Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

NEWPORT – Bobby Doe had to pay $8 per gallon of gasoline last night so he could complete a 635-mile passage from Bermuda to Aquidneck Island, alone in an 18-foot dinghy, powered by a 9.9-horsepower outboard motor.

The 66-year-old Bermudian adventurer left St. George’s late Saturday afternoon aboard Huckleberry, a modified Bermuda dinghy. It was powered by the tiny four-stroke Mercury outboard.

A boat builder and commercial fisherman, Doe made the passage to raise awareness and money for the Lady Cubit Compassionate Association, a charity that helps pay for medical care. The group helped him pay for care in a Boston hospital last year after he suffered a serious heart attack. Soon afterwards, he said, the charity lacked the money to help one of his friends in need of a kidney transplant. “I had to do something,” he said.

Doe was also trying to prove that the dinghy he built was seaworthy, safe, and economical. He had 60 gallons of gasoline, but had planned to use only 30 gallons.

From the start, however, the wind was on the boat’s bow. Crossing the Gulf Stream, the wind quartered on the bow so he could increase speed, but he faced 20-foot seas.

“We were airborne at times,” he said. “You would be up in the air, then BANG! You’d think you were getting a minor concussion because your brain would rattle around.”

Sometime during the voyage, one of the fuel tanks began to leak. Doe was unaware of the leak because his cockpit’s forced-air ventilation was so efficient, he couldn’t smell the gasoline.

Doe reckons he lost 10 gallons.

Resting in still air at the Newport Yacht Club, Huckleberry stank of gas.

-- Journal outdoors writer Tom Meade

>> Continue reading: With stop for gas, Bermuda adventurer lands in Newport

Bermudian Bobby Doe at the dock in St. George's

A Bermuda boat builder, described by his daughter as "a bit of a rebel," is nearing the end of his 635-mile trip from Bermuda to Newport in an 18-foot skiff, powered by a 9.9-horsepower outboard motor.

Bobby Doe, 66, who tried and failed to make the trip once before, left Saturday afternoon and is expected to arrive in Newport today, burning about 30 gallons of gasoline. At 1:35 this morning, the satellite transponder aboard his boat showed him to be about 45 miles south of Martha's Vineyard.

Tina Barnard, one of Doe’s daughters, said he plans to make the return trip with the fleet of sailing yachts competing in the Newport Bermuda Race, starting off Castle Hill Friday afternoon.

In 1980, the native Bermudian built the 72-foot yacht Christian Venture, now called Rock Steady, and sailed it around the world, said his daughter.

“He walks his own path,” Barnard said. “If there are two roads to choose, he’ll make a third and take that one. He’s a bit of a rebel.”

Doe tried to make the 635-mile voyage from Bermuda to Newport last October. Half way to his destination, he was forced to turn back when he hit foul weather and the Gulf Stream simultaneously.

He suffered a heart attack in November and had to be flown from Bermuda to Boston for treatment.

On this week's passage, he is trying to raise awareness and money for the Lady Cubit Compassionate Association, which provided the funds for his hospital care, said his son-in-law, Chris Barnard.

To follow Doe’s progress, click here.

-- Journal outdoors writer Tom Meade

Someone is hiding nail-studded boards on a sandy road that runs through a disputed stretch of beachfront in Westerly and Charlestown, which leads to the western side of the Quonochontaug Breachway.

Todd Fiske, a landowner there, says his sister Lisa drove her car over one of the hidden nail traps, and she blew out a tire. “I’m just fortunate that my daughter didn’t step on it,” Lisa Fiske said.

Investigators found 10 boards with 3-inch nails concealed in the road, according to Lt. Michael P. Longtin of the Rhode Island Environmental Police.

The incident was revealed during a public hearing on a Department of Environmental Management proposal to ban parking on state land at the end of the road.

Before any action is taken, however, a leading DEM official says his agency is trying to resolve the access dispute in Westerly’s Weekapaug neighborhood by getting landowners to negotiate and compromise.

The disputed sandy road runs from the Weekapaug Yacht Club -- where a guard is posted during the summer -- to the state land on the western side of the Quonochontaug Breachway in Charlestown. Along the way, it runs through property owned by individual families and by organized groups. From Memorial Day through Labor Day, the road is closed to everyone except landowners.

>> Continue reading: Hidden nail traps planted on disputed road