Newport, Rhode Island bills itself as the “Sailing Capitol of the United States” and is where the America’s Cup races were held from 1930 until Australia won the cup in 1983. The area has additional significance to us because it is home to one of our favourite companies, KVH Industries, the supplier of our mini-VSAT satellite system. When cruising south past Rhode Island, we jumped on the opportunity to visit Newport and while there tour the KVH headquarters and factory.

Trip highlights from November 1st through 4th en route to and in Newport, Rhode Island follow. Click any image for a larger view, or click the position to view the location on a map. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at http://mvdirona.com/maps

11/1/2016

Marblehead Light Position: -70 49.30, 42 30.37 On leaving Salem, we passed the Marblehead light before entering Massachusetts Bay. The original light was built in 1835 of brick and wood. By the end of the century the tower was in disrepair and was replaced in 1895 by a new skeletal tower made of iron.

Crossing Track Position: -70 45.78, 42 23.92 We’re just crossing our track from Boston to Newfoundland three months ago. The blue box on the chart to our west is the effluent discharge area for the Deer Island Treatment Plant.

Cape Cod Canal Position: -70 29.65, 41 46.64 The video https://youtu.be/82pYJ5591J0 shows our southbound transit through the Cape Cod Canal with a 2-knot ebb current. Our northbound trip (https://youtu.be/WmvYcxMXLg4) earlier this year took us an hour at slack water. With the current in our favor, this trip took only 40 minutes and we had to slow down several times to avoid exceeding the 10mph canal speed limit.

Mayflower Position: -70 42.87, 41 41.31 We anchored for the night in Sedge Cove with good protection from the southwest winds that were coming up. As we were exiting the Cape Cod Canal, we heard commercial boats on the radio asking if the Mayflower was passing through the canal. And soon after we’d anchored, there it was, being towed south to Mystic Seaport for a 30-month restoration. We were lucky to have seen it in Plymouth earlier this year.

11/2/2016

Pitch Position: -71 11.43, 41 26.04 20-knot southwest winds are generating tight waves that is producing a fair bit of pitching motion (pitch graph is at center of 4th row).

Masts Position: -71 19.88, 41 28.92 A cluster of very large masts dominate the sky as we approach Newport, Rhode Island. The town bills itself as the “Sailing Capitol of the United States” and is where the America’s Cup races where held from 1930 until Australia won the cup in 1983.

Newport Yachting Center Position: -71 19.03, 41 29.11 Moored for a few nights at Newport Yachting Center. This is a fairly central place to explore Newport from.

Madeleine Position: -71 18.96, 41 29.20 Even though it is late in the season, this is the sailing capitol of the US, so sailboat charters are still going out. The skipper of the Madeleine has a tight squeeze getting in and out of the berth.

Newport Shipyard Position: -71 19.32, 41 29.35 A large number of yachts and super-yachts, the majority sailing vessels, were hauled out in the Newport Shipyard for repair. This photo shows all three of their Travelifts: a 70-ton, a 100-ton, and a 500-ton. Even their smallest could easily handle 55-ton Dirona.

Trinity Church Position: -71 18.78, 41 29.24 Trinity Church was completed in 1726 and similar in design to Old North Church in Boston.

11/3/2016

Chain Counter Position: -71 19.04, 41 29.08 Our chain counter stopped working shortly after we changed the windlass gear oil. We were convinced the problem had to be related to that job, but it turned out to be just in independent failure and replacing the control unit fixed the problem.

The Black Pearl Position: -71 18.98, 41 29.18 Lunch outdoors at the Black Pearl. The weather was a little cool, but still warm enough to sit outside.

11/24/2016

Marble House Position: -71 18.38, 41 27.74 During the Gilded Age around the turn of the 19th century, dozens of opulent stone mansions were built on and near Bellevue Avenue in Newport as “summer cottages” for the America’s richest families. The fifty-room Marble House, built for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt at a cost of $11M ($285M in 2016 dollars), was among the first constructed.

11/3/2016

KVH Position: -71 17.47, 41 31.30 At a factory tour of one of our favourite companies, KVH, the supplier of our mini-VSAT satellite system. Read more …

11/4/2016

Interview Position: -71 19.04, 41 29.08 Nancy Martineau and Chris Watson from KVH stopped by Dirona today to interview us on our experience with KVH and our impressions of the factory tour. We’ll post a link to the interview when it is available.

Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map, with the complete log of our cruise. On the map page, clicking on a camera or text icon will display a picture and/or log entry for that location, and clicking on the smaller icons along the route will display latitude, longitude and other navigation data for that location. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at http://mvdirona.com/maps.