Block Island, Day Two

 FIONA in the Great Salt Pond

06/12/02

    I had a nice sleep last night.  I woke up at 0745, to a breakfast of raisin bran and coffee.  We did a couple of things around the boat.  Eric tightened the steering chain and adjusted the bilge pump switch.  I detached the swim ladder and stored it under my bunk, while David cleaned up residual paint marks from the fridge top. 

   When time came to go ashore, we went to the VHF and hailed the launch, but got no response.  A fog had set in (it seems the only choices for weather in the Great Salt Pond are howling wind or pea-soup fog), so we could not see the Marine Basin dock to see if there was any activity.  We tried calling several times through the morning, but were always met with silence.  Frequently there would be periods of strange garbled noise on the radio, something communicating in a strange modulation. 

   Finally we gave up on the launch and decided to deploy the rigid dinghy.  I had to retrieve the boarding ladder I had just stowed beneath my bunk, then connect it and unfold it over the side.  We then went forward, unlashed  the dinghy, rolled it over, then attached the bridle to the staysail halyard.  Eric went to the aft cabin and handed up the "Seagull" outboard (which lives appropriately in the engine room) and the oars up through the aft hatch. 

   The Seagull is a very small antique-looking motor.  Eric purchased it in 1964.  It is quite a simple engine, with no gearbox.  You start the engine and it goes.  He had just rebuilt it over the winter and replaced the bevel gear, whatever the hell that is.  Parts are still manufactured for this engine. 

    We attached the motor to the transom of the dinghy and then lowered it over the side, keeping it pushed away from the boat.  Precariously, we all climbed down the ladder and gotinto the dinghy.  Eric went first and sat in the stern.  I got in second and sat in the bow, which turned out to be a mistake, as I am  the heavier of the three, and as such placed too much weight forward, causing us to be unnecessarily splashed on the trip.  David got in last and sat amidships. 

   We took the ride in and walked into town.  Eric was looking for acid brushes (small metal-handled brushes), but neither hardware store had them.  We continued into town and had lunch at Ballard's, then went by the visitor center and got a map.  We took a walk up Corn Neck Road all the way to the North Lighthouse at the tip of the island.  This was quite a walk, and by the time it was over David and I were having trouble keeping up with Eric. 

   When we came back from the North Lighthouse,  we went back towards town and stopped at the grocery store again.  David made a detour for a quick slice of pizza.  At the store, Eric picked up four apples, a carton of milk, a bottle of apple juice, and a loaf of bread.  When we came back to the dinghy, we all piled in (I was seated amidships this time) and Eric went to start the engine.  It started to go, then sputtered and stopped.  When he wrapped the starting line and tried to pull again, it wouldn't budge.  We then decided we would have to row, and since I was seated in the middle facing aft, I was elected to do the rowing.  We went to release the oar locks, which were held upside-down by clips (to facilitate stowing the dinghy inverted on deck), and one of them was stuck.  The clip had wedged down into the hole.  Eric patiently worked the oar lock loose, and we were ready.  I attempted to row us out, but due to my lack of experience at rowing and my knees getting in the way, was totally ineffective at moving the boat.  I got us back to the dock, and after being toungue-lashed for not being able to row, Eric and I switched places and he took over. 

    After struggling 20 or 30 yards against the typical Great Salt Pond wind, we decided we were having too much trouble making headway, as this wind had picked up quite a bit since earlier in the day.  We then turned around and went back to the dock again.  Eric was going to let David and I take the launch, which was running again, and row back to the boat himself, but David insisted on doing it instead.  So Eric and I took all the bags and left David to struggle across the harbor.  We got on the launch, whose driver was a dreadlocked, dead-head type guy who was extraordinarily polite.  We asked him if he could provide a tow for David and the dinghy, and he eagerly complied.  We came up next to David, who was clearly not having fun, took the painter and secured it to a bit in the middle of the launch, helped David into the boat, and continued on to FIONA. 

    After settling down, we had a belated happy hour with smoked oysters on squares of whole-wheat bread with mustard, which was quite delicious.  It was David's first time eating smoked oysters, and we found that he had also never eaten SPAM before, which delighted Eric.  After an hour we settled in to a dinner of spaghetti, with RAGU spaghetti sauce, enhanced with onions and chopped meat.  The weather report was calling for icky weather, with NorthEast winds, but we decided we would leave tomorrow morning anyway.  Tonight will be an early night.  I will try to get as much sleep as possible to be fresh for tomorrow.  I am quite excited, for this is the beginning of the real trip.