We started the season with Block Island, and we’re pretty well closing it there too. With building winds and seas, we had a raucous run from Cuttyhunk with only half a jib and still managing to top 6 knots. The seas were hitting us on the beam and growing, so it made sense to sit a day or two out in Block till they dropped again. That and the coming storms.

Ready to change the prop zinc

We started at the library for the requisite WiFi downloading session, meandered through town for a final visit, and then went back to our new favorite local Old Island Pub for lunch. We finished off the day with mudslides at The Oar, where we watched a few hearty souls braving the wind and the seas, come in for the final weekend of the season. Many of the island businesses shut down as of Saturday, so we had timed things nicely.

We did manage to finally meet Gerrett & Katrin on Balena, friends of Saphir. We had missed them when we were both in Cuttyhunk, but were now both anchored with a little more time in Block. They invited us over to their boat (this seems to be the season for us and Hallberg Rassys) for cocktails and we wound up spending a lovely evening aboard (the cocktail “hour” started at 4:30 and ended at 9:15!). We saw them quickly the next morning at the Farmers Market, and then we were off.

Or so we thought. Trip noticed something looked odd and asked for the bathyscope (a device that allows him to look directly below the surface without getting wet. It turns out our sacrificial zinc on the prop had completely worn away. The zinc’s purpose is to prevent the prop from corroding (a very expensive piece of equipment to replace). Unfortunately the zinc had not lasted the entire season as we had hoped. We dug out the wet suit, the dive tank, and Trip had to dive. Luckily we were in shallow water with good visibility and no chop. With it being so late in the season we also didn’t have to worry about crazy boat drivers speeding by. The zinc got replaced, Trip got a brief shower, and we were off.