Based on the forecast we decided to get Fram Jr. running early in the morning. We got up at 5 am and got back to the dock and our boat – finding her still dry and tight! Just as the sun rose in the horizon half an hour later we navigated out of the sheltered harbour and into open waters. Clear skies and sunshine. We headed over towards Newport on the mainland – hugged the coast line of Rhode Island eastwards- watching all the great estates side by side offering a view back to old America.
Outside Point Judith we stopped the engine – time for a soak! We were still in our woollen sweaters and hats from the morning chill, and it had somehow passed us by that it was by now a warm summer day with strong sunshine and now wind. We all got into our newly developed swim shorts and dove in. Colder waters on this side of the Atlantic – that’s for sure. So we were quickly back on deck – soaked in salt, reborn and now soaking in the sun.
Engine back on – the good old FM always kicks in at the first turn – we continued towards Fisher’s Island in the state of New York. As we got closer to the Island the favourable tide we had been riding for 9 hours had gradually turned against us. The average of 6 knots we had been doing during the day was now down to 3 knots… This became very visible as we passed a buoy and we felt like standing still. We had already filled up the last fuel tank and suddenly it hit us; we have not figured out how much gas the FM consumes. We opened up the cover and dropped down a wooden stick into the tank for measuring. About one centimeter of the tip of the stick was soaked in fuel. Maybe we had another 10 minutes of fuel?
Aunt Margie’s house was a typical New England coastal home with wooden shingles and white window frames. Inside though was more inspired by Africa and safari which gave us a flashback to our last field test adventure on dirt roads through Botswana. She showed us upstairs with our luggage and spacious house offered a separete room for all five of us; Erik, Tee, JC, Alex and Jorgen. After a great night with bbq chicken and Aunt Margie´s home-made sweet Habanero Sauce (which she by the way had gone into production with and we all agreed to take in and sell through our brand store to come in Oslo!) a GT and a few glasses of red wine we distributed ourselves into each our room and fell quickly asleep after 13 hours at sea.
