough weather, rowing to shore was not an attractive prospect. We did some maintenance on the boat, housework, read and just relaxed.

Kyle decided a bath was in order and despite the LOW sea temperature, and my calls of concern, he jumped in. He came out pretty quickly, but smells much better!

Eventually (Wednesday), the weather and wind was such that we could set off for Nantucket. We sailed for about 8 hours, and we had quite a range of sails and wind. We are both feeling so comfortable with the boat. Reefing, changing sails, etc. was fun. For much of the journey, we were sailing along at 8 knots (just over 9 mph - very fast for our boat!). On other parts of the journey, we were pottering along at about 2 knots. We were in no rush and enjoyed the ride.

I tried fishing again - several different lures, and still no luck. Luckily, we have plenty of food aboard. If we were relying on my fishing talent we would be VERY HUNGRY. I suspect we will need to have a CPR team on hand if I ever do catch a fish. With my line out, we passed a boat with 3 other fisherman, and I can't believe it, but as I passed, they each pulled up a fish on their lines... That was just cruel! All I managed to catch the whole day was some seaweed.

Although still cold, it was very sunny, so we really enjoyed the scenery as we sailed along. There were plenty of trawlers in the area too (I know the fish are out here!). We also saw plenty of ferries again - I think on the Boston to Nantucket run.

So by early afternoon we arrived in Nantucket, my first visit ever. We passed another ferry leaving as we arrived. As we entered the harbor, we were amazed at the mass of mooring balls. It seems the public anchorage has been taken over here, as in other places, with the industry of making money. Very few boats were attached to these moorings (less than 1% occupied) - and we ended up over a mile away from the dinghy dock, which we have yet to row/sail to. The dinghy dock is hidden away, and hard to find, but apparently they have showers - and boy, I really need a very long, hot shower. We were quite disappointed to be so far away from the dock, and many of the obvious nearer landing sites are clearly private property, so Kyle will be getting a workout. We did, however, anchor off a beautiful nature reserve, and although miles from town, we plan to take the 5 minute trip to these beautiful remote beaches for a walk and explore while we are here in Nantucket. We spent the afternoon reading up on Nantucket in our boating and other guidebooks, and Thursday is expected to be a calm sunny day - perfect for exploring (and not too cold either).

Martha's Vineyard

[Maryanne]Martha's Vineyard was known even to me, a Brit, well before I ever came to America. It seemed I'd always known about it. Now were were here. We arrived and anchored in Lake Tashmoo, and despite the early season, there were more boats here than we had seen in other harbours. We walked the short walk into Vineyard Haven and looked into the houses as we passed; some were old, some very modern; some large, some smaller. We arrived in Vineyard Haven on Church Street, and turned onto Main St - full of small shops, mostly touristy, but without any of the usual tacky nature. Even the bank fitted into the area being small, stone built, and with flower vines growing over the facade. We purchased cakes from a small bakery and watched the world go by for a while.

We were surprised to find it so busy with tourists (I can't imagine what this place is like in the middle of the summer season!). Nowhere we visited here seemed snooty in any way, but very homely, nice. The Vineyard Haven/Tisbury Harbor was quite full - plenty of boats (again!), and lots of moorings - I doubt we would have been able to anchor here, and there is also a ferry terminal which seemed to constantly be delivering new tourists/visitors/locals both on car and on foot.

We walked onward, the 3 miles to Oak Bluffs, and along the way passed by quiet, beautiful beaches. Oak Bluffs originally started out as an annual Christian camp site, but as people returned each year, small houses were built, all quite distinctive "Gingerbread houses". Every turn off to a side street brings new treasures so we explored, and found ourselves in a nice pub (The Offshore Ale House) for lunch. Many of the towns on the island are "dry" - but Oak Bluffs is not, and the pub brewed its own beers (Kyle was happy). I liked it as it provided a visual sensory overload: old boats, the brewing vats, peanut shells on the floor, etc. Along with dinner, we had a fantastic clam chowder. After the fact, we discovered this pub is well rated by the Times of London, and even Zagat's. Strangely, this harbor had not yet put out it's mooring balls, and apart from a few local work boats and one cruiser sheltering from the forecast blow, it was quite empty.

Although we had imagined such a picturesque and expensive area would have mainly older tourists and couples, we were surprised at the number of college kid groups holidaying here - there seems to be quite a business in renting cycles and mopeds and everyone seemed to be having fun just being here.

The whole time I was there I felt like a kid in a sweet shop / candy store - I WAS IN MARTHA'S VINEYARD (cool enough) and WE SAILED HERE - Wow. It feels like we are really living that dream.

Journey to Martha's Vineyard

Sailing Vineyard Sound, and arriving at Lake Tahmoo

[Kyle]We started the day before sunrise in Cuttyhunk. The place was quiet; probably everyone relaxing from the wild parties the previous night (NOT). The first half of the day we had favourable winds, but unfavourable currents. We sailed up Buzzards Bay in a light headwind to a gap between Nashawena and Pasque Islands called "Quicks Hole". There are other shorter routes, but this is considered the safest.

The northbound current, combined with the southbound wind, made for a short chop through the gap and cut our speed in half. Once we turned into the lee of Pasque Island, we enjoyed a brisk upwind sail in flat water. The sun was bright and the islands were beautiful. Maryanne commented that the private Pasque Island looked like someone had unrolled a carpet of trees atop the sandy island; pretty cool.

We saw a few fishing boats and Maryanne again decided it was time to trail the fishing lure - we stayed in the lee of the Elizabeth Islands as we sailed NE, which gave us moderate winds and flat sea, and being against the current (still) gave us plenty of time to enjoy the views. The entire time the cliffs of Martha's Vineyard were visible to the south in the crisp, bright air.

Just before noon, we turned south, crossed Vineyard Sound, lowered the sails, and motored into Lake Tashmoo, just around the corner from Vineyard Haven. The entrance here was narrow and shallow, but eventually opens into a wide bay, about 10' deep. The Lake is very pretty - surrounded by trees through which you can see moderate sized houses, all with docks jutting out and boats attached. Like many areas in this part of New England, the bay was filled with moorings. We found a space, and after a 3rd attempt, we managed to find good holding ground in which to anchor. Given the wind forecasts (strong, from the NE), we again put out our 2nd anchor (rowed out in the dingy, as we had in Newport).

We tidied up the boat, and rowed to shore for the 30 minute walk into Vineyard Haven - time to explore.

[Maryanne]As we entered Lake Tashmoo, there were people fishing - and no, I have still to catch a thing (even with my lucky lures from John Dickerson).

Newport to Cuttyhunk

Cuttyhunk, deserted on a Saturday night

[Kyle] Rhode Island is a stunning and special place that Maryanne and I loved enough to have easily spent the Summer. The time had come, however, for us to start making our way north to Maine. We had quite a bit of time for the journey this time so we decided that, rather than take the more direct route via the Cape Cod Canal, we would go around Cape Cod and explore some of the islands along the way. We decided our first stop would be Cuttyhunk Island in Massachusetts. We had heard about Cuttyhunk from practically everyone we talked to and the from the many guide books we read on the islands. We heard basically two things: Cuttyhunk is not to be missed, and Cuttyhunk is pretty crowded with all of the people not missing it. It's right at about the halfway mark between Newport and Martha's Vineyard, so we decided we wouldn't miss it either.

The weather was still very rainy and cold when we left Newport, which made it really hard to get the motivation to get moving. There was also a small craft advisory posted until afternoon. The night before, it sounded like we were sleeping in a washing machine. Maryanne got our two anchors up and we headed out on our journey, turning downwind out of the bay. We enjoyed flying along under double-reefed everything, snapping pictures as we went. We got into Rhode Island Sound and turned upwind towards Buzzard's Bay and Cuttyhunk Island.

Sailing a boat consists of two very distinct modes: Upwind sailing and downwind sailing. These have about as much in common as motocross racing and hang gliding. Upwind sailing seems to be an activity that is specifically designed to shake both the boat and its crew to pieces. It makes the cold wind colder and the stinging rain stingier. The only time that I think it's any fun is on a light wind day on flat water, then it's a lovely way to get a cool breeze going. Downwind sailing, even in pretty bad conditions, is much more comfortable and loads of fun. In a catamaran, it's also fast, too.

We didn't sail really close to the wind, but we were still close enough that we got pounded pretty hard in the short 4-6 foot chop. The wind was 23 knots or so and was gusting just above 30 and it was COLD. We were pretty much just waiting for it to be over the whole time. The only other boat we saw out was a Coast Guard cutter going the other way.

At long last, we finally spotted Cuttyhunk on the horizon and gradually watched it grow and creep towards us. We entered the harbor on the tiny island, and found that Footprint was the only boat in the harbor - again. The moorings had not even been put out yet and were all just marked with their winter stakes. The island supposedly has 26 year-round residents, but we looked and we didn't see any of 'em. The island has lovely houses on three hills surrounding the harbor. From our deck we can see right over the beaches into both Buzzards Bay and the Atlantic, with the cliffs of Martha's Vineyard in the distance. This place looks very much like Scottish moor country and Maryanne commented that if they tried, she bet they could make a damn good whisky here.

The sun came out for the evening and we are going to enjoy an unobstructed view of our own private sunset. Cuttyhunk, deserted on a Saturday night, it is hard to believe, but we are enjoying it just so.

Stuck in Newport

[Kyle]Today we had intended to leave for Cuttyhunk Island (Massachusetts), but the weather forecast was for very strong headwinds. We decided yesterday that it would be safest to stay in our Newport anchorage for another day.

We began today by rowing out a second anchor in the cold rain (via dinghy), and adding more chain to our ground tackle for the expected storm; the wind was forecast to be around 30kt, gusting up to 40 later. We were not the only ones out rowing in the harbor and wishing we were someplace warmer – the picture above is of a local fisherman.

Since it was still (relatively) calm in the morning, we decided to row ashore for a quick walk into town, visit a recommended nautical bookstore, and a enjoy lunch. Maryanne got some rowing practice, but was not exactly happy about it, while I sat there smugly. Newport is filled with many trendy (expensive) little restaurants and boutiques, but we passed a very busy, very basic looking diner – “Gary’s Handy Lunch”. The place was filled, and seemed to be where the locals ate, right across the street from the wooden boat restoration school, and alongside many other famous nautical storefronts. Lunch was very reasonable, but basic (e.g egg and toast, $1.75!) and we enjoyed eavesdropping on the conversations surrounding us. I swear one of the guys at the counter was the famous naval architect Olin Stevens.

We tried to see more of the town, but the drizzle and cold did not leave us feeling very touristy; the wind was picking up and we were eager to get back (to warm up and dry off) on Footprint before the storm started to build. We baked brownies and spent the rest of the day pouring over our new guidebooks for Maine. The wind is such that the wind generator easily keeps pace with our heater power consumption, so we are snug and warm and safe.

Newport Tour

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[Kyle]We were deliberately visiting Newport to meet up with fellow Gemini owners (Walt and Carolyn). We spent a lazy morning relaxing on the boat, and met Walt and Carolyn mid-afternoon. They took us on a drive along the scenic Ocean View Drive; passing ever and ever larger mansions along the way, with increasingly beautiful scenery. What impressed me so much was not the hugeness and decadence of the mansions as the absolutely beautiful settings they were in. Many of the estates had giant rocky areas and rugged ocean views. What was also impressive was the density of these castle-like estates in such an enormously beautiful setting. From there, we headed into the main town. Newport reminded me of a cross between Sausalito and Annapolis – boat stuff everywhere, beautiful little storefronts and narrow, walkable streets.

We were headed for a tour of their beautiful Gemini, La Dolce Vita; Walt is irrepressible tinkerer, who has engineered many modifications to his boat – we were impressed! We spent quite a while poring over charts and gleaning a lot of Walt and Carolyn’s knowledge in preparation for the next part of our trip, along with our eventual return south.

It turned out Walt had seen us arrive the previous day, and had taken pictures of us – our first pictures of Footprint under sail (see above). We continued the evening together in local boat stores and ended the evening in a beautiful Newport restaurant – Canfield House, which was previously a casino for the rich, was stunning and had great food – where we continued to discuss boats, Geminis, and the various local cruising sites. We learned SO Much. Thanks Walt and Carolyn for a lovely evening and, of course, our first picture of Footprint under sail.

Leaving Apponaug

[Kyle]After what seemed like being at work forever and not doing any sailing, we finally said farewell to Apponaug and the lovely people we met there. John Dickerson (Owner of the marina) kindly sent us off with new lures to attempt to improve Maryanne's fishing success. Our first stop on our next leg (eventually to Portland, Maine) was Newport, Rhode Island. We topped up our fuel and headed south, tacking down the bay into increasing winds on a sunny day. Sailing again – great!

We quickly reefed, and reefed again to keep the boat under control, as we neared the Northern end of Conanicut Island, we were approached by Geronimo of Newport (RI). Geronimo was a record breaking 110' trimaran, but the one on the bay today was a different Geronimo: a 68’ sail training vessel owned and used by a local school (nothing like the school I went to). Nevertheless, the race was ON. We enjoyed reeling them closer and closer as the day wore on. We even beat them to harbor (we are just not sure if they knew they were in any type of race). We also saw some beautiful 12m boats in the bay – they just looked stunning and great fun. We altered course to give way to one of them, and discovered a deck full of cold and miserable looking teenagers – not so much fun as we expected!

We anchored under sail by the public pier at Kings Park, in the south of Newport Harbor. The windlass was a little sticky as we let the anchor out, so Maryanne decided an overhaul/service was warranted. Newport harbor is absolutely beautiful, filled with modern and classic boats of all types and lovely views in all directions.

First time Scuba Diving in AGES - but not so fun.

Begonia at the dock

[Maryanne]This last 10 days, Kyle has had only one day off work, so I've focused on maintenance (we have a thorough maintenance schedule)- but we start sailing again TOMORROW :-), so we are both really excited.

Before we set out this year, Kyle had done most (all) of the boat maintenance and now that I have started joining in, I'm learning lots more about the boat and feeling pretty proud of myself. I'm also learning what NOT to do.

Among many other jobs, which I will not bore you with, I gave the winches their annual service and grease this week, and managed to drop a very critical part overboard! (oops).

And for those readers who know anything about winch maintenance, believe me I knew ahead I had to be careful: I had put sheets around the deck to stop anything falling overboard, and was working very slowly and methodically - this little sucker came off with the housing, and I didn't know it was in there - when I carried the main winch housing over to my cleaning area, it fell out of the housing and bounced down the back steps - plop! overboard! All I could do was watch.

So I got to test out all my SCUBA gear. Although it had all been recently serviced, this is the first time I had used it in at least 5 years, so I was quadruple checking everything and working through every what-if disaster scenario I could, just to be sure. Eventually I took the plunge AND found my bearing assembly. Luckily, by the time I told Kyle, it was all recovered, put back together and working fine. Hopefully, my next dive will be a little more enjoyable.

Apart from the obvious stupidity on my part, our stay in Apponaug has been really great. We have met some wonderful people and I, in particular, have appreciated all their kindness. To top it off, the weather is in the 70's (F) this week, so nothing to complain about:-)

WARNING: Science content!

[Kyle] Maryanne explained it best on our main website when she talked about the name Footprint: "Our current boat – Purchased in 2007 and named with the conscientious travelers' saying "Leave only footprints, take only photographs" in mind. We hope to be mindful that we have an impact wherever we go, and wherever possible ensure that it is a positive one. After living on Baby Cakes and Prydwen, we learned quickly to have a small carbon (and other resources) "footprint", and although Footprint has many more facilities than we have ever had before (refrigerator, shower, pressure water), we also have solar and wind power generation options - so we hope to still be careful to limit our resource usage."

While walking the four miles from the boat to the Providence airport last week, I thought a lot about the impact Maryanne mentions above.

Footprint gets electricity from four sources: Solar panel, wind turbine, main engine-driven generator and shore power. She burns three types of petroleum in four different places: Propane for refrigeration and cooking, kerosene for heat and diesel for propulsion and electrical generation.

First, electricity. - Our primary ethic with regard to consumption is to keep it as low as possible in order to reduce the need for generation of any type. With Footprint not underway in the daytime, our electrical consumption is around 14 watts total. It is possible for us to reduce our load to less than that in the event of depleted batteries but this is essentially the boat's base load with everything operating normally. In a 24 hour day, this amounts to just over a third of a kilowatt hour. Underway at night in fog, with many of the systems up, this number can be as high as 100 watts for short periods, but more typically is about 40 watts continuous or about 3/4 kwh/day. Compare this to the average Maine resident (America's lowest electrical power user) who uses about 18kwh/day or Alabama (the highest) at 43kwh/day.

Our largest source of electricity is our 100 watt solar panel. Our solar panel produces (depending on battery need) between 1/5 kwh/day on a cloudy day up to about 1/2 kwh/day on a good, sunny day with zero carbon emissions (not including the energy used in the production of the panel itself).

Our wind generator produces a wildly variable amount of power. Our first two days out of Norfolk during the storm, the wind generator alone kept up with all of our needs, even with most systems on and the batteries stayed completely charged the whole time. A more typical daily contribution would probably amount to 0.15 kwh/day. Again, with zero carbon emmisions. Wind generator production tends to be better when sailing and on cloudy, stormy days so it compliments our solar panel nicely, even though its overall production is less.

Only under the combination of several days of high load and cloudy, low wind conditions have we found it necessary to resort to using the engine to provide our electricity. For several reasons, I will not use the engine solely to produce electricity, but instead will use it to serve the dual purpose of getting us somewhere while producing electricity. Generally, recharging our house battery bank from 50% (effectively dead) to fully charged takes between three and four hours running time while underway, while also running many of the systems as well. While underway under power, Footprint gets about 10 nautical miles per gallon at 6 knots.

While plugged into shore power in the winter, we use about 3kwh/day, which decreases to 1/2 kwh/day in the summer. We use more electricity when plugged in because using a space heater becomes an option and because the propane refrigerator runs off of electricity when the boat is plugged in.

Now for the Carbon part. A U.S gallon of diesel or kerosene weighs about 6.7 pounds (or 3 kilos) and, when combined with oxygen in the combustion process, produces just over 22 pounds (or 10 kilos) of CO2. Gasoline has less energy and has about 90% of those numbers. Liquid propane weighs just over 4 pounds (1.8 kilos) per U.S. gallon and produces 12.67 pounds (5.75 kilos) CO2 per U.S. gallon. At its peak output, our engine-driven generator puts out about 500 watts of electricity. This is probably more realistically half that number averaged over the battery charging cycle. If we use the diesel engine as an electrical generation plant and disregard its use as a propulsion engine, we find that it would take about 3 hours of engine run time to produce 1 kilowatt hour of electricity. This would use about 2 gallons of diesel and put 44lbs or 20 kilos of CO2 into the atmosphere at a cost of about $9.00. Contrast this with Narragansett Electric Co. (to which our shore power is currently connected), which produces 61% of its electricity from petroleum. NECs CO2 emmisions are .909lbs or .41 kilos per kilowatt hour at a cost of $0.15. The U.S. average is 1.363lbs/kwh and .62kilos/kwh respectively. This means that keeping Footprint's battery charged using the engine puts almost 50 times as much carbon into the atmosphere at a cost of 60 times (although, we know of many marinas that charge $10.00 to plug in a 30 amp shore power cord for one day which effectively makes the cost 100 times higher).

Since purchasing Footprint last year, we have used 100 gallons of diesel, 20 gallons of kerosene (for heat), 40 gallons of propane and around 1 megawatt-hour of shore power (mostly in Virginia). This has produced 2200lbs, 440lbs, 520lbs and 1146lbs (Virginia's CO2 emission rate is higher) of CO2 for a total of 4306lbs, or just under 2 metric tons (or 1 mt per capita). This contrasts with per capita amounts of 16.64 tons in the U.S., 9.15 in the U.K. and 1.05 in India. The world average is 4.44 tons per capita.

There are a few ways for us to offset our carbon production, the main two being carbon offsets and energy credits. Carbon offsets are basically a means of creating a means of absorbing and thus offsetting a given amount of CO2, like planting trees. Energy credits are involved in the process of converting a certain amount of energy production from carbon based to renewables, thus reducing emissions. The cost of purchasing carbon offsets or energy credits is generally in the neighborhood of $10.00 to about $35.00 per ton, with a good mix in the $20.00 range. This means that offsetting our carbon production for the last year will cost us around $50.00 (we've wasted more than that on one mediocre restaurant meal) The cost of our diesel and kerosene would go up 20 cents per U.S gallon (you know it's going to do that anyway, might as well get used to it), Propane would cost us another 10 cents per U.S gallon. At today's prices, that's about 5%. I also have the carbon cost of air travel as a passenger commuting and hotel rooms to consider at work. These should cost us less than I've been tipping hotel van drivers.

Our first priority is to reduce our carbon footprint through conservation, our next is to offset/credit the carbon that we do emit. All of this should give us a neutral carbon footprint. With all of this becoming a bigger issue globally, it is getting easier and more convenient to find ways for people to do this. As cruisers, we are naturally interested preserving the world we have gone to so much trouble to see as a way of life.

[Maryanne]Wow, Kyle, that was quite a bit of research! To put it in more human terms, I know we live an unusually low energy life, and don't expect many of our friends and family to have any thing as low as us! But we still made lots of little changes to reduce our energy consumption even more (LED lights, manual pump for water, etc). We also walk or cycle more (even when we have a car available). But, don't think we suffer at all, I turn the heating on when I'm cold and have a pretty comfortable life!

Here are some of the web sites Kyle found useful when researching his opus

• CarbonCounter.Org gives calculators to calculate your carbon emissions, tips how to reduce, and even allows you to purchase offsets.
• To see what energy sources each USA electric company is using : Renwables? Nuclear? Coal? see the USA EPA web site
• Finally, nearly all airlines now have links with some kind of company where you can understand and offset your travel carbon usage - you can even add the cost of the offsets at the time you pay for your flight! Cool! Here is one example (the one that Continental use)

Privacy Please!

New blinds aboard

[Maryanne]For some time now I have been planning to make some kind of window covering for the door and windows between the cabin and the cockpit. I had purchased some blinds that needed cutting to size and installing, but had not had the chance before we left to do anything more than stow the packages... Finally I installed them today - I'm really quite pleased with them. Kyle has yet to see them, but at least it will look like I've done some work while he has been away!

Sightseeing in Newport

Newport Cliff Walk

[Maryanne]Newport is famous for a few things - Sailing (e.g. it is the historic start for the Americas Cup race), very, very rich people, and the summer cottages they built here (referred to quite correctly as "The Mansions"). It is also a very, very expensive place to visit (overnight dockage for our boat would be around $180, and they don't provide breakfast, nor change the sheets for that!).

I decided to give myself a day off and explore. I especially wanted to see the Mansions, and also a much raved about "cliff walk". Many of the houses are not yet open for the season, or not open the day I arrived, so I changed my original plan to see two, and just went to visit the Breakers. The Breakers was the summer cottage of the New York City based Vanderbilt family (it only has 70 rooms, their main house 140), built from 1893-1895. The main entrance leads into a ball room, the music room was built in France to order, and shipped over and reassembled, and well - every room is extravagantly wonderful, lots of marble, frescoes, mosaics, just GRAND! We were not allowed to take photographs inside, and I can't find any good web sites that show the rooms, I really wish I could begin to describe the decadence and beauty. The best I could find was a National Park service write-up (pdf).

I followed that very girly sightseeing with a brisk healthy walk along the Cliff Walk. This is 3.5 miles of walk between the Atlantic Ocean and the gardens and the rear of the Mansions, the walk has some very easy parts, and some areas where a bit of scrambling was required. In some places the walk goes through tunnels (I guess to avoid disturbing some of the views from the Mansions). I really enjoyed it, and I'm not surprised as it was voted by National Geographic as one of America’s 50 must-see places: (in the Paradise Found section - "Destinations that are often remote, but that shimmer in the mind as retreats of the first order."). Now how could I miss that? Although I would probably put a few other cliff walks ahead of Newport's, who am I to argue with National Geographic?