July 13-18                             North Kingstown, Rhode Island

We were delighted to have Nicole, the captain of the 70’ sailboat come onboard for Happy Hour.  Nicole is a tall, tanned beautiful woman who captains and cares for this magnificent sailboat for its owner, a prominent PI attorney in Atlanta.  He generously provides his staff vacation experiences on his yacht and Nicole orchestrates these events.

Until a few years ago, her primary profession was on the stage as a dancer.  She then became an aerial dancer (think Cirque du Soleil).  This evolved into devising a dance performance on the tall masts of sailboats!  She promised she would bring out her equipment and perform for our dock some evening before departing on her next cruise.

We engaged Bill the Diver to perform the annual cleaning of the bottom of the hull.  Barnacles attach to the props and shafts and cause real problems (as we learned last year).  In addition, he replaced the zincs (another necessity in salt water) which provides protection from galvanic corrosion (look it up).  Very, very important.  During his four-hour submersion, Bill surprised us by bringing up our dock cart, lost days ago in the high winds that swept our area.  We quickly canceled the ordered one and saved $350.00!!

Sunday was a lovely, sunny day and we drove to Hartford, Connecticut to visit the Wadsworth Athenaeum, one of the oldest art museums in the United States.  The 90-minute drive was mainly routed on state highways through small villages and towns.  Roadways in Rhode Island are banked by lush, green forests, few signs and NO litter.

The Wadsworth is housed in a mixed assortment of architectural styles (some dictated by wealthy patrons) from Gothic to Ultra-Modern.  The interior, due to recent remodeling, is striking, beautiful and offers delightful surprises throughout its maze of rooms and corridors.

From its inception in the 1830’s, the Wadsworth has benefitted from numerous and generous gifts of art and money to its endowment fund.  A $1,000,000 gift in 1928 (when $1,000,000 was REAL money) has provided the means to acquire more than 400 art objects.  J.P. Morgan, the noted financier had close familial ties to Hartford and was a major donor to the museum.

The collection is varied with exceptional displays of silver, porcelain, paintings and sculptures from medieval to modern, decorative pieces, coins, etc.  Something wonderful for everyone!! The Caravaggio painting of St. Frances is one of the finest in the United States and was the first to enter a museum collection.  Salvador Dali was given his first museum exhibition in this country by the Wadsworth and several of his works are displayed. I was surprised to see an unusually colorful painting of poppies by Van Gogh.  After three hours, we reluctantly left to make the journey back to the boat.