Nantucket to Newport, Rhode Island and even dogs can get sea sick

Before I write about our trip yesterday, I have to tell everyone what I found here this morning. My wife and I got up at 6 am to walk the dogs. There is a park across the street and a Starbucks right on the corner of the park. I've always had this theory that the measure of one's Jack-ass-edness is directly proportional to the length of their Starbucks order. If you are interviewing a new employee, take them to Starbucks and let them order a coffee. If they do the "Venti Latte with half soy and half skim low whip and half a pump of vanilla" crap, don't hire them.
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After the dogs do their business and Susie scoops it up and puts it in the GARBAGE can, I go in to get a Latte. Just a Latte... as on the board... nothing special. This guy in front of me has a piece of paper and doesn't have ONE of these long coffee no-whip orders but TEN... Yes... TEN. And.. he has to pay for each one seperate out of TEN different envelopes. I have found the world's biggest jackass lives in Newport, RI... porbably owns a Four Winns also. Susie waited for me so long that one of the dogs took a second dump.
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We got out of Nantucket yesterday about 1:00 pm and headed on down to Newport, RI. The weather was the reason for the late start. Tropical storm Christobal (what the heck kind of name is that?!) was east of Nantucket and churning up some high surf but was projected to be heading north-eastward. The weather reports had winds on the Nantucket Sound at 5-10 knots out of the north but changing to southerly later in the day as the storm moved away from the area. Off the coast of Rhode Island where we were heading, there was a small craft advisory due to hazardous sea conditions until about 4 pm. My logic and observations were to watch the wind in Nantucket and when the northerly winds started to die down, it would be OK to leave and head to Rhode Island. The winds in the morning were whipping up at 15-20 knots out of the north which meant the storm was still “too close” for me.
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Our trek over to Rhode Island would take us north-westward on Nantucket Sound, past Martha’s Vineyard, through Woods Hole into Buzzards Bay, and then off the coast of Rhode Island into Newport. Put your glasses on and you can find the places on the chart:

The total length of this route was about 70 NM so it would be about a 3 hour run in ideal conditions. Throw in some swells, rough water, fog and other crap that seems to just appear out of nowhere around this place, and it could be longer. The other thought I had was that if we left around 1 pm, the hazardous seas warning would be near the end off of the Rhode Island coast. For as much as I hate weathermen, I sure was putting a lot of faith in this forecast. Additionally, I had this engine raw water leak repair that was not field tested yet.
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Susie and I walked the town of Nantucket in the morning and bought a big clock with a bubble glass lens on both sides of it for the house. We tried to eat breakfast at Black Eyed Susan’s but I think it must have been local’s day as there were 9000 people waiting in line. Got back to the boat about 11 am and I noticed the winds dying down a little so we started to get the boat ready. We undocked about noon and went over to the fuel dock and filled up the tanks. Due to the unknown in the weather today, I wanted to have full tanks. This is what a person looks like after leaving the Nantucket fuel dock and paying $6.56 a gallon for diesel:It’s the same look as the rubber glove treatment at the doctor’s office.
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We took a few shots leaving the Nantucket Boat Basin.
It’s interesting to see how these mega-yachts dock. They pull stern in and then drop their anchors on the bow….
The harbor at Nantucket has a huge mooring field:
And this old dilapidated boat with a Carnival Cruise Line emblem on the exhaust stack was there:
This is a shot looking north out of the inlet. You can’t really see it in this picture but the sound looked calm but you could see “elephants dancing” from the waves on the horizon. I assumed it was from the tropical storm throwing waves in from the eastern part of the sound.
This is an interesting shot.
I think this is the “bird ferry” stop. Every time I’ve seen a barge around here being pushed by a tug, these birds are on it getting a free ride. My conclusion is the birds wait on this marker awaiting a barge to the mainland.

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Once we got about 3 NM north of Nantucket, the winds started to really kick up and the wind gauge on the boat was clocking 15-18 knot winds out of the north. The seas were about 3 feet and steep as they are on the Chesapeake Bay so I backed the boat down to 1800 RPMs and trimmed the nose down. It also meant the storm was not as far away. As we got a little further north were the exposed east portion of the sound was, the seas became a little confused from the northerly winds and the waves being pushed in from the tropical storm.

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I went down below to check on people and everyone was in a stateroom sleeping except Timmy and Lou on the sofa:

No one will admit to getting sick now as they know I’ll show pictures and discuss it here in this log.

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Things calmed down as we approached Vineyard Sound and Woods Hole and we went through Woods Hole with no tide this time (so no rapids). I still blasted by a sailboat and it felt good for some reason. I exited into Buzzards Bay and it was pretty calm but the wind was blowing out of the north about 10-15 knots. We then proceed westward toward Cuttyhunk.

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As we approached Cuttyhunk and exiting Buzzards Bay, this is where the warnings were up for hazardous seas. There were swells coming out of the southeast so the further we got away from Cuttyhunk, the bigger they got. At one point I went down in the back cockpit area and when we would go down into a trough, the horizon would disappear and all I could see were the wave walls. Creepy… The motion on the boat was well behaved but the engines would struggle at times pushing up these things. Additionally, the dogs were scared and curled up in a ball in the port stateroom with Susie. It was about a 1 hour roller coaster ride. I did have a speaker mount break in the front master stateroom:

As we approached Newport, the swells were dying down a little… but you could see the waves breaking on the shore and it was fairly impressive.

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We arrived in Newport about 4:30 pm:

And the houses along the water are impressive. Including this guy on the rocks:
The harbor in Newport also has a big mooring field:
We are at the Newport Hotel and Marina here and here we are all docked up:
Note the vertical black stripes of dirt by the engine vents. We are also parked next to this guy: Wonder how he says his name on the VHF radio….

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We ate dinner at a little place last night but the name escapes me at the moment. The food was not very good. I got the broiled seafood platter and it was broiled “dry”… no butter… no olive oil… no grease… What the hell is with that? I’m from Virginia where everyone takes Lipitor.

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The weather here is going to stink the next few days:

Everyone wants to go see “Dark Knight” at the movie theater and I need to fix a leak in the engine… still…

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Any good restaurant recommendations, send them along.