Finally, a picturesque little mediterranean market with internet! Lee and I schlepped our laptops ashore through the drizzle in Manhassett Bay, NY. We picked up a free city mooring here this morning after spending last night in the disappointing City Island anchorage. There wasn’t much going on there, just the shoreline of the Bronx to look at.
I’ll backtrack along our journey here since a lot has happened since my last post. Before City Island we spent 4 nights moored at the Housatonic Boat Club in Stratford, CT. Lee’s friend Conor lives down the street from the club and recommended that we stop there. It turned out to be a great place to stay and welcome shelter from the strong winds over the weekend. There was a launch to take us ashore and Conor and Kristin generously shared their house and their shower with us. Conor drove us around on Saturday and helped Lee with some preliminary radar installation (the radar was delivered to Conor’s house before we arrived). We had some tasty meals and my mom came to visit on Mother’s day since she was in CT for a family funeral.
The sail to Stratford was pretty wild. We left Shelter Island, NY around 9am on Friday, playing the tides in Long Islands bays. After some ferries threatened to run us down we emerged into 20 knots of wind in the sound. We slowly reduced sail, starting with 1 reef in the main, then 2, then a partially furled jib, and finally fully furled jib and some engine power to keep us going through the sizable waves. We should have raised the solent at this point. It would have been perfect but I was feeling seasick and we were waiting to see if the wind would increase more, wince it had gone up to a pretty consistent 25 knots. Lee eventually rigged the solent but by that time the wind had subsided to below 20. I was feeling better in time to increase sail back to full main and full jib. We were almost to Stratford and it was dinner time so I took on my first serious meal prep at sea. I was pretty proud of my vegetable soup cooked on the gimballed stove. I even used the handy straps to hold myself next to the stove, which was on the high side of the boat. We were glad to arrive in Stratford and pick up a mooring just before dark.
Lets see, way back before that leg we spent a night in Sag Harbor, NY and then Shelter Island. Both are out on the end of long island where it splits and breaks up into various land masses. The Hamptons are over there somewhere. Both were pretty nice anchorages. Shelter island was kind of eerie in a deserted, immaculate suburb kind of way. We even swam in the relatively warm water there.
We sailed out to Long Island from Stonington, CT. I remember that being a relatively nice sail, although I think we eventually turned on the engine because we were making no progress tacking upwind against the tide.
Whew, all caught up. Tomorrow we make the run through Hells Gate and New York City, hopefully ending up at Sandy Hook, NJ. I’ll take lots of pictures! For now, here’s an album of our first few days sailing to Newport and Stonington.
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