40:37.6N 73:34.5W

 

Originally we were going to head right in to New York and spend a few days there, but that would have meant we would have to rush up to Maine, so we decided instead just to break our journey at the south side Long Island.  Long Island has a navigable inland waterway along the coast with various gaps through to the Atlantic.  We went through the Jones Inlet and up to the town of Freeport.  This involved negotiating our first “bascule” opening bridge.  It was rush hour and the traffic was streaming over the bridge, so it felt like a bit of an imposition asking the bridge operator to hold up the traffic for the ten minutes that it takes to open and close the bridge.  However, they will only open it on the hour every two hours, so the road traffic is not too badly impacted by yachts.

 

As we motored up the waterway and it got narrower and shallower we started to question the wisdom of coming in here.  Every boat we passed was a 30 foot cruiser rather than a 50 foot sailing boat.  Finally we came to our chosen mooring, the Guy Lombardo marina.  The marina was un-manned but we managed to tie up at a slip near the entrance.  It was lucky there was a slip near the entrance available because we would not have fit anywhere right inside the marina.

 

I am sure Freeport is really nice when the sun is shining but right now it is cold and rainy and Andrea wants to know why I have brought her to a swamp.

 

Finally we have to post a retraction on our article about the Sea Eagles in Sarah Creek.  As Karsten (Gunvor XL) pointed out “The picture you posted was of an Osprey, also called Fish Eagle or Fish Hawk. It is its own species. You are not alone in calling it a sea eagle, the Greeks did so too.”

 

So we were wrong about the eagles in Sarah Creek, but we are pretty sure that what we saw here in Freeport is a crane.

 

 

This is a marsh, not a swamp

 

Andrea did like the Freeport concept of a one-stop shop for your marriage requirements