We woke up to heavy fog. We couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces. It was also raining lightly. Again we felt relieved that we had made it all the way back to Newport.
We packed up some of our stuff this morning since we want to get as much as we can off the boat before it starts raining. Moving heavy duffle bags into a wet dinghy in the rain is miserable. Kathryn also spent some time looking for things to do in Newport.
We went ashore with the packed up stuff and loaded it into the car. Then we went to West Marine. When we were figuring out the GPS problems we bought some marine maps that we didn’t use and wanted to return. After our West Marine stop we went out to lunch at a Thai restaurant and it was delicious.
In the afternoon we went to the Sweet Berry Farm where we made several purchases. As we were driving around, we saw a lot of grape vines, so we wanted to go to a winery. We ended up going to Greenvale Vineyards. They make mostly white wines, and we had a flight of four different wines. While enjoying the wine, we learned that in Middletown there is a grape friendly microclimate, and the soil is gravely which grapes like. Grape roots can be as much as 20 feet deep and many of the grape varietals have been grafted to these deep roots. Of the four wines we tasted we really liked the Vidal Blanc which we found to be crisp and light. We don’t drink any white wine so we didn’t buy any. Here are some pictures from the winery.
After the winery stop we went to a glass blowing shop in Newport and Kathryn wanted to buy everything but we didn’t need anything so we just enjoyed looking.
We returned to the boat and relaxed. In the evening Rick had a Lake Lashaway meeting and then we had a dinner of leftovers.