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Summer Time!

We’ve assembled a guide to all that awaits, inside and (mostly) out, at the beach and in town, and whether your wallet’s feeling thin or thick. The sun is shining. The living is easy. Go have fun.

Photography by Chris Vaccaro

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Spending Spree

Go Fish

When you’re thinking about paying an expert to take you fishing—the surest guarantee of success in a sport that has none—there’s a basic decision to make.

Not the fish you’d like to catch, nor amount you want to spend. Not which companions to bring (and which are boringly immune to Dramamine). Not even which captain.

No, it’s this: Will you go inshore, offshore, or to the canyons?

Fantastic and easily accessible fishing grounds spread out south of Narragansett Bay, says Captain Don Ruth of Galilee’s Frances Fleet. Go inshore, and you’ll be out for a calm couple of hours, bottom fishing for sweet summer flounder and tender black sea bass. Offshore, and we’re talking a half-day or evening trip, drifting quietly until a fish strikes, bam!, and you fight a big, solid striped bass or ornery, oily bluefish.

And then there are the canyons of the Continental Shelf, seventy miles south of Block Island and seven hours’ steam away. Here, eddies of warm water break off from the Gulf Stream and swirl up to meet you, dark with Sargasso seaweed and explosive with rainbow mahi mahi. This monumental underwater escarpment is the place where charter clients spend the night stalking giant pelagics like marlin and yellowfin, dropping bait into water so clear they watch a glowstick down forty feet, dozing uneasily, waiting for a bite. Float a barrel of chum and hammerheads could show up along with the makos, reminding everyone whose element this is.

Guys like Ruth know the seasons, the tides, the currents and their secret spots: a cool hole close to shore where the stripers hang out, a far-off twenty-five-fathom ledge  where a six-foot swordfish got away. Wherever you go, you’ll bring home stories, and maybe some fish.

Book a private charter or join a scheduled trip on one of the Frances Fleet’s four boats. Rates start at $35 for a half day fluke fishing ($25 children younger than twelve); tuna charter, $2,500, twelve hours, fifteen people. 33 State St., Point Judith, 783-4988, francesfleet.com.
 

 Town and Country

Play turista close to home. It’s time to let someone else pick up your socks. 

Hotel Providence
139 Mathewson St.,
Providence, 864-8000
hotelprovidence.com


Environment: Euro-chic turn of the century boutique hotel.

Amenities: The Premier Suite, with living area, bedroom, small entertaining kitchen with granite wet bar and whirlpool tub. Cost: $699; rose petal
turn-down service: $15

In-house dining: Aspire. Tuck into the lobster feast: $64 each. Uncork a bottle of Dom Perignon: $250

Diversions: Since you can’t check in until 4, wander over to Tiffany’s at Providence Place and treat yourself to one of those darling kaleidoscope diamond keys on a diamond chain. Cost: $15,000.

Did you know: Tomgirl’s Savory City Tour, a travel group for the mildly adventurous, chose the hotel as its kick-off destination.

Total: $16,092

Stone House
122 Sakonnet Point Rd.,
Little Compton, 635-2222
stonehouse1854.com


Environment: Elegant, Italianate mansion once owned by a Civil War colonel.

Amenities: The Osprey Suite sprawls across the entire third floor and comes with a fireplace, dining area, parlor, two spa treatments and gorgeous views of Sakonnet Lighthouse. Cost: $1,245

In-house dining: Pietra. Indulge in the locally sourced, five-course, prix fixe menu. With wine: $120 each

Diversions: Play Donald Trump and sneak in an extra day for an overnight sail to the destination of your choice, with dinner and breakfast for two, aboard the inn’s fifty-nine-foot yacht Eclipse. Cost: $5,000

Did you know: The Stone House uses geo-thermal wells for heating and cooling and collects rain water to irrigate its kitchen garden.

Total: $6,485

Hey ladies, Surf's Up

Beginner surfers get hazed plenty by the ocean — and let’s not talk about turf wars among (mostly male) riders. What’s a girl to do? Hop a ferry to Block Island to learn in kinder company.

Sol Sessions is a six-day, five-night all-women surf and yoga program. Founder Sandra Gartland spent summer vacations here before chasing the perfect wave around the world as a surf instructor. She’s been doing this for five years, even providing a resident Mom (her own, a retired caterer who chefs for the group).

Participants and instructors live together at Summer Hill Estates, an 1880 farmhouse. Each morning dawns with a private Hatha yoga or Pilates session. Then it’s a morning work-out on the waves, a picnic lunch, and afternoon adventures: guided fishing, sea kayaking (sometimes mooring for barhopping), biking and hiking. There’s pre-dusk wine and cheese on the wraparound porch and cooking classes including sushi making.

Six-pack abs are not required. One seventy-five-year-old participant caught waves by staying on her belly. Exercise classes are designed to strengthen surfing muscles, while yogic calmness can be an asset when a big wave looms. Having ‘no boys allowed’ also helps — women want to understand the sport mentally before they dive in, Gartland says. And minus the male gaze, women are less inclined to mind looking like something the tide dragged in.

The week culminates with a lobster cookout on the beach. A bonfire illuminates the cobalt sky while the women hatch plans for their next surf safari.

The 2009 session is September 8 through 13. Cost is $1,800 shared room, $2,400 private, completely all-inclusive from your beach towel to sports massage; solsessions. com, 858-456-1666.