Through the Long Island Sound to Cape Cod

We sail from City Island to Oyster Bay on Long Island, where our City Island friends Leah, Ronin and Viktor join us in the van for the weekend. We see a horseshoe crab for the first time, a fascinating animal — seemingly straight from prehistoric times.

Next we head to the north coast of the Long Island Sound, where we are invited to Cedar Point Yacht Club near Westport CT. The crew of our buddy-boat AVANTI, with which we sailed from the BVIs to Bermuda and whose crew we have not yet met in person, invite us to eat pizza.

It is a wonderful evening at the Yacht Club; for one evening we are part of a community that we do not know otherwise. At sunset, mini cannons are fired and the flags are lowered. The children find this quite interesting. Even more interesting is exploring the playground with Bozena and eating a huge serving of ice cream. We are really spoiled. After this great evening, we drive through the dark night in the dinghy. It is not easy to find the way through the reef, but luckily the few buoys that we shine the flashlight on reflect and we find Mirabella again, anchored off of Cockenoe Island. The next day, Bozena drives us to Trader Joe’s, quickly becoming one of our favorite grocery stores. And, we are always very happy when we don’t have to lug our groceries around.

We have a lovely day sail to Truman Beach where we anchor for one night. The next day we continue to Block Island. We sail in thick fog. We first have to get used to that. Thanks to our radar however, we know that several boats are on the same route as us.

We hear the motorboat that is sailing 150 meters next to us, but we cannot see it.

Thanks to our radar and accurate charts, we manage to navigate the foggy entrance to the Great Salt Pond and anchor in the quiet bay with many other boats. It is quite crowded, as the 4th of July weekend is approaching quickly. We explore the town of New Shoreham, stop at the ‘Persephone’s Kitchen’ café and talk to locals. The island is pretty crowded in summer thanks to ferries and cruisers. We meet Joanne and John, a friendly couple in the café. A few days later, they set off for the mainland in their VW bus on a road trip through Maine to avoid Block Island in its overcrowded state.

The children want to go back to the library again and again, which has a beautiful garden and a children’s corner with a medical ward, theater corner and shop. You can see that people look after each other on this island. There are many offers from the state of Rhode Island, probably as a measure against mental illness, drug abuse and suicide. You can imagine that the winters here are very cold, long and lonely.

Before the 4th of July we sail north to Newport. Here we spend a few relaxing days and stroll through the city. We chat to other cruisers and get to know CALLISTA from Nova Scotia and TI AMA from Germany. Newport is a historic sailing city and with the wharfs and old port buildings, the maritime flair is present everywhere. The library here is also amazing and we visit it more than once. We discover delicious ice cream at ‘Get the Scoop’ with the owner from Nova Scotia, who gives us travel tips, and eat delicious food at ROOT. In the evening we visit the pizzeria ‘Imbriglio’s Pizzeria Napoletana’ which serves very delicious Neapolitan pizzas. The next day, Andrea and the children explore the Farmers Market and we have a picnic in Aquidneck Park.

We sail on through Buzzard Bay to Woods Hole, where we anchor on the opposite side of the passage at ‘Nonamesset Island’ because we don’t want to cross the channel with Mirabella. The trip with the dinghy to Woods Hole is an adventure unto itself because the very strong current creates high waves. We dinghy under the drawbridge into Eel Pond. At the marine biology institute we look at living creatures under the microscope and watch the axolotl.

After lunch we go to the library, where adventure stories are read out loud in a camping atmosphere with a tent and a fire. The anchor alarm goes off and Silvio goes to Mirabella in the dinghy to check on things. While he is on the boat and Andrea is in the village with the children, thick fog rolls in. It stays until it is almost dark. In these conditions, Silvio cannot go back through the channel with a lot of current and traffic in the dinghy without radar to pick up the family. The fog is so dense, one cannot even see a single channel marker.

Luckily Andrea finds a way to get back to Mirabella. At the drawbridge she asks several people if they would drive us. Finally Damian drives us back in his Whaler. He knows the route very well, even in the fog, because he regularly goes fishing where Mirabella is anchored. Phew, lucky!

The next day we set off through the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown, also known as P-town. We stroll through the colorful town and the ‘Bear Week’ is on. The streets are full of gay men showing off their ‘bear bellies’. P-town has long been known as a place for artists and the LGBTQ community. There are many galleries, nightclubs, etc. and in the bustling ‘Commercial Street’ you can see your fill of beautiful people celebrating life. Of course we also visit the library, where one can play next to a scale model ship. The next day we anchor at Long Point near the lighthouse, where the dunes invite you to take a walk. The seals accompany us here on the beach and around the ship. We meet the boats CALLISTA and TI AMA again.

We rent two bikes and a trailer and ride through the dunes to the northern end of Cape Cod, to ‘Race Point Beach’ and ‘Herring Cove Beach’. It’s great to be out and about by bike again and the landscape is ideal for it. Signs on the beach warn of great white sharks. There are so many seals here that the sharks follow their favorite snack here too.

However, the beaches are patrolled by lifeguards who keep an eye out all day and get all swimmers out of the water as soon as a lot of seals or even a sharks fin appear.

Fortunately, nothing has happened for a long time.