Boating Around Narraganesett Bay, Rhode Island

Castle Hill and Castle Light

What a perfect day for our visit with Rick's old New York Maritime College buddy.  Dick has lived on Conanicut Island since he was a boy and has been plying these waters most of his life. He very generously took us out on his 22' Century center console boat, the Potato Chip, for an extended tour of Narragansett Bay from Jamestown to Newport and beyond.

Conanicut Island, also referred to simply by the name of it's only town, Jamestown, is an island in the middle of Narragansett Bay. To its east is Newport, the well known playground of sailors and musicians. Our tour took us around the bay between Jamestown and Newport.

This day is a story told by boats, which of course made Rick very happy. He and his buddy talked boats all day. I know next to nothing about boats, but I took a lot of pictures of them.  There were lots of different kinds of boats, as you will see.

Our first boat of the day was the launch at the Clark Boatyard and Marine Works, which took us from the dock out to Dick's boat where it was moored just off shore.

We picked up sandwiches to go from Spinnakers (excellent place) and had our lunch out on the boat, complete with potato chips, after which our vessel was named, being enjoyed here by Rick and Dick. 

Of course we saw hundreds of boats at the marina, but here are a couple of colorful kayaks paddling  by Clingstone, a house on the rocks in Narragansett Bay. We saw quite a few kayaks during the day.

As you can see the water was beautifully calm; nice for motor boats and kayaks, but not so sweet for sail boats. These guys were getting towed out to where the wind was a little stronger. Later in the day the wind did pick up enough for plenty of sailboats to get out on the bay.

Our tour took us south along the shores of Conanicut Island and then across to the shore south of Newport. We saw several tugboats, this being one of the larger ones, but none of them were towing at the time.

As we slipped by some of the larger homes south of Newport, Dick pointed out this cute little launch. He seemed to be trying to interest us in buying a boat. Imagine that.

We also passed pretty close to the Nantucket lightship. Lightships are rare now-a-days, and this one is not used for its original purpose, which was to act like a lighthouse, but floating in the water where one is needed, rather than on shore.

As we passed Newport proper, we got to see plenty of grand yachts of all sorts...

...and fishing boats, some of them very large, like this one.

...and some very old, like this one. (This is still a working boat BTW.)

Here's a particularly nice wooden boat, originally a working tug, but transformed into a yacht.

And here is another classic old luxury wooden yacht, for sale. 

Hmmm, you think they'd take our RV for this???

We continued north past Newport marina and under the Claiborne Pell Bridge that connects Jamestown to Newport on Aquidneck Island. What a gorgeous day.

The nautical highpoint of the day was chasing down and getting a closer look at Angels Share, a luxury superyacht designed by Wally Yachts, seen below from the deck of the Potato Chip. Wally is a boat designing and building company out of Monaco that specializes in over-the-top designs. This one was all black, and looked kind of science fictiony. Dick called it Darth Vader. Fitting I think.

Here's a closer look. Note the crew of about 15 guys all dressed in black. also check out the reflection of the water on its black hull. Very cool. 

Of course the day wouldn't have been complete unless Rick got to pilot the Potato Chip for awhile. 

You can see how he liked that:

Thanks Dick for a great day! 

We also got to see Newport and Jamestown by land during our week here, and I hope to get a post up about that tomorrow.