Day #58: City Island, NY

Dave, Harlem Yacht Club's dock master. 

Meet Dave, the Harlem Yacht Club's dock master.  He's been in the job for 10 years and got to see firsthand the devestation from 2012's Hurricane Sandy. The 14' storm surge flooded the whole island.  He points out the adjoining property's many bare pilings and says that it used to be a marina.  The small dock at his club faired better.  The remains of boats still litter the island's rock jetties.  Now the huge mooring fields around City Island make sense to me.  Mooring balls are much less expensive than a dock to install and less subject to damage in a blow.  

Sandy's high water mark.

Like a backbone City Island Avenue runs the length of the island and supports the many, radiating 'rib' streets.  Hard to believe this quaint little community is in the Bronx.

One of many cafeteria style restaurants.

Once a boat building Mecca--a winning America's Cup yacht was both designed and built here--the island is now home to many, large, cafeteria-style, seafood restaurants.   We had some very good fried shrimp at Tony's. This was the resurrected Tony's as the original burned down during Hurricane Sandy.

A repeat of yesterday's storms.

Port Washington, NY to City Island, NY

Happy to be tied to a strong mooring at the Harlem Yacht Club.  6 miles today, 1,235 miles into 2019 and 9,469 miles from Naples.  DBH

Day #56 & #57: Port Washington, NY

Rain, rain go away!  This photo was taken in the afternoon during one of the many thunder storms.  It was dark, windy and foreboding.

We returned to Port Washington ostensibly to reprovision.  In truth, the siren song of a free mooring and good restaurants may have played a role too.  Our first day in port was idyllic.  The second, not so much. We woke to wind.  Lots of it.  So much that our plans of leaving port were scrapped.  Good thing too.  Soon the wind was joined by a hard rain.  Then lightening.  Still, it's hard too complain.   This is the first really bad weather day in the last two weeks.

A daylong pummelling.

25 miles between Northport, NY and Port Washington, NY

We're safely esconced on a city mooring in Port Washington, NY.  25 miles in the last two days, 1,229 miles into 2019 and 9,462 miles from Naples.  DBH

Day #55: Northport, NY

A pretty sunset in our Eaton's Neck anchorage on Northport Bay.

A cruising boat requires constant care and attention.  Spending a few minutes daily on little jobs reduces the chances of a cascading failure--where one bad thing leads to another, which leads to another, etc.  Not all failures are equipment centric.  A bad decision can be a link in a cascade or even propagate one.  The thought of what could happen while changing a raw water impeller, in a hot engine room, while bobbing in a rough sea, is all the motivation I need to check things over when it's calm and there's time to think.

27 miles today, 1204 miles in 2019 and 9438 miles from Naples.

The SE winds made it a bit bumpy crossing  Long Island Sound.  By tacking we found comfortable headings and thus worked our way south to Northport.  We are now anchored behind a low sand spit named Eaton's Neck. The wind is calm and the scenery beautiful.  All is right with the world.  DBH

Day #54: Southport, Connecticut

Nellie held tightly in place by both bow and stern mooring lines in Southport's very narrow, current laden harbor. 

In our usual fashion, where to cruise next is a last minute decision.  Our hopes of staying along the Connecticut shoreline were being dashed by the advice of locals.  "Industrial" and "no place to stay" were their constant refrains.   ActiveCaptain, a cruiser's version of the Michelin Guide, mentioned that the Pequot Yacht Club in Southport, Connecticut accepted transients.  Knowing nothing more, we set sail.

Surprise, surprise.  Far from being industrial the Pequot Yacht Club was on a quiet creek across from the Country Club of Fairfield.  Surrounding us were million dollar homes.  In short, a more bucolic scene would be hard to find.  At $53 per night, which includes launch service and use of the club's facilities, it's an expensive mooring, yet a good deal.

Today's 12 mile OneWheel jaunt.

Southport adjoins Westport where, as a kid,  I lived for a few years.  It was surreal riding a OneWheel on roads that last saw me on a Schwinn Sting-Ray bike with a banana seat. 

Fifty years later the boy, with a new toy, returns home.

Safely esconced at the Pequot Yacht Club.  27 miles today, 1178 into 2019 and 9411 from Naples.

Day #53: New Haven, Connecticut

We wake to a foggy morning on the Connecticut River.

Look closely and you'll see a wake from the moored sailboat off Nellie's bow. The ebbing current is 2 mph.

Yale's Grace Hopper residential dorm.

While exploring Yale University we came across a residential hall with a familiar name. In the early 1980's a then nearly 80 year-old Admiral Grace Hopper spoke to a group of young, inexperienced officers at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. I was lucky enough to attend. She told us to challenge convention--memorable in itself coming from a senior officer. A computer pioneer with a forte in software, Hopper is credited with being the mother of COBOL. Handing each of us wires that were exactly 11.8" long, she explained, "That's how far light travels in a nanosecond." We were then asked to imagine how many of these nanosecond wires, put end to end, would be be required to reach a geostationary satellite. The answer, about 23,000 wires. She went on to explain that that's why satellite communications is relatively slow. The author Jay Elliot came up with a fitting epitaph for Grace Hopper: "'All Navy', but when you reach inside, you find a 'Pirate' dying to be released.

Nellie's crew in New Haven Harbor.

Shelter Island, NY to New Haven, CT

On a Pequonnock Yacht Club mooring. 41 miles today, 1151 miles in 2019 and 9384 miles from Naples.

Day #52: Essex, Connecticut

Meeting up: Teddy Bear 37VT15 and Nellie D. 37VT63 

Gunkholing, it really is a nautical term, describes perfectly what we're doing, e.g. meandering.  Today's destination, Essex, was selected last night after asking local boaters where they'd go next.  Essex, we were told, is both historical and quaint.  And so it is.  In the old days gunkholing sailors went where the wind blew.  They went without a schedule but with a goal of seeing something new.  That sounds like a great plan to us.

On a mooring in Essex, Connecticut.  36 miles today, 1110 miles into 2019 and 9344 miles from Naples.  DBH

Day #50 & #51: Shelter Island, NY

Mystic Village's bridge only opens once an hour.

The Race is a nasty bit of water even on a calm day.  I'd not want to traverse it on a windy day.

Long Island's Sag Harbor is full of million dollar yachts.  A slip here would only cost Nellie $310/night.   

Sag Harbor; around these parts, and by anybody in the know, the name is usually said in low tones and with reverence.  But  why?  Something is attracting all the mega yachts.  It turns out that the surrounding towns are the attraction.  Towns like  Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, and East Hampton Village.  The lightbulb in my head finally turns on.  Sag Harbor is the primary port for The Hamptons--summer playground to the wealthy.  No wonder it's chock-a-block with million dollar yachts.

Peter Reich, Teddy Bear 37VT15, escorts Nellie through the shallows and to his dock on Shelter Island's south side.

Nomenclature, especially for a sailor, is critically important.  Smyth's 700 page The
Sailor’s Word-Book defines 14,000 terms.  Why should I be surprised then when our land-based cousins come up with a few terms of their own.  All the way down the Hudson and out to the east end of Long Island we've heard locals talk of "The City." I'm thinking Oz.  They mean the Big Apple, New York City.  Now we're hearing North Fork and South Fork.  I'm thinking TV cowboy westerns, The Rifleman specifically.  They mean the eastern terndrils of Long Island.   By the way, Sag Harbor and The Hamptons are in the South Fork.

Safely tied to the dock at Peter and Loren Reich's, Shelter Island, NY.  37 miles in the last two days, 1074 miles in 2019 and 9308 miles from Naples.  DBH