Wickford to Jamestown, ball

While the trip today was short (90 minutes) it was a little exciting. While in Wickford Russ replaced the belt system on the port engine, moving to a serpentine belt. Explanation to follow. This made the day a maiden voyage for the new drive, and such things are always exciting.

Winds were strong in the morning coming from the north. If you see the map, that's the one direction that would cause much wave action. Overall it wasn't bad, and once we made the turn southward on the other side of the island, it was on our stern, which we like. For the most part, the travel was uneventful.

About the belts: The port engine is also the engine that charges our house electrical system. We have big lithium batteries, and a big alternator that, when the engine is on, pumps them up. Within the first year of owning inQuest Russ upgraded to this beefier alternator. The consequence of that was the belt system, which had to be arranged to accommodate the new alternator. The result was, given the extra "oompf" needed to spin on the new alternator, belts started to break. We went through a bunch of belts on our first year of cruising until Russ found some he liked. However, they frequently squealed at some point until they were adequately tightened (expanding the wheels), and, given the physical space of the engine room, the engine, and the alternator, frequently couldn't be expanded too much. A serpentine system (I was told) would solve this problem, but no one made one for our engine.

Wickford has a tea house. So, we went.
Tea, scones, biscuits, and cucumber sandwiches!

Until a few months ago.

Russ bought a kit, which we carried with us since Baltimore, and worked on it this last week. He'd do something, realize he needed something more, contact the company, they'd over night the part, and he'd continue to work. Pretty much that's how it went the entire visit in Wickford -- he got at least 3 packages from that company (and from what I can ascertain, the company had never actually put one of these one -- I think we're the guinea pigs here). We didn't start the engine at all until Thursday, the day before we were going to leave.

All worked great.

On the moors amidst the rocks.

We get underway and (of course) it squeals. After the engine warmed up a bit we tried again and were able to run the engine and alternator for an hour. I was told later that this is typical for serpentine belts, and once it's broken in this will go away. 

Before taking a ball we wanted to pump out and get water (we really, really needed water). Called the marina, Clark Boatyard, and they told us their pump out wasn't working so use the town's free one. We did. It too didn't work. Moreover, the dock didn't have water, either.

Curious how they built this place.

We made our own water, thankful that we can. And we'll seek a pumpout when we leave here in a couple days.

Never a dull moment, even on the dullest of journeys.

Also (note to myself) this location is seriously wakey! https://photos.app.goo.gl/TGJRocpaYmMmgBTh7