We stayed in City Island for 3 nights as the weather
turned atrocious. We got absolutely drenched on Thursday walking into town
and then it turned cold and windy too and with fog! We got the winter
duvet back out again.
On Saturday there was slightly better visibility and we
went over to Oyster Bay on Long Island to meet up with Susie Too who we had
first met in Jolly Harbour, Antigua. We enjoyed two lovely evenings with
Suzanne and David - one evening on Susie Too and one on Alice. They left
to go further north. Oyster Bay was a lovely sheltered harbour, beautiful
anchorage and a very posh looking yacht club.
We stayed another day in Oyster Bay and then went round
to Port Jefferson, formerly a ship building port which had to reinvent itself as
a tourist town when the ship building declined. Andrew
was up at 02.00 for a thunderstorm, life jacket on, engine ready, high winds and
fortunately the anchor held and it all passed without incident.
Following that we anchored at Charles Island and went for a look around Milford
which had a lovely and long village green and was a town full of lawyers,
banks and funeral parlours. It was not however possible to buy a pint of
milk. Then Duck Island for Westbrook. The town was a long way
from the very busy river. Lots of marinas but not much else.
We then went over to the fish tail of Long Island and
Sag Harbor. We anchored out of the harbour with most other boats. I
did call the marina to ask the price but was told 5 dollars a foot a night (£180
per night) and they were FULL. So we anchored for free. ( Most
marinas are over £100 per night and not located near towns). The town is
in the middle of the Hamptons where all the well off New Yorkers go for the
weekend. It was a bit like Lymington and the homes looked
magnificent. As it was 4th July weekend the place was packed out.
Andrew was intrigued with the number of mercs, porsches, ferraris and more range
rovers than you would think had ever been exported! There was a firework
display on the Saturday. We had a great view as they towed a barge out of
the harbour and we could see straight across to it. Not as good as Cowes
fireworks though. We visited the Whaling Museum which was very
interesting. Thank goodness whales are not hunted that way here any more
and now we just enjoy looking at them. The old Custom House next door
was also worth a visit.
We then went round to Montauk at the very tip of Long
Island but went aground on the way in on mud and had to call out the tow
boat US. We were advised to join Boat US when we arrived in the States and
thankfully we did this - its a cross between the AA and Seastart. Andrew
had just said that we hadnt needed them and suddenly we did!! You should
never speak too soon and tempt fate!! A skipper from a super yacht
came to help and said he has already pulled 6 people off the same spot
this year so far! He keeps asking the harbour master to put in an extra
buoy but they ignore him. It was a falling tide, the tow boat
took an hour to get to us as he had to come from Mystic. In that time the
tide had fallen about a foot. It took 450 hp from the tow boat and 90hp
from the other rib pushing us to get us off. After that we decided to
leave the harbour and went across to Fishers Island on the Connecticut
side. We anchored and watched fireworks all round us celebrating 4th
July.
We are now in Mystic. Staying here for 3
nights at Seaport Marine. The first night there was a free concert on in
the adjoining park by the Thames River Big Band. They were great. We
spent the day yesterday at the Mystic Seaport Museum which was very interesting
and went back again today for a second look. One of the visiting boats was
the motor schooner Amazon which used to belong to Arthur Lowe and was in the
Solent for many years. Having been given a quote for $1000
dollars to polish Alice's hull we have been very busy doing it ourselves!
Looks great now that the Chesapeake Moustache has been washed
off.
Weather is lovely. Mystic is a
very pretty little town. Tonight we met Sidney
and Sandy, fellow OCC members who have sailed more than we could ever
imagine. Delightful couple.
