Boating season Summer 2011

The season started in early June and Oasis was still wrapped in shrink-wrap when we arrived in Wickford.  It took us 6 weeks to get Oasis changed over to 110 volt AC, add a new refrigerator and microwave, and number of small jobs.  Dorothy spent most of the time painting the whole boat--top to bottom.  We stayed at the La Quinta motel in Warwick and were happy to do so when several days went above 90F.  But, we gave that up and moved aboard when we found that it was too easy to stop work and go have an air-conditioned time-off the job. 

Sarah and Andy came on Father's Day and took us out for a meal at our favorite restaurant by the tidal stream in Wickford.  This time I shmoozed the hostess into a stream-side table mainly because an old boyfriend's name was Hal.  Wickford is really a special town to us.  There was an Art Festival the 2nd weekend of July with about 250 exhibitors.

We were launched on July 7th but didn't get away from the docks untiil the 13th because of strong winds out on the ocean.  The first day we were up early and got away before daylight was fully established, rounded Point Judith and got into Long Island Sound in time to check-in to the Brewer yard in Mystic, CT in the late afternoon.  The next day we made it to the CT River and up to the Brewer yard at Essex in time for Sarah and Andy to come down for supper, which we ate at a lovely little restaurant back down by Old Saybrook, check lifted by them, again.  We spent 2 more days getting to the eastern suburbs of New York, another Brewer yard at Port Washington.  This was a good place, we thought, to go through New York in one day.

The day we chose was a Sunday which was a dumb idea because every idiot who knew how to start his boat was on the East River.  We had the worst bouncy ride, ever, until we got to Hell Gate and turned up the Harlem River. We chose the Harlem because we could avoid all the heavy shipping around the south end of Manhattan Island and besides we had done that before in Sea Quester and with Ruth and Jerry on their way to a Maryland marina.

Transporting Oasis to the U.S.

At the end of August, 2010 we took Oasis to Rotterdam for shipment to the USA.  There was a high degree of professionalism by the crew from Seven Star Yacht Transport based in Amsterdam,  We were lifted by a crane on the ship and lashed down on the aft deck next to a sailboat that was also going to Newport, Rhode Island.  The ocean passage took longer than expected because it ran into Hurricanes Danielle and Earl.  Even though Oasis was lashed down near the rear of the freighter the tugboat was covered with salt.  A crew member told me that waves came over the steering cabin that was in the front of the ship and covered all the boats front to back.  Dorothy's paint job suffered some damage.

As you can imagine the trip took longer than expected--4 days extra--and arrived in Newport with a thoroughly exhausted crew.  Unloading was delayed a day because the US Coast Guard made the crew run through a fire drill and a mock escape from a sinking ship.  We saw the ship come to anchor 3 miles north of Newport at a designated anchorage.  A nearby boat yard was used as a base for the RIB that ran back and forth with boatowners , the pilot, Customs and the Coast Guard.  The Customs Inspector told me that all was well with our paperwork and we should have no trouble entering the US.  Also, we had a nice boat.  As we were unloading a phone call came to the Load-master that Oasis was impounded until a question by Customs was resolved.  Some damn bureaucrat decided that we might be a working tugboat and should pay more Import Duty.  At the end of the day we were told that there was no problem and we were released.  By this time Small Craft warnings came up for Narragansett Bay and I was too timid to cross the bay with those conditions.  So, we were held up 2 days and shelled out $225 for two days moorings.  Rhode Island Prices.  Ugh!  Dorothy delivered me early the 3rd day and I zipped across the Bay in quick time to Brewer's Wickford Cove Marina for winter storage.  We did some painting and other prepartion for a survey by Bill Coble, a lovely guy.  Boat US required the survey for insurance by them.

The inland waterways of Europe are an irresistible destination for anyone who wants to widen their horizons. The sheer size of the network (France alone has twice as many navigable miles as Britain), the fascination of working barge traffic, and of course, the countryside these waterways pass through--taken together, exploring the Continental waterways could be a lifetime's work. Indeed, we have been at it for 30 years and still not visited every canal and river in Europe, even though we have been on most canals from the south of France, through all of Belgium and onto the North coast of Netherlands. One of the summers, when we had our motorsailer, we went through northern Germany, a lot of Denmark, the west coast of Sweden and spent 2-weeks on the Telemark Canal in Southern Norway.

But, do you need a large boat for Europe? In many eyes, Dutch barges and French peniches are the craft most associated with European cruising. In fact, most private boats on the Continental waterways are small boats under 15-meters (49ft). Just as in the USA, there are more and more people cruising and that can make for a difficult situation when looking for a mooring if you have anything over 15-meters. More and more marinas and town moorings are prohibiting boats over 15-meters. Our 10-meter tugboat has no problem finding moorings and big smiles are on the faces of the men of the capitainerie at the Bastille marina, near the center of Paris and one lock above the Seine River.