Tuesday 4 September: Leisure morning in Newport, and motor to Bristol at midday.
We carry on a bit on the admin mode early morning, with calls and finance, then mid-morning we go ashore to tick 2 tasks.
First, fly the drone over the Newport Mansions. We walk to Bellevue Avenue and then to the Cliff Walk and set camp there. The view from up there, over the mansions, the town, over the harbor and all the way to the Newport Bridge, is quite amazing. So the flight is a success. It’s too hot to walk back to the wharfs, so we catch a bus.
Second task, chandlery to buy the hoses for the bilge pump. The Newport Shipyard is the only chandlery in town, but they didn’t have the needed hoses. They do have all kinds of super yachts in various stages of maintenance, but nothing useful in their shop!
Next to the shipyard there is The Lobster Shack, and we stop there to get some live lobsters. Then we rush to Cloudy Bay, to put the lobsters in the fridge as soon as possible to ensure they stay alive. Apparently they release a toxin if they die, making them inedible.
Back onboard, we have a look at the weather and at the chart, and we decide to make a move to Bristol. No wind at all, so we motor all the way, 10 miles inland to the north. Well, we needed to run the watermaker anyway.
Uneventful trip, just admiring the view on both shores: under Newport suspension Bridge, green hills, Hinkley Shipyard, a couple of villages. And 2 hours later we arrive in Bristol. Big brick buildings are giving it an industrial look. But the bay is nice and tranquil after the hustle and bustle of Newport Harbor.
Quite a few boats in the mooring buoys area, but we manage to sneak a space and anchor between them. For lunch we cook the lobsters. As they are boiling the smell is really quite pungent but once on the plate they are delicious as usual. Then we dinghy ashore while there is still some light to see Bristol.
It is a very quiet town, all shops are closed, not many people on the streets. So we walk for a while, to see what the town has to offer. Again, after Newport, Bristol seems almost deserted! Looks like it was a factory town, making rubber products. There are still large factory buildings on the water front with one or two converted for residential use.
Then just before sunset we return to mothership, for more maintenance time. Generator again. This time to fix the main exhaust. 2 of the 4 studs that hold the elbow to the main exhaust manifold have corroded out of their threads and the elbow is hanging down slightly. We ordered new gaskets and equipped ourselves with thread repair tools. Once taken apart the corroded thread holds are drilled out and inserts put in so that the studs can again have a grip. Needless to say, not a simple job but by 11pm it’s all repaired and put back together. We will do a test run in the morning, with all fingers and toes crossed that no exhaust gases are leaking from the repaired joint. Of all our equipment, the generator seems to demand the most attention to keep it running. This is a similar story, we hear, on most cruising yachts. Those that have a generator that is!
After showers we chill in the cockpit. It’s still warm at midnight. Long may this weather last.
Newport Rhode Island photo album
Bristol Long Island photo album