Continuing along our journey… About 3am, Bryan called out that the dinghy had broken free. It is a patched together rowboat with mismatched oars, named “Where’s Andy,” but very important to get from the sailboat to shore. We lost sight of it when we turned the sailboat around, but Bryan was determined to spend until daylight ooking for it,  as the chances of finding a small black rowboat on a large black ocean seemed small. Bryan dropped the sail and motored in a search pattern downwind while we shone flash lights on either side of the boat looking for our wayward friend. In about an hour Bryan spotted it. I maneuvered the boat in that direction while he snagged it with a long hook he had lashed together to the boat hook that afternoon to collect floating balloon trash as we sailed.
As the sun came up in the morning rounding Montauk Point, we caught a bluefish on the lure we were dragging. Then while I was at the helm, the dinghy came loose again and we repeated the rescue operation.
Finally we arrived in Block Island at about 9:15 AM. After a few small repairs including a leather sheath where the rope attaches to the dinghy and a couple hours rest, Bryan realized that we had dragged to the no-anchor zone. This was time to change to our new anchor that I had lobbied to get and finally won when we got our second patreon. Thank you Sebastien! By the time Bryan changed the anchor we were both awake so we decided to continue on to Cuttyhunk to get a little further from tropical storm Elsa while the winds were a broad reach. It was sunny but with 6-8 foot waves which on occasion splashed their whitecaps into the cockpit. As we were nearing Cuttyhunk we saw spidering lightning and a dark mass approaching from behind us. We were making good time so I was hoping the rain wouldn’t overtake us until we arrived at Cuttyhunk harbor. Sure enough, by the time we arrived there was thunder and lightning on two sides of us, but the rain patiently held off until we anchored. Then, fresh bluefish with garden vegetables and real sleep!

We’ll upload video footage on Monday, internet permitting, on YouTube.com/acousticsailing. If you haven’t already subscribed, that’s a good way to stay in touch.