Rick woke up at 4:30, thinking about our trip back to Newport. Our plan was to go to Cuttyhunk and spend one or two nights there and then go back to Newport on Wednesday. Rick listened to the NOAA weather on the radio and it didn’t sound good. There is a hurricane, Franklin, off coast of Florida which will be generating waves and wind for us as early as Wednesday.
We talked about our plan. It would be a long passage back to Newport, maybe as long as 10 hours if the current wasn’t with us, so at 8:30 we needed to make a decision quickly (the charter contract prohibits sailing after sunset). The downside was the forecast said fog, thunderstorms and scattered showers were possible today. But the weather could be worse tomorrow, depending on what happens with Franklin. If we were going to Cuttyhunk we couldn’t leave until 11:30 because we need to time to trip with slack tide at Quick’s Hole. Kathryn didn’t think Rick could sit there until 11:30 worrying about it so we decided to go. The duration of the trip ended up being far shorter than 10 hours because the current was in our favor and contributed about 2+ knots to our overall speed, yet again. We didn’t put up the sails because the winds were less than 5 knots, very light, coming from behind us, which would have contributed nothing to our progress. We made it to the mooring in Newport by 4. We relaxed that evening. When we listened to the forecast upon our arrival we were glad we had made the return journey.
We are working on finishing our leftovers so we had dinner on the boat.
