July Meeting on the Water at Fort Wetherill - July 15, 2024

Launching  at Fort Wetherill

During the summer, RICKA’s monthly meetings are replaced with “Meetings on the Water” – paddles that are intended to get people together who might not normally paddle together, or get people out to venues that they might not normally paddle. For our July “Meeting on the Water” we decided to step it up a bit with a trip out of Fort Wetherill in Jamestown.

Fort Wetherill is a former coastal defense battery and military base located on the granite cliffs across the East Passage from Newport and Fort Adams. Shortly after the Revolutionary War, Fort Dumpling was built on this site to protect this strategic access to Newport Harbor and Narragansett Bay.

Clingstone - the House on the Rock

The site would eventually become Fort Wetherill - part of an extensive coastal defense battery that included Fort Greene on Point Judith, Fort Greble on Dutch Island, Fort Hamilton on Rose Island, and Fort Adams in Newport that protected Narragansett Bay during World War II.

Today, Fort Wetherill is a state park and a favorite of RICKA sea kayakers. They will often head north to the Dumplings for easy tide race play, or they will head west to enjoy rock gardening along the southern shore of Conanicut Island, or they head east to the Castle Hill Lighthouse and from there around Brenton Point for more rock gardening and coastal touring.

Cormorants on the Dumplings

Our trip would not be that ambitious - just a short trip around Bull Point and past the Dumplings into Jamestown Harbor. We met at the at the Scuba Diving Lot at 6:00 to unload out boats and gear. After introductions and the safety talk we headed out of Fort Wetherill’s West Cove and into the open water of Narragansett Bay.

The wind was from the south and there were waves rolling in as we headed west through the cut-thru and around Bull Point. We stayed close to shore as we headed north along the fishing pier. The tide was going out, so we avoided the tricky tidal currents flowing out of the Dumplings.

Newport Bridge is in there somewhere

The Dumplings is a collection of boulders at the southern end of Jamestown Harbor. The most prominent is Clingstone or the "House on the Rock". This massive post and beam home was built in 1905 and has been recently restored. I am always amazed at the number of birds that gather on the Dumplings.

From there it is an easy paddle around Jamestown Harbor. There are usually great views of the Newport Bridge, which spans the East Passage of the Narragansett Bay from Newport to Jamestown. Unfortunately for us, fog rolled in just as we were launching, and the bridge was obscured in the mist.

Pulling in to East Ferry Beach

The Newport Bridge was completed in 1969 and is the longest suspension bridge in New England. The main span is over 1,600 feet long, and the road deck is more 200 feet above the water. The towers themselves are over 400 feet tall.

We took a short break at the East Ferry Beach in Jamestown. The original plan was to stop for an ice cream that the Sugar Shack on the pier, but with the fog we decided to head back early. We broke out headlamps the boat lights for the trip back to Fort Wetherill.

The crew at East Ferry Beach

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