Summer in New England

No its not the North Channel its New England baby!

Yes we are still alive! 

Its been a month since our arrival back to our homeport and a year and a half since we have been landlaubers, so whats it like you ask?  Being back in New England is nice and the weather has been quite good, today is calling for 95 degrees again but we are also on the boat today so its much cooler, in the mid to lower 80's.

When we arrived we spent 3 days on the boat some visits from family and friends have been great and its always nice to see familiar faces and get caught up. 

After a long weekend on the boat we rented a car and went to our land home,  Jim had sold his beloved truck the week before we left (Oct 2010), and our other car has been sitting waiting on our return but was not registered.  We had the rental for 2 weeks as the car needed work done and we had to buy a new battery just to start it.  *Yes, cars are like boats that way, always better if they are used, just sitting idle isn't good for anything.  The yard was over grown and the house looked abandoned, it has taken alot of doing to get it close to looking good again but Jim has been diligent.  No he did not miss mowing.

After a couple weeks we came back to the boat to spend a weekend and decided since our anniversery was coming up (25years) we would plan a few days and take off on the boat.  We went food shopping and off to the boat for a short cruise, the plan was a night at anchor at Cuttyhuck Island then either over to Marthas vineyard for a couple days or over to Naragansett Bay to Newport RI. both are only a couple of hours away by boat.  Hmmmm, well as I said earlier, just sitting idle isn't good for anything?  We dropped our lines and off we went once we got into Buzzards Bay alarms went off the port engine was running hot,  Jim went down to the engine room to check things out everything appeared to be okay the strainers were clean water was pumping through  maybe we picked up something in the prop so back we went.  We had a diver take a look at the prop, no problem there since he was already in the water we had him clean the bottom and replace the zincs.  We still don't know what the problem is and the mechanic hasn't had a chance to look at it yet.  We are hoping that its only an impeller, unfortunately its the port engine which is very difficult for Jim to get to so we will have the mechanic look at it.

In the mean time we have been getting alot of use out of the dinghy clamming and taking rides up the scenic Westport River.

Fun in the sun at low tide on the river

We have a 5 foot tide swing here

The kids dive off of the rocks at high tide

Fishing in the back yard

Lobster boats at the wharf

Isn't she beautiful one of our dock mates its a Shelter Harbor made in NY it was designed by Billy Joel

Down the river

Sweet Pea in her slip

These are what we are digging, Quahogs better known in other places as hardshell clams.  The small ones are great for eating raw, also called cherrystones the medium are Littlenecks, the larger ones (Quahogs) will find their way into a pot of chowdah or I will make stuffed quahogs (stuffies)

We are allotted a peck a day, this is our daily allotment it takes about an hour to fill the basket.  Hey Mike, New England noodling.

On the way back to the boat we stopped at the wharf  to get fresh live lobsters from the fishing boats they cost about $10 bucks a piece.  Alot cheaper getting them from the lobstermen and it doesn't get much fresher.  Ahhhh New England seafood.

I plan to update once a month unless I have some interesting photos or something to say.  Maybe we will get the big boat off the dock by then.
We love to hear from our readers if you have questions or just want to say hello and let us know where your from.  If anyone is cruising by SE Massachusetts / RI this summer let us know!