Newport

Sunday, 29 June

“How cool is this?!”

Yep! Sailing Narragansett Bay is a great feeling!

The statement is from your correspondent, inspired by just his second sail on Narragansett Bay and first in fifty-plus-years. A southerly breeze fills all plain sail as Steadfast runs up the West Passage of Narragansett Bay, wing-and-wing, a lovely sight indeed.

Sails full and pulling Steadfast up the West Passage.

It’s been an interesting couple of days, the slog over from Block, the air filter / silencer falling off the engine (Little Red belches loudly without it), a Saturday stroll through lovely neighborhoods on Jamestown. And this morning, silently sailing off the mooring, perhaps the most enjoyable way to start a day under sail. The Dutch Harbor Boat Yard staff—they couldn’t be more pleasant, helpful or professional; a good group—already had promised to make room for Steadfast on the Monday service schedule, for an oil change and to look at the filter/silencer.

So the idea was to sail to Newport Harbor, exercise reciprocal privileges at Ida Lewis Yacht Club (check out Ida’s fascinating story on Wikipedia) and meet with Sandy and Steve Parks for dinner. Their son Josh would be in town, too, an added bonus.

Rose Island Light marks the island’s south end, just south of the Newport Bridge.

The couple of miles northbound to Conanicut Point were idyllic, running before a steady 12, gusting to 15 knots on occasion. Steadfast began to take off, as expected, as she reached around that north end of Jamestown. From there, it was a beat down the East Passage, tacking from the Newport side to Jamestown and back, past Gould Island, under the “new” bridge, by Rose Island, Goat Island and up to ILYC.

Ida Lewis once tended the light that is the core of the club that bears her name.

The club is built on Lime Rock, around the lighthouse that Ms. Lewis once tended, and staff and members could not be more welcoming, with an atmosphere not unlike that of Mathews YC. A great spot. There was dinner at Salvation Café with its eclectic décor, then a quick tour of downtown, the route to the Cliff Walk (for future reference) and a run round Ocean Drive.

But the day’s highlight is clear. After all these miles, sailing—not motoring, mind you, but coursing under sail—into Newport Harbor on one’s own keel: how cool is that?!

Steadfast out.