Our trip here yesterday, after a promising beginning, wound up being mostly a motor.  We sailed for about two hours until the wind dropped down to 4 knots and we finally conceded to mother nature and fired up the engines.  Actually, we fired up one engine.  When you are cruising, the efficient way to run is on one engine at a time.  You loose about a knot and a half of speed, so from about 7.5 knots to 6 knots, but you consume half the fuel.  You are also extending the life of your engines.  We made it into Newport, where Joe had reserved us a mooring, at about 5pm.

Little did we know, it is Harbor Festival week in Newport, Rhode Island.  We were very lucky to get "the last available mooring."  After paying $1 per foot in Sag Harbor, the $40 price tag per night is a bargain.  Needless to say, the harbor is packed, although it will be more so over the weekend.  We have secured this mooring for tonight as well, so our plan is to go into town to check out the activities and sights.  This is one of the bigger towns we will visit, so we are also planning a trip to West Marine and the grocery store by cab. 

In case you are curious, our list for West Marine consists of:

• whistles to attach to all of our life jackets - a safety measure in case of a man overboard incident.  A whistle is a lot louder than a shout.

• a magnifying glass - to inspect the rigging when we go up the mast.  We have been told that this is also a good safety practice.  If you see any cracks, it is time for new rigging.

• a second bridal - the bridal attaches to a cleat on each hull and then attaches to the anchor chain.  It takes the pressure off the chain at the boat end and allows the boat to stay pointed into the wind.  It is especially effective on a catamaran, with a 25 foot beam at the bow.  If you start dragging anchor in the middle of the night and you have room around you, the easiest thing to do is to let out more anchor chain.  To do this, you have to detach the bridal and let it fall into the water, but you need another one to attach once the anchor has reset.

• a waterproof bag - for wet dinghy trips

• charts - we need charts for the Boston area.  The ones we have now run out after Cape Cod.

• BBQ gas - we ran through one bottle of propane for our grill and need to pick up a spare

• diesel oil - for the engines - might be time for an oil change soon

The kids are running around the boat, busily playing some invented game.  I am constantly amazed at how well they manage to entertain themselves.  Yesterday, during our full day at sea, they didn't complain once.  We had the usual "when are we going to get there?" but Cassie's new game is to calculate our arrival time based upon our speed and distance remaining.  Then she will calculate how fast we need to go to get there in 30 minutes or 5 minutes!  Juliana loves to draw and will spend hours creating masterpieces with crayons and blank paper.  Guess I will need to stock up on that!  We had a call from Andrea, their old nanny and good friend, this morning and that is always a highlight for them.  Today is also Holly Cunard's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY!) so we are planning to call them once they wake up.  They are vacationing in Seattle now so we will have to wait a little while longer.  We would love to hear from you all, so please drop us a line from time to time.

Cheers!

Christy, Joe, Cassie, and Juliana

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