Newport. We had no clear idea of what to expect here and whatever we thought, well…, it was surpassed. Newport IS the sailing centre of the world (?).  The big boats that we saw coming out yesterday are all moored at the Newport shipyard.  The story is that once upon a time a well-off fellow with that big boat needed some work done.  At the shipyard they told him that, yes, we can handle your big boat but we are in a financial fix….. The guy promptly laid a big order and thereafter he bought the yard. So henceforth, all his buddies with similar boats fixed them in Newport and the yard is thriving ever since.  We make a tour and count no less than 7 J-yachts (the pinnacle of racing boats, some think, and on board which the America’s Cup was contested in the 30-ties. The newest one was Svea, build on drawing by Tore Holm (!) in 1937 but never built.. then, but now the yacht is being completed in Newport.   …and the J’s were the small boats!  There were some gigantic floatables.  Most of them were registered in George Town, Cayman Islands, a British tax haven where the well-off sailor obviously keep their (untaxed) money!  Well, well…the boats were beautiful!

We heed advice from fellow boats-men and avoid going further towards Providence; it is a boring ride with a lot of bridges and traffic. Instead we have a leisurely day at the Club.  Members are duly impressed with our coming here from far off and we have a lot of exchange of experiences.  Apparently we are in for a treat along the Maine coast, supposedly gorgeous and very similar the Scandinavian coast line (?) + lobsters!

The new lines are delivered and promptly installed.  We now have sturdy sheet on the cutter jib and a furling line for the genua that is “long enough” (some previous crew will know what this means and appreciate it…?)

Dinner at the club and some farewell drinkables in the cockpit to “celebrate”; the crew leaves for home tomorrow early and the day after Barbro and Magnus arrives.  We have had a great time in great waters.

The morning is chilly and there is rain hanging……With increasing wind we are not comfortable and swing rather wildly on our buoy.  So we decide to skip the Institute and head for Newport.  Wood Hole is indeed a “hole”, a narrow opening in in a long chain of islands where the tide sets at 5+ knots at its peak.  Between 9 and 10 there is slack water and we make our escape. 

We have a wonderful cruise west-wards towards Newport in a 25 knot northerly and with the land to windward the sea is smooth.  On entering Newport, which is to the north, the wind picks up to 35 knots and, unbelievably, about 10 maxi-racers come tearing towards us with everything up, spinnakers, bloopers, etc. 2 J-yachts (Ranger and ??) and various high.-tech racers.  It turns out that this is the Candy Cup (of all things…!!) Race, a short thing just outside.

Newport I the Mecca of sailing in the US and coming in with a strong headwing tearing, a music festival crowd on the Point and a harbour absolutely stuffed with boats…well, it lives up to expectations !  We find a fueling dock where we water down, get 40 gallons of diesel and use the “discharge arrangements”.  On the dock we find Charlie Jonathan (?), with roots in Värnamo (!) and who is a member of the Newport Yacht Club.  He promptly arranges for a slip here (at US$5:50/foot!) and we will live like royals for 24 hours.

Strangely, even at Newport a ships chandler is hard to find.  After a long walk up and down the harbour, we find, stuffed amongst the souvenir boutiques, a small shack with some basics.  However, the “real store” is 5 miles up the road (of course, everybody being car bound).  So we order new lines for the jib sheet and the genua furler, to be delivered tomorrow…(?)

We top off the day by having a small dinner (lobster rolls) “at the club”, where locals give us advice on the trip to Maine (lots of lobsters!!)

Nantucket, a whaling community gone touristique.  Cobble stones, old houses and very, very memorable.  We make a tour among the shops and buy some souvenirs.  Rent bicycles again and tour the countryside out to Madaket on the south-western tip.  A beautiful beach is suddenly obscured by the famous fog…..(!)  The day is beautiful and quite hot.  We find the countryside “warmer” than, for example, on Block Island.  Low trees, very green and luster.  Meadows that stretch over great expanses.

Back to town, lunch…and Johan takes the final opportunity to have a 1,5 pound “Maine” lobster (he is going home a couple of days…..).  After a proper salute we go back north. Tomorrow will bring strong winds from the north so we stay prudent with protection under land.  After 2 hours sailing a 3 hours motoring we take a buoy at Woods Hole, famous for its oceanographic institute…..perhaps a visit tomorrow(?)

Early morning and a beautiful day.  We make hast to get ashore again and to see more of the famous Vineyard. Some of us rent bicycles and set off  (in the wrong direction) for Oaks Bluff on the eastern side.  After about 10K we find less of a town and more of a summer resort where, most noticeable, gigantic motor vehicles (SUVs) cruise around.  Well, place is very cute. Ice cream and back.  Some provisions and subsequently we set of for Nantucket, possibly even more renowned.  We have a wonderful sailing day and in 4 hours we take down the sails and motor in…..we thought.  Temperature warning in the middle of the channel.  Wind is favourable and so is the tide so we hoist again and sail into the harbour.  We end up amidst the big ones and anchor up a bit away from the marinas but quite OK really.  It turns out the the impeller is badly worn and after a quick exchange for a new one we are 100% again.  All this took some time so we had dinner on the boat. Left overs which were quite abundant, actually.  We had a good dinner.

We wake up to a splendid, crystal clear morning….!  Sun is up, we take a swim, have breakfast and are off.  After much consideration we will go straight to the Vineyard.  From there to Nantucket and then back on Friday to, say, Woods Hole with its Oceanic Institute.  On Saturday, when there will be a gale from the north, we can sneak along the southern coast to Newport and finally, there will be change of crew in Providence, RI, where Amtrak  will provide transportation.

So we set off using the motor.  Little wind and about 45 miles to go.  So we churn on over the day and after an uneventful 7 hours we cast anchor outside Vineyard Haven on the northern tip. We quickly lower the dingy and set of to shore.  A stroll around this very, very quaint and very proper town with a Main Street full of shops. Very importantly: when you have sailed across the ocean you are entitled to wear red pants and these should be of the true Nantucket Red colour that you can buy at some very special places.  One of hem are here and the purchase is properly executed (the colour is actually a surprisingly pink hue, but be that as it may; it is the Real Stuff). Close to the harbour lies Black Dog restaurant and we have a good dinner there in a warm and cosy atmosphere. Late in the evening we dingy out to the boat again.  Our anchor light is green this evening (pushed the wrong button….)

The new day is grey and windy.  Rain is hanging in the air.  We decide to stay, at least during the morning hours and see the island.  So, after breakfast with lowered the dinghy and set off to one of the marinas where we find a dinghy dock.  We also find Aldo’s and he rents bicycles. So we make a tour of the island.  We are moored in the New Harbour and on the east coast of the island lies the Old Harbour, where ferries from the mainland land; a good place for coffee at Ballard’s.  This is a fancy beach resort facility, although with an empty beach just today; weather is too bad.  We move on and hit the south east corner with an old light house, the southern bluffs and back to the centre.  We see and enormous number of free standing houses where Edwards Hopper must have found inspiration.  The houses are lik his, the light is the same and, like in Hopper’s paintings, there is no life in the houses.  We don’t see a single living being in any of them….?!  Our last stretch is up to the northern point after which we return exhausted by the dinghy…..and decide to stay the rest of the day.  So a nap and a drink later we motor back ashore for dinner at “Dead Eyes Dick’s” way into the New Harbour.  Our last adventure this day is to find the boat among the hundreds that are moored in the pond. Pitch dark and a whole number of anchor lanterns….!?.  We stumble along and, of course, make it at last.

Rain…! So it is a slow start and, at 0900, telephone to the Electronics guys.  At 11 o’clock Brian shows up and joins the group called Aquaryd heroes;  competent individuals who fix us up when we are in trouble.  He promptly recalibrates our autopilot.  Subsequently, he reprograms the plotter to feed the AIS with less but useful data.  Apparently, the AIS has been gorged with so much noisy un-necessary data that the crucial GPS-signal has been lost.  Now, everything works perfectly.

Now, Christina is a knitting lady and there is a yarn store in Mystic……!  Out we go despite low-hanging clouds.  On our way we lunch in Wets Mystic Market, a lovely store/restaurant on the “progressive” side; vitamins, vege-stuff etc.  The atmosphere is simply darling. This is when it starts raining….but yarn is yarn so off we trot to the village, over the river and up to the yarn store only to find it is…closed.  By now thoroughly soaked, Mats and Christina promptly go back to the boat while Johan and skipper finds the “consignment store” a place with second-hand boat stuff. Wow….we go wild and eventually skipper finds a perfect second winch handle to the main sheet, somewhat shorter than standard. Fits perfectly!!!

Back to the boat we set off for Block Island and have a perfectly wonderful reach in 20-25  knots of wind from the north-east.  After 3 hours we anchor up in the Great Salt Pond

Off not-so-early and for the first time on this stretch we can hoist our sails. 12-15 knots…from due East.  It is however great to sail again so we tack back and forth the 30-odd miles to Mystic; we are compensate for tacking by a strong east-ward tidal current. Mystic turns out to be the quaintest, most lovely place possible.  I narrow channel winds itself between hordes of moored boats and marinas.  We end up creating a “T” at the head of A-bridge on Mystic Shipyard, so rather precariously straddling the narrow end of the bridge. Kevin, the week-end dock manager helps us tie up by throwing lasso at poles well 5 meters away.  He is very skillful!  With ropes in every direction this works satisfactorily, despite a tide that is running back and forth at considerable speed. The Shipyard proves to be most efficient place with good facilities, pool and very decent restroom/showers.

We are on to an early start.  Since the start of the voyage we have been backing…(?) That is the plotter icon of our boat point in 180 degrees the wrong direction (?) Everyting elso work, autopilot takes us where it should etc.  Simultaneously our AIS instrument is not satisfied. It peeps very innervatingly every 10 seconds.  We get contact with an electronic firm in Mystic, another 80 miles down the coast.  This is were we aim and half way there lies Old Saybrook with a marina on the Connecticut River.  This is a fancy place with hotel, restaurant, pool, gym, sauna…and also the most expensive since we left Finike, Turkey,4 years ago, $245/night. The place is phenomenally active with all sorts of floating devices passing by, from inboard maxi-power boats to tandem-surfboards with giant out-boarders Well, we make good use of the joint.  Eat well, exercise and use the free launch service to the grocery store…..!

Up and away quickly.  We do feel a bit baffled by the fact that we leave without having set foot ashore – this is not the way we wanted to “see America”.  But Cedar Creek was not so nice.  The day is as hot as yesterday.  We decide to make up for Cedar Creek by going a short distance to New Haven and be “cultural”.  We end up in Pequonnock Marina on Coty Point in New Haven.  Very elegant with a fac´ncy restaurant and all.  We get a slip clos to the club house and, in the process, fill up with 285 liters at 6:80 SEK (!)  After lunch off in a cab to the Peabody Natural History Museum at Yale.  Apparently dinosaur studies are a Yale speciality…!  and after that to Yale Art Gallery, which was really worth while.  Fully culturalized we return to the marina for dinner and sleep….

Today, Maud and Jacob are leaving the skip while the remaining crew will stay on board until June 3.  A slow day with cleaning of the boat, fixing some small stuff.  In all honesty, it appears that Aquaryd has finally reached a state of “proper maintenance”; no big break-downs have occurred during the last couple of phases so no big repairs to plan.  We have a problem with the new mainsail, where the battens get stuck when unfurling.  Have to consult with the sail makers in Sweden…

Manhasset Bay and Port Washington, the major town, is in fact…East Egg of Scott Fitzgerald's:  We are in the vicinity of the Great Gatsby and the affluence of the neighbourhood is certainly noticeable.  Here we can stay for 6 weeks sponsored by a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend at a very reasonable price. In the evening, our beneficiary, Claes L, comes over for a drink in the cockpit and then we have dinner at the club restaurant.  Very elegant, indeed.

It is a very smooth morning.  Skipper takes a stroll in the idyllic environment, comes up to a beach park janitor. “Good morning, how are you?”.  Locals are extremely cordial and interested.  “Sailing from Sweden? Wow…welcome to America”.  We have a little chat.  Harbour master’s office is not yet open but when I come back to the boat I find him there.  “Had a good night?  No problem with to shallow water?”  Everything has been very good.  How much do we owe you? “Oh, nothing.  First night is free…!”  That is very different from our previous experiences.  So we have breakfast and Johan + skipper visit Brewer’s store for appliances.  They have everything and we stock up a bit. A new 10 kg propane gas bottle will last us this year and next….!  Mats and Christina meanwhile stock up on provisions.  LAter we want to get rid of a very, very rusty butane gas bottle and we walk ablut.  The4 same janitor shows up ib a gigantic pick-up truck:  Do you know where....?  Oh, throw it up in th truck....!  Nice guy!

After lunch we set course eastwards.  No wind and appallingly hot.  After 5 hours and only one hour sailing (and a bath) we end up in Cedar Creek just next to Bridgeport, the largest town in CT.  The Captain’s Cove marina is full so we moor outside in the basin.  After having moves four times (!) we finally take a buoy; the local launch driver warned of heavy weather” (?)…we have nothing in our forecasts.  The place is not the nicest so far and we have dinner on board. Tomorrow we will try finding sweeter spots.

Today it is the reverse, but we have to wait until 1.5 hours after low water at the Battery. We are off at We hit is nicely with a strong current to our advantage down the Hudson and then it turns so we are pushed through East River to.  Hells gate is boiling…! Coming out of East River we are again borderd by the coast guard (!!).  very polit and professional.  Everything is in order and we have a sufficient number of life jackets and fire extinguishers.

We make it to Mamaroneck harbour just before the border to Connecticut.  We are lead into th harbour by a police officer and directed to a perfect pontoon about as far into the basin as possible. Extremely idyllic with paddle boarders by the score.

In the evening, when the suffocating heat vanishes a wee bit, we make into “Harbor Bar”, a jolly place with locals. We eat and drink.  Johan lays his white cap on the table beside him and his eye glasses on to of the hat.  Lacking proper eyesight he continues to pile a  heap of empty shellfish + ketchup from his meal on top of his hat which is promptly very phycodelically discoloured.  We have the laugh of the day.

According to the tidal chart we should leave Manhasset Bay at 0630 hours in order to catch the south bound water into East River.  Mats has never been to NYC and we cannot deny him the pleasure of tying up to Manhattan.  So off we go and say bye-bye to Manhasset Bay that has housed us so well. Same trip down East River, out to the Status of Liberty for a photographic session and then slowly, against the tide, up the Hudson.  The 79^th Street Boat Basin is full (!!) so we through a hook just upstream and take the dinghy into the Basin. A less-than-courteous official claims that we are too close and must go further uppstrem….(!?) and threatens with tow-aways and harbour police, and….OK, skipper and Johan moves the boat while Mats+Christina roam the streets of the Upper West.  Leif soon joins them and very soon we end up in a bar very close to “Polarn&Pyret på Columbus Av.  The weather is sultry and coolness+drink (beer) is of the essence.

We stroll down to the river, take the dinghy out to the boat for a nap….!  In the evening an outdoor table at NiceMatin in the corner 79thW and Amsterdam.  The evening is so smooth and we do feel the pulse of the big city.

Returning to the boat we find that the dinghy needs to come out of the water.  There is a wind against current situation with large waves.  The dinghy alternately is pulled by the water and the pushed hard against the boat by the waves.  A bit a drama in the night.

We return for this year’s last stretch up to Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Mats and Christina Kollind arrived yesterday in the evening and skipper Leif somewhat later, actually 15 minutes past the termination of the launch service.  A couple of members hanging in the pontoon bar heard my predicament and promptly booted their own smaller sailboat and drove me out to Aquaryd – nicest thing!

Last crew member, Brother Johan, arrived the day after...or rather “tomorrow” to that.  His Norwegian flight was delayed and he did not arrive until 4:30 in the morning.  During the day, we have bought provisions, “watered up” and we are ready to go.

In the evening, Claes and Lena, club members and sponsors, drop in with a bottle of wine.  They have a summer’s house up in Maine and we now have drawings of it etc.  We might get there….