20030928 - Cat and Daves trip to Block Island
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Point Judith where the ferry puts in.
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The hi-speed ferry boat in port
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The normal ferry - this is the one we rode on
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Fishing boats
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More fishingfolk at work
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More folks at work
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Fellow up working on his fishing boat
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Another fishing boat
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It was -very- foggy in the harbor
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More foggy picture shots
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From on the ferry, looking at cars loading in
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Getting ready to head out - the boat wasn't very busy
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A foggy trawler
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More foggy fishing boats
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Under way heading to the island!
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Cat doesn't like having her picture taken too much.
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Another pic over the side - we were hitting some good swells on the way
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The sun actually came out en route, and cat and I snuggled up as we got closer to the island.
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The fog was still over the land, so there were some great pictures of the north end as we got closer.
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More great pictures - this is the north-east side of the island
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Fog fog fog
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Looks almost tropical, doesn't it? The island isn't actually that lush, but this shows the eastern bluffs really well. Those bluffs are 100+ feet high
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Another look at the bluffs with the fog still on them
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This is the National Hotel, which is where Cat and I stayed for Saturday night
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Our first excursion on the mopeds was to the Southeast Light
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There's apparently a ton of restoratioiin work going on the roof and the framing for the windows.
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Cat looks out over Mohegan Bluffs
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Okay, that was such a nice shot, I had to take another one.
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My rock! Mine!
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One of my favorite pics from the weekend.
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[cat took this one] this is looking west along the south edge of the island, over 'Mohegan Bluffs'. Long story about that, ask someone who knows BI.
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Can I keep it?
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One last shot, I'm still a good 80' from the lighthouse. It's a big building.
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The block island airport! One for Dwight
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This is Fresh Pond, which, for the early settlers, was one of the only sources of, well, fresh water.
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There was a network of trails called the Greenway around Fresh Pond - I did some exploring.
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More pictures from the greenway. Beeeyootiful
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We shanghaied a couple who asked us to take their pictures, and they returned the favor.
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Right down on fresh pond
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More fresh pond
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Aaaand more fresh pond
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Flowers!
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More flowers
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Biker chick Cat.
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We stopped at The Oar for lunch, cat took some pictures of birds hanging out in the Great Salt Pond
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A look at Champlins Marina from the boat basin. During the summer, there are hundreds of boats around that dock.
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The Block Island Boat Basin main dock
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A neat little building by the Oar
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Inside the Oar - Somewhere in here should be an oar with my dad's name on it, but I don't know where.
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Another angle in the oar.
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Looking back toward Old Harbor
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Idyllic, isn't it?
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Champlins Marina - by far the largest marina on the island. This place turns into a madhouse during race week.
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When I was here when I was a kid, these buildings were not there.
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The inside of Ballards, quite the hot spot during the summer season. Patrick is playing the piano there, and doing a great job, though there were only 5-10 folks in the entire place. Good dinner.
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The National from the breakwater
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Cat and I walked out on the breakwater Saturday night, and cat snapped this picture...
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... and this picture of me sitting on the rocks
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Sunday, we rode out to the very north point. The road goes to within about a mile of the actual end of the island
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There was some -heavy- surf goig on
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More crashing waves
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The Northern Lighthouse - built in 1867 I believe
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It's a very isolated building - but has some wonderful feel around it
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The sound these rocks were making as the surf rattled back over them was -AMAZING-. Every wave would cover them, then it was like 2 dozen kids rattling their marble bags all at once.
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More heavy surf
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I hiked out to the lighthouse along the water (You can't walk on the dunes), this is looking back toward the parking lot.
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Aaaand more surf
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Some neat sand patterns
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Looking toward the nothern point, the lattice strucutre on the left is the 'new' lighthouse that has the fog horn and a light on it.
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More rocks. These are about fist sized, and a pain to walk on
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Getting close! Walking to this point took about 20 minutes
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Ahh, there we are. This building is used as an educational center during the summer, but was not open for the weekend. Theres a bunch of bricks around the outside of it with donors names on them
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Looking back south back onto the island
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These signs let folks know that walking ont he dunes could really damage them
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I'm north of the lighthouse now, looking back south. There's no buildings out here, just sand wind and ocean.
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Thats it! That's the end of the island. It's a sand bar that just peters out. Archeologists say the island is slowly moving north as sand piles up on this end and the bluffs at the south end slowly erode. There was some -fiersome- wave action going on as the ocean waves crashed into the currents coming around the island from the eastern side.
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A -lot- of birds lived up in the sand on the north end. I didn't disturb them, just took pictures from about 50' away.
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Hey buddy, you lookin at me?
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All of Block Island stretching out to the south.
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Waves off the north point
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Mort waves crashing together
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Crash!
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Looking down the west side of the ocean - if you looked far enough to the right, and it was a clear day, and you squinted, you still had no chance of seeing the far northern point of Long Island, about 30 miles away. But you could try!
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Back in Old Harbor, the waves were -really- crashing over the southern breakwater
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These brave folks set sail and headed out into the swells.
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Yup, spilling right over the rocks
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Sploosh
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More waves
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I have NO idea what this guy was thinking walking on the breakwater.
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more birds!