Long Weekend at Block Island

Early in the week, we started thinking about where we might want to sail for the weekend. We saw an upcoming window of winds with an easterly component and it seemed like a good time to get to Block Island. Given the wind conditions, going on Thursday and Returning on Sunday looked pretty good. We both had to work some on the departure date and the best time to leave for the wind was early afternoon. So we got the boat ready early, got off the dock and out to a Wickford Town Mooring where we would do our morning work. Linda was done earlier than me, so she got us off the mooring at 11:00 while I languished on another work call for the next hour. When I came up for air, we were sailing nicely past Dutch Island and on our way out into the sound. Block was already visible on the horizon!

As is tradition during the peak season, we saw way more AIS targets going into Block Island than coming out of Block Island. Our marina neighbors were way ahead of us on a power boat and confirmed that things were very (over)booked.

I don’t love anchoring in Block Island. It’s deep and the bottom is strewn with rocks and shells. We surveyed the anchorage a bit seeing lots of availability in 35+ feet, but finally found an opening in 22. The trick in block is to back down slowly. The bottom is hard. Let the wind do the work and then very gradually apply some reverse. We got a good hook on the first try and we put out about 100 feet of chain. I started recording an anchoring track and we never fell off the arc for the three days. Still I definitely kept an eye on weather underground for thunderstorm/squall warnings. Nothing – just beautiful weather with very light winds in the anchorage.

Two positions on our anchor arc as the wind swung us about 20 degrees

Friday was a full work day for me. It was great, wonderful and terrific. I came up for air at about 1500 and then switched to enjoyment mode. Power was not an issue at all with full sun every day and relatively limited use of Starlink and laptops.

We balanced our R&R with a dive into Block Island’s bustling bar scene — including a two-mudslide night, taste-testing from two of the island’s hot spots. One clearly took the crown, but since they’re not sponsoring me, my lips are sealed.

We even broke out the old hammock a couple times.

But our favorite thing about Block is the scenery around the pond. We got out on the SUP, the Kayak and the Dinghy for various excursions.

Sunfish!

We saw several sunfish zipping around and looked into how one would rent one. After a slightly strange text and email sign up procedure, we secured this fine craft:

We both learned quickly how heavy a sunfish is. It was a bit of fun getting this off the beach and into the water (and back out). Linda was a bit rusty and instantly capsized it, but then she got the hang of it pretty quickly.