Ship-Shape & Bristol Fashion

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We awake to light drizzle in the morning so we stay at anchor until noon when The Captain (that is, me) begins to get antsy. And the forecast is for afternoon sunshine, so we fire up the engine.

The anchor is well dug-in, so we use the engine to break it out. A good sign for future visits. The anchor comes up clean. A sandy bottom with no weed. Nice.

It takes us an hour to run across the sound to the Bristol harbor entrance. We are followed by a 150-foot ocean-going mega-mansion. Jana asks “Where is she going to anchor?” We guess that the answer is “Just about anywhere the captain wants.” There is plenty of water in Bristol’s outer habor and just a few well-marked obstructions. (But when we leave the next morning, we see that, money being no problem, the owner has decided to pay for 150-feet of dock-space at the Herreschoff Museum.)

We head North into the inner harbor, which is a mile-long narrow sock-shaped bay with the toe of the sock to the North and Bristol Marine near the toe. The town of Bristol is on the East side of the harbor. In the past ten years, quite a few million dollar condos have been built or renovated on the Bristol waterfront. But if you have real money, you probably prefer to live on Popasquash Neck, which forms the West side of the harbor. Many of the homes here are twenty-room mansions with six acres of manicured grounds leading down to the waters edge.

We call up Bristol Marine on the radio and their launch comes out and leads us all the way across the mooring field before showing us to a mooring almost on the town shore. With Jana driving, I pick the mooring line out of the water on the first try. It is reassuring to find that we have not lost the knack, especially as we are driving a different boat this year. Our mooring is almost in the toe of the sock, so it is very quiet here, with not much activity. This inner harbor is primarily a very attractive boat parking lot with perhaps a thousand moorings.

After our tiring journey ... :-) ... we hang out for a couple of hours before doing anything active. Bristol Marine is on Popasquash Neck and it is a three mile walk into town. But our $40 mooring fee includes launch service and the launch driver is happy to pick us up from the boat and drop us on the town dock, just twenty paces from the DeWolf Tavern, our favorite eating place in Bristol. The sun as promised has come out, so it is shorts and t-shirt weather. The only thing I need to remember is to take my hand-held VHF radio with me so that I can call the launch driver for the trip back.

The chef at DeWolf’s is Indian and, while most items on the menu appear “conventional” many dishes come delicately spiced. And he makes a delicious Nan bread, which we sample. For our main corse, Jana and I share a large filet of Cod which comes with interestingly spiced vegatables and, to add a touch of decadence, a generous addition of lump crabmeat. This is truly fine dining. The interior of DeWolf’s is one large and very attractive room. The bartender assures us that it will get busy this evening but we are dining in mid-afternoon and the wait-staff outnumber the diners. The bartender too has time on his hands, so we share our thoughts on good places to eat in other ports up and down the coast.

Downtown Bristol is a very attractive little town with real local character. This summer Saturday, it is quite surprisingly unbusy, the only active place being the waterfront itself. After our lunch, we take a short stroll around town. We are just 15 miles north of Newport but the crowds that visit Newport every summer week-end do not know that this place exists ... and they do not read this blog ... :-)

I am now publishing these blogs a few days in arrears. Which means that I can add a note at the end of each blog telling you where we have in fact been for the “next” few days, like this ...
Sunday, Aug 4 - Brewers Sakonnet Marina
Monday, Aug 5 - Conanicut Marine, Jamestown
Tuesday, Aug 6 - Cuttyhunk Pond

Blogs from these places will follow.

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