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Summertime is absolutely the best time to cruise the northeast. We are located out of Hyannis, MA and Newport, RI, home to some of the finest boating communities in the north.
Newport's famous deep water harbor hosted the America's Cup for many years and its waters have been drawing people to its shores since the 1600's. Although Newport is best-known as a sailing center, the ocean and surrounding areas of the island it inhabits (Aquidneck Island) offer the outdoor enthusiast many options to explore. Middletown, Newport's next door neighbor, is home to beautiful beaches, unspoiled nature centers and wildlife sanctuaries. Close to shore, many visitors are amazed at the variety of marine creatures swimming just under the surface. During the summer months, the Gulf Stream brings tropical fish our way, and it is not uncommon to see these brightly-colored fish swimming around in the 70+° waters off Newport's shores. In addition to the restaurants and bars offering nightly entertainment, Newport is home to a variety of music festivals. Each year Fort Adams State Park provides the dramatic backdrop for both the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals. In late July, the Fort comes alive with folk music for two days. Bring your blanket and cooler and relax to folk music all day on the lawn, just steps away from bustling Newport harbor. Many sit at their boat moorings for the day and listen to folk greats like the Indigo Girls from the cool comfort of the harbor. One week later, the famous JVC Newport Jazz Festival opens for a 3-day festival at the same locale. Since 1954, the Newport Jazz Festival has been entertaining people of all ages and is one of the oldest jazz festivals in the country, attracting such performers as Ray Charles and Natalie Cole.
A must visit in the northeast is New York's Long Island, the largest island on America's East Coast -- 1,682 square miles total. It extends 120 miles eastward from New York City, traversed by the notoriously clogged Long Island Expressway (LIE, or I-495) and encompassing two New York City boroughs (Brooklyn and Queens), congested commuter towns, the farmland of the North Fork, and the world-famous summer resorts of the Hamptons and Montauk on the South Fork. The seaside villages of the Hamptons, some dating from the 1600s, stretch west to east from Westhampton Beach to Amagansett; at the tip is the fishing community of Montauk. Both locals and the omnipresent rich and famous summer here, and they all come for what's possibly the nation's finest stretch of white-sand beach. Rolling farmland and vineyards, spectacular mansions and ranches, and blue skies and sunshine add to the allure.
Sitting 12 miles offshore, Block Island is an easy daytrip for boaters from mainland Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, and therefore attracts tens of thousands of vessels each year. Block Island is blessed to have a large waterbody at its center, the Great Salt Pond or New Harbor. On busy summer days the pond holds 2,000 boats or more. Block Island travelers enjoy not just the scenery, but also the island’s special demeanor. This is a place where families get together, and where overworked professionals relax. Shorts and t-shirts are acceptable attire in our finest restaurants; our phone numbers are exchanged with just four digits; and our homes do not have street addresses. “The Bermuda of the North” is an old but accurate analogy. Here, anyone can find deserted sandy beaches and ocean waters that turn a Caribbean green in summer light. Similarities to Bermuda aside, Block Island is New England through and through, as witnessed by the town’s architecture, salty residents, and vigorous politics.
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