Arriving back on Block is one of my favorite things in the world. I always look forward to our time here, even if this year it’s unusually short. We arrived to find another club member already on the HYC mooring, and while we normally would have rafted up, the wind was blowing 20-25 and they weren’t home. Given the way their boat is set up, it would have been incredibly difficult to tie up to them in a strong breeze without them being there, so we chose not to try. All the town moorings were taken, plus the private moorings were all assigned as well. That left the anchorage, which was packed. The only spots we saw were 50+ feet deep. As we were hunting for a spot, Harbormaster drove by and asked if we were all set, so I mentioned we were just looking for a spot to anchor. They pointed us to a spot right on the edge of the anchorage – we’d dismissed it because we knew we’d overhang the “no anchoring” zone. Someone in a Pearson 32 tried to swoop in and take our spot, but Harbormaster hung around until we dropped the hook. I got some serious side-eye from our friends on the Pearson, but sorry (not sorry) dude, we were there first.
With just about 36 hours on the island, we did our best to make the most of it. We celebrated our arrival with a dark n’ stormy, and Jack joined us on deck for sunset.
In the morning, Aldo’s ran out of stuff before they even got to our end of the anchorage, and we wasted half the morning waiting for them. But it was nice to just relax in the cockpit for a while, and Chris was able to get in some time on his paddleboard (he and a seal were checking each other out). When we realized they weren’t coming, we headed in to pick up our shellfishing licenses and get donuts at Payne’s Killer Donuts. We also made a brief stop at Dinghy Beach with the intention of walking the beach on the east side of the island, but it was far too people-y, so we headed back to Windara to get our stuff together for quahogging.
Spending an afternoon quahogging has become one of our favorite things to do on the island. It’s meditative to spend a couple hours just digging around in the sand with your toes, and it’s a good opportunity to see some interesting sea life (flounder, whelk, crabs, horseshoe crabs, and lots of little fish). The water was surprisingly warm – warmer than I remember it being in years past. We didn’t find as many quahogs as we have in past years, but we still got enough to make a light dinner. I also tried paddleboarding for the first time – I didn’t try to actually stand (it was pretty windy/wake-y), but kneeling I was able to at least start to get the hang of paddling and making the board go in the general direction I wanted.
It wouldn’t be a trip to Block without a mudslide at The Oar, so we got cleaned up and headed to a very late lunch in the Adirondack chairs overlooking the harbor.
We capped the evening with a quick walk on Coast Guard Beach (I had to at least make a quick try at hunting for a glass float – no such luck), a beautiful sunset, and a breathtaking red moonrise as we enjoyed our quahogs over linguine in a beer broth in the cockpit. Listening to the bell on red “2” at the entrance to New Harbor, I was reminded just how much I am meant to run on island time.
Island time was far too short, but I think we did a good job of hitting the highlights, and I’ll take what we got over nothing at all.
