September 17, 2017 – More fog accompanies us all the way to Newport. It’s an eerie feeling to see a radar blip that tells you through the AIS (Automatic Identification System) that a tugboat is crossing 400 yards in front of us and to peer into the fog and not see it. Tony takes Emmanou into his home port and I enjoy the view of the fancy boats hanging out in Newport from the Portuguese Bridge when the Harbor Master storms up in his launch to tell me to slow down. A thousand apologies later we slide into Casey’s Marina, owned by Tony but run by the eponymous Bill Casey. We negotiate a good cash deal for the docking and this becomes our home for the next six weeks – walking distance to Broadway, Bannister’s Wharf and Thames Street with all the fancy restaurants and bars. We become regulars at the Black Pearl where Jane’s nephew Jack doles out mudslides – heavy on the dark rum – an excellent way to start any evening – and host a string of visitors: Zhach and Myles, coming in from Colorado for Columbus Day weekend, with Stephen Graff (best friend from Elementary School), a lightning overnight visit from Cody Buchhalter (ski buddy from Mt Snow), Zhach’s girlfriend Alex and her parents, Jeff and Sara, Jonathan and BettyAnn Nettlefield, Ben Smith and Anya, with their dog, Roxy, on their year-long cross country caravan trip, Rich and Lori Caplan (Mount Snow), Rich Lemmerman (old Wharton buddy) and his posse of Masters of the Universe, Dave and Yvonne Masson (old Shell hands), and a host of Tony’s friends and family. Emmanou proves to be a welcoming party boat ready to take visitors on a harbor cruise at the drop of a hat.
Also found time for some repairs with help from Zhach.
And with October drawing to a close and the weather windows coming fewer and further apart, we leave on Thursday November 2nd even though Friday was a better weather window – it’s bad luck to leave on a Friday…