Mid July is traditionally the hottest weather in New England and for the last decade, we’ve loaded up the boat and headed for the Southern Islands to beat the heat.

This year, our first stop was Bristol Rhode Island, where we planned to check out the East Bay Bike Trail – a 15-mile rail trail that runs from Bristol all the way to Providence.

Unfortunately, Peter was under the weather, but fortunately (for me), Mrs. Horne can manage the deck work single-handed when needed.

I use Savvy Navvy to plan routes when I’m away from the boat and the app told me it was 62 miles from Onset to Bristol.

As a Safe Harbor member, I buy diesel at their cost – currently around $4.50/ gallon in Onset. Since we had no stops at any Safe Harbor on the Southern Tour, I filled all three tanks on Amazing Grace before we left.

This meant heading out with 10,000 pounds of diesel, which I knew would “cost me” about 2 MPH for the first few legs. 62 miles at 26 MPH meant a three-hour run, so we stayed on the boat Wednesday night to get an early start.

Like much of the Northeast, Onset was shrouded in a smoky haze from the Canadian wildfires as we loaded up the boat.

We headed to The Glen Cove for dinner…

The scallops were rich and buttery. The Orange Chicken is reminiscent of a lighter General Gao’s, it’s listed as a “Starter,” but it’s really a perfectly sized meal for one.

Thursday

Although the forecast called for 8-11 knot winds, there were no Small Craft Warnings anywhere in New England. I knew I could cut down the Sakonnet River if Rhode Island Sound got snotty, but I still planned an 8:30 departure to assure we’d be in one of the Rhode Island bays before 11:00 AM.

I fired up the helm around 8:00 and set the waypoint for Bristol Town Docks. The Garmin Autoroute plotted a course up the Sakonnet at 56 miles – six miles less than Saavy Navvy’s 62!

As usual, Onset was serene as we left the bay…

Buzzards Bay was decent with modest chop, but Rhode Island Sound looked like a lake as we rounded Sakonnet Light.

We hadn’t been up the Sakonnet since we bailed out of a storm on Vigilant in 2019 with Peter Mary Lee.

Thursday morning couldn’t have been more different. The ride past the pastures on the east side was epic. I forgot how pretty Tiverton was…

We arrived in Bristol around 11:00 and tied up on the south dock.

It was exposed to the southeast winds, but offered a splendid view of the bay.

Bristol is as accessible by foot as any seaside port we know. The Maritime Center sits on Thames Street – the main drag for waterfront eateries.

Prudence – FKA Judge Roy Bean Saloon

After a quick check with Yelp, I selected the Judge Roy Bean Saloon for lunch.

It’s a beautiful old-style bar and restaurant, although Mrs. Horne noted there was no exterior signage displaying the restaurant’s name.

We mentioned this to our server – Roman, and he told us they were in the midst of rebranding from a saloon into a more upscale establishment to be named Prudence.

From that point on we enjoyed a wonderful conversation with Roman from our classic bar seats.

My heart swelled when Roman told me JR Bean Saloon offered three different Hazy IPAs on draft, and he offered me a tasting of each!

I selected a local brew called Tiny Truck crafted in Portsmouth Rhode Island.

It was delightful!

The food, atmosphere, and conversation with Roman were wonderful.

By the way, before we left we captured the completed transition from the Judge Roy Bean Saloon to Prudence…

After lunch, we strolled around Bristol and did a little shopping.

Mrs. Horne decided we needed pedicures and booked us an appointment at the only 5-Star rated salon in town. Unfortunately, it was a mile up the hill from the waterfront. Even more unfortunately, she decided we should walk in the 82° humidity!

We needed time to cool down before our appointment.

That said, Star Nails and Spa did live up to their 5-Star rating.

Dinner With Tommy

We met Tommy in 2023 when we first moved to Safe Harbor Onset Bay. He was a dockhand and we instantly appreciated his dedication to his job.

He briefly did crew work for us before being promoted to Assistant Dockmaster. Along the way, we got to be friends with his parents and despite their moving to Newport, we’ve stayed in touch.

When I posted a video of us passing through Tiverton, he texted me to see if we were bound for Bristol.

We made plans to get together for dinner…

The Portside Tavern

There are a lot of restaurants on the waterfront in Bristol. As usual, I triangulated reviews and menus to select Portside Tavern as our pick for dinner.

Very hip with great waterfront views.

Of course, the Fiddlehead Hazy was calling my name!

Everything was great classic tavern food.

The East Bay Bike Trail

We visited Bristol to check out the bike trail, so at 10:00 I unloaded the bikes and planned a 20-mile run up to Barrington and back to Warren for lunch.

The first thing I noticed was how meticulously maintained the trail was. At times I thought I might have been in Disneyland!

The next thing I noticed was the signs. It would appear that the stewards of the trail are adopting the same stupid eBike regulations that are sweeping the country.

The problem with ebikes isn’t the size of the battery or the presence of a throttle. The problem with ebikes is 100% due to irresponsible parents who buy their underaged spoiled brats 50 MPH e-Motos and wave them goodbye as they terrorize their community!

Pretty much nobody owns a Class 1 eBike (750 watts, 20 MPH top speed, and no throttle). I sold ours – they are dangerous on hills when you need a throttle to stay up. I had two accidents on our Class 1’s both could have been avoided with a throttle.

We have four Lectric 3.0’s on the boat – very popular and affordable Class 2 bikes.

Over the course of our day, I noted all the bikes we passed. We saw about 100 bikes. Half were regular pedal bikes and half were Class 2 or 3 ebikes. We saw three e-Motos, but only one was misbehaving. We saw no Class 1’s.

If you want to make bike trails safer, post a speed limit, post NO WHEELIES, and enforce it. Impound the e-Motos and arrest the irresponsible parents.

The size of the battery and presence of a throttle has nothing to do with whether or not the rider behaves.

By the way, the other thing we noticed that was odd was “walkers left and bikes right.” I can’t explain why, but as soon as I got used to it, it actually made a lot of sense and I’d recommend all bike trail authorities adopt it.

There are a few shops along the way, but Mrs. Horne has to support a little girl’s lemonade stand❤️

Warren Rhode Island

Back in the 70’s, I skied at Okemo with kids from Warren, but I never visited it until Saturday.

It is a quintessential New England village with all the charm and none of the chain stores or restaurants.

It was lunch time and my research suggested a spot called The Square Peg.

Our bartender was a dead ringer for Vince Vaughn and of course, Mrs. Horne started calling him Vince.

Anyway, Vince suggested a hazy IPA called Dead Flowers from the Foam Brothers in Burlington Vermont.

Yet another outstanding New England IPA.

Mrs. Horne had a hankering for nachos and thankfully Vince mentioned they were huge.

They were fantastic. The chips were homemade the cheese was perfectly melted such that there seemed to be the right amount stuck to every chip!

After lunch, we left our bikes at the Square Peg and walked around town.

It’s really a nice place and well worth another visit. The bike ride home was only about 5 miles and once again, we were blown away by the beauty of this trail.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my new book – Murder in Mattapoisett (more on that in the future).

In Search Of Great Rhode Island Italian!

Providence is one of the major Italian-American centers in the Northeast (it’s rumored the Northeast mafia started in Providence).

The Providence mafia grew into one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the country. By 1954, notorious mob boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca took control of the entire New England syndicate and operated it for over three decades from his unassuming Coin-O-Matic vending machine shop on Federal Hill (The Mob Museum).

So imagine you needed to get out of town for a while to let things cool down. What better place to lay low than Bristol?

With that in mind, I researched the best Italian food in town and discovered SS Dion.

It’s a forty-three year old Bristol landmark with no ties to the mob, known for its seafood, but we went on a pasta-seeking mission.

The SS Dion

Although there are plenty of signs of recent renovations, the original bones still show.

I started with a glass of an excellent Willamette Pinot.

I have visited Italy many times, dined in Boston’s North End, and great Italian restaurants in NYC and Chicago. Without a doubt, these were among the two best bowls of pasta I ever tasted!

The pasta is homemade, each ingredient was perfectly prepared, and every morsel was bite-sized.

Perhaps equally notable was the price – $25 and $28 for homemade pasta with shrimp, sausage, and confit chicken is well below the typical price. And it was a large portion – we both brought home leftovers!

I have quite few reasons to return to Bristol, but these bowls of pasta will probably be #1.

We walked home along the waterfront and took in the gorgeous evening.

My evening bliss was interrupted when I started checking the marine forecasts for our 75 mile run to Old Saybrook Connecticut.

Small Craft Warnings were slated to begin after midnight and severe wind and thunder storms were moving in midday.

I told Mrs. Horne we should try and take off by 8:00 AM.

I woke up around 3:00 AM to the sound of waves slapping the hull. I eventually went upstairs around 4:30 and watched the sun come up.

It wasn’t quite “Red Sky in Morning, Sailor Take Warning,” but it was close!

We shoved off at 7:25 and headed to Long Island Sound.

Next Up: Old Saybrook…