We left Block Island Wednesday morning, in fog as usual. We motor-sailed for a bit, then set sail. The fog finally lifted and we were having a beautiful sail, but then we were hit by a squall. We got the sails down in time, but didn’t get our foul weather gear on fast enough, so we were totally drenched – a freshwater shower whether we wanted it or not. After the initial burst of wind, we were able to set a bit of jib to keep moving in the right direction, but not so fast as to run into the next squall that was passing in front of us this time. We wound up doing the rest of the trip under jib alone, right up to Onset. Things were a bit tense the last couple of hours, as the entire state of Massachusetts was under a major thunderstorm watch. Of course that didn’t stop two yacht clubs from having Wednesday night races while we were simply hoping to get in on time. Luckily we dropped the anchor with 20 minutes to spare before the lightning strikes started. More luckily the storms were north and south of us, but moving east, so we never got hit, despite the sounds all around us.

Thursday was spent doing laundry, downloading Netflix movies over restaurant wifi, and provisioning. Friday required another small laundry run (gasoline splatters during the last of the cleanup from the outboard dunking), but also got us lobster mac & cheese at Trip’s favorite lunch stop.

Squalls