Manhasset Bay, Long Island, NY
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Thu 27 Sep 2007 23:32
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40:49.586N 73:43.597W
Last Friday (9/21), we motored (no wind) another
40ish miles down the rest of Long Island Sound and found a very nice place to
anchor in Manhasset Bay, Long Island. Four states (MA, RI, CT, NY) in
four days - again, not bad for a sailboat.
I hate to say it, but this was the first time that
we were actually somewhat bored. There really wasn't much to see - we were
in the middle of the Long Island Sound, so couldn't see much of either
shore. It was nice and hot, but also hazy (or maybe it was the smog as we
approached NYC?) so even if we were close to shore, we couldn't see much.
And we were motoring, which is always a bit on the boring side. Only three
events worth mentioning happened. Well, hardly worth mentioning, but I'm
low on material here.
First, the Bridgeport, CT to Long Island
ferry passed us (picture below). Really not much of an event,
but there was nothing else to take a picture of that day.
Second, as I've written in a previous blog posting,
when on a boat, any change in noise is alarming - whether you are motoring or
sailing. So, you can imagine our alarm as we motored along and suddenly
heard a really loud hissing sound, like 1500 balloons letting air out all at
once. Immediately we thought, 'It's the engine!' or 'A submarine
is surfacing right beside us!' (could happen - we had seen those 2 subs the
previous day), or 'A heat seeking missile is headed right for us!' (could happen
- there are all those military related contractors in Connecticut working on new
fangled weapons). But no, it was none of those things. Our sorry,
worn out, slightly dilapidated, sad looking dinghy was strapped to the
deck behind the cockpit, and because it was so warm out (a good thing, by
the way), the air in the dinghy must have expanded, causing one of its seams to
burst. So the hissing sound? Yup, it was our dinghy self
destructing. I suppose normal people might have been upset. After
all, a new dinghy will run us about $2500 (Or 2.5 'boat units', which is the
boater's common measure of currency). But it was just so funny we started
laughing. We found our imploding dinghy to be fairly hilarious.
Besides, we were going to buy a new one anyway and our sad dinghy had a long,
almost 15-year life - it was time for it to go. I imagine we wouldn't have found
it to be so hilarious if we were in the dinghy when it decided to self
destruct.
Third, on our way to Manhasset Bay, we passed Hart
Island, which is located in the very west end of Long Island
Sound. Hart Island is very small - about 3/4 mile long by 1/4 mile
wide. This island is better known as Potter's Field - where as many as
600,000 poor unfortunates have been buried. Hart Island is not open to the
public. Who would want to go there with 600,000 poor unfortunate ghosts
crammed into 0.2 square miles anyway?? Sorry no picture. We skirted
around the island fast.
Last, as noted above, Manhasset Bay is quite
lovely. Once again we were surrounded by mansions - one of them is
pictured below. Between Manhasset Bay, Cohasset Harbor near Boston and
Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard, we are definitely starting to feel like the poor
country cousins peering in on the rich and famous. In Edgartown, there was
a particularly large mansion with a boat named 'Come on Down' docked in front of
it. We wondered if it was Bob Barker's? Maybe he decided to take up
boating upon his retirement.
Anne
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