We Flew to Providence, RI and took a high speed ferry to Newport, RI for our cruise on the Arabella. The hurricane Isabel,
was racing to the Cape Cod region. It arrived in Newport about the same time as Jane and I and caused a delay in our cruise.
We spent the first night aboard the Arabella as scheduled after taking a narrated sightseeing tour of Newport harbor. Instead
of sailing toward Martha's Vineyard the next day, Isabel had different plans for us. She had produced heavy seas and Sandy,
the captain of Arabella, decided to wait a day while the storm moved out of the area. We were treated to a tour of "The Elms" ,
a turn of the century mansion built by the king of the American coal industry; Edward Berwind. We then toured a local Newport
vineward and winery in the afternoon. That evening, we had our first wine tasting aboard the Arabella. (This was a wine tasting
cruise and we tasted wines from around the world each evening).
The next morning we sailed to Martha's Vineyard off of Cape Cod. The seas were still quite high from Iasbel so we hit
the dramine and fought with our breakfast that morning. We arrived at Edgartown that afternoon and toured Chappaquidick Island and lightouse. We had dinner at a local restaurant and wine tasting back on the schooner.
We sailed to Nantucket Island the next day and seas were calm. We took a tour of the island and saw a large number of the
original houses. Dinner at another local restruant and more wine back on ship. The next morning we sailed to Cuttyhunk
Island west of Martha's Vineyard picking up more rough seas from the back side of Isabel. We walked to a high point on
tthe island for a view and then back to the harbor where we had a wonderful New England lobster bake with plenty to eat and
drink. That evening found us back on ship for our last wine tasting. The next morning we sailed back to Newport and spent
the rest of the day looking around the area with a drive to New Bedford and the Whailing museum. We stayed at a local motel
and Tammy, Jack and Brooke met us the next morning. We all took a tour of the Breakers, Vanderbelt's Newport summer home.
Tammy took us back to Cheshire and we flew back to Denver. We would certainly recommend, Newport, Cape Cod and the
Islands as a must place to see.
