Block Island - At anchor

The dinghy dock at the Oar House

It seems that there are still a few places that appear to be immune to the economic downturn. You wouldn't know there was any concern with the economy after a visit to Block Island. We dinked in this afternoon after anchoring at our usual spot (turn to port after the first green buoy) and there wasn't a single rental buoy free. Plus, there were at least as many boats anchored out as on moorings. The dinghy dock was packed as was the Oar House - no room!

Sunsets are always nice at Block Island

All was going well today until the outboard motor quit about 1/2 mile from out boat! Try as I may, I couldn't get it restarted and I paddled back (slowly!) to the boat. Luckily, I had headed into the wind to take the small waves head on to avoid splashes into the dink so at least we had the wind at our backs. It seems to be some type of fuel blockage (it ran fine for several minutes) so I cleaned the fuel filter which is part of the tank and put everything back together. Then we headed to the Oar House and reach the dinghy dock without incident. On the way back, the outboard died once again! This time we were able to get a tow so it wasn't such a long paddle. We have a 2 cycle Nissan 5 hp outboard that weighs only 45 lbs. A replacement 4 cycle weighs in at least 60 lbs for the same hp. On our trip down the ICW we will be out in the boonies for real and need a motor with absolute reliability (you can't paddle against a 3 kt current in a dink!) So we'll probably get a new outboard, we'll see.

Block is very calm tonight, like a lake and we plan on staying over on Sunday before heading out on Monday, hopefully to Cuttyhunk but that depends on repairing the outboard which I'll attempt again Sunday. Never a dull moment...