Bristol Fashion

Bristol, Rhode Island, N 41 40.010 W 71 17.186

Now this is a really nice place. We're at anchor in the harbor at Bristol. Bristol is the home town of the
Herreshoff family; the yacht designers of fame. It's about 1945 in the evening and there are four one-design
Herreshoff boats maneuvering to start a race at 1900. One of the racing buoys is right near Tarwathie so we
should get some outstanding views. I'll post pictures when we can.

The Herreshoff boats are long and low, made out of wood, and beautiful to look at. They have very tall masts
also wood and bendy. They fly enormous mainsails, as if they were cat boats plus a very small jib forward.
The jibs are club footed.

On the far shore is the Herreshoff Museum. We'll go there tomorrow. It sounds interesting.

I'm really glad that we are finding Bristol so pleasant. I was beginning to get a little discouraged about
New England. Block Island was too touristy, had too many boats and was too expensive. The moorings on Block Island
cost $35 up, but we were able to anchor.

Last night we stayed in Dutch Island Harbor (N 41 29.893 W 71 23.314).
The weather forecast was for severe thunderstorms with damaging winds and we arrived there just minutes before
an approaching thunderstorm. I saw no boats anchored, so we took a mooring belonging to Dutch Harbor Shipyard.
When I went to pay I was shocked. It cost $45. The shipyard didn't even have showers or laundry or any
facilities. I felt stupid for spending money so foolishly.

Today, on the way here we stopped at Wickford RI to buy fuel. That is another place where there are only moorings
and no boats at anchor. I've heard that it is like that in Maine also with all the popular anchorages converted
to moorings to rent for a fee. If that too much true, then New England may not be affordable for cruisers like us.

Once again, I'm glad to find Bristol so nice and so affordable (so far) in contrast with the previous three places
we saw.

This morning, I couldn't get the throttle/shifter control box to work. I had to take it apart to grease the components.
I hate taking things apart that I haven't seen before because I fear not being able to put it back together. This time
I had a little luck. When it was almost all disassembled I heard a "sproing" and a spring and a ball bearing flew into
the air. Miraculously, they did not fly into the water. They stayed in the cockpit and I was able to retrieve them.
When the lubrication was done and I was nearly finished I broke off the threaded end to the throttle control cable. Oh no!
I don't have a spare for that. Fortunately, I was able to thread the stub of the broken piece to get it back together.
Eventually I'll have to get a new cable or else I'll have to make a threaded sleeve to splice together the broken pieces.

p.s. Now the sailboat race is over and my favorite won! It was exciting though because my favorite and Libby's favorite
exchanged the lead 4-5 times

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