HYC Cruise Day 5, July 29 -- Noank CT to Block Island RI -- 21 Miles

Calm conditions grew windier in spots between our 9 am departure and arrival at about 1:30. Blast passed us as usual. Our sails were up but not helping much. Tide was helping though. We heard from Bennett on "Ohana". He had left the Harlem at about five pm the night before and motor-sailed through the night;  he was only a few miles behind us.

When the winds filled in and strengthened we turned of the engine and sailed the last hour, including through the cut into the new harbor of the Great Salt Pond, making 6.5 knots. Maybe not the safest way to enter a crowded channel but thrilling. 

We were fortunate enough to capture an available chartreuse mooring, about fifteen seconds after a departing boat dropped its pennant in the water. And Ohana rafted to our port side.
Here is how the rest of the fleet is arranged in Block: North Star and Shanghai are on their anchors, and Blast is wedged into a tiny dock space at Payne's Marina. Good job Ernie!

Ohana's dink is not holding air so we used mine and efforts to find the hole have been unsuccessful so far. I took Bennett's three guests (niece Laura, her husband Rolo, and his son Chris) to shore -- to get snacks. While there we met most of the crew of Blast, after their lunch at the Oar. Then I took the three of them across the pond for a beach landing, so they could walk across the narrow spit and swim in the ocean from the beach just north of town.

A problem: while landing the three folks in the small surf,  the dink's painter got caught on its prop. When I put the motor in forward, it shut down. And I couldn't tilt the engine up to unwrap the painter from it because its ability to tilt was constrained by the painter. What to do: row! But let's just say that inflatables do not row well, especially into a stiff wind. If you put your back into it, the pads holding the oarlocks are likely to rip off. So I'm making about two inches per stroke and have the best part of a mile to go. Plan C: hitched a tow from a friendly power boater with wife and small dog in his dink. When we got to his boat, about a third of the way to ILENE, and secured the dink to his boat with my spare line, he cut the painter with his knife. We were then able to tilt the engine, unwrapped the line from the prop and I was back in business! Back at ILENE the new painter was  installed.

The crews of ILENE and  Shanghai, with Bennett, went to shore for dinner and wandered to the restaurant at Payne's Dock. Food pretty good and not expensive. Waitress very friendly and helpful. And then the folks from Blast serendipitously wandered in and so there were nine of us.  No one goes hungry on a Harlem cruise.

Roger, Bennett, Marty, Ghennie, Ernie, Camille, Lene, Jennie and CJ

It was a windy night with high winds predicted for tomorrow so Shanghai elected to stay another day with the fleet.

HYC Cruise Day 4 -- Tuesday, July 28 -- Mattituck to Noank -- 35 Miles

Views exiting Mattituck

     

Yesterday I described Mattituck Creek as "scenic," so I added a few views taken on our way out. Tide was "up" so no depth problems today

North Star left first, headed for Block Island where we will join them tomorrow. ILENE left next and took this picture of Blast as she passed us.

The wind was from behind, but rather light. It provided only a few tenths of a knot to our engine speed. The biggest help was the tide rushing out of the Sound as we passed alongside its end, pulling us along. ILENE got about three knots at one point, making 8.5.

The posts from this cruise are being sent back to the Club and posted on its own blog. The Fleet Captain, moi, made a stupid mistake but fortunately a harmless one. ILENE and Blast had made reservations at Spicer's. However, in my mind, I was thinking of the Noank Boatyard, where the Club Cruise stopped in Noank in 2012. I remembered where the Noank Boatyard was and went there, despite PC Bruce advising last night that Spicer's was a long walk to Abbott's lobster restaurant, where we had planned to have dinner. Bruce was right; he usually is. So arriving off the Noank Boatyard I found out that I did not actually know exactly where Spicer's was. We had to go out again into Fishers Island Sound, go back east a bit and then North again to Spicer's. The detour was only about 1.2 miles. In this picture the pencil points to Noank Boatyard, the pen to Spicer's.

We asked to be berthed near Blast and they honored this request after a fashion as this photo from ILENE shows. A short swim away!

And yes it is a long walk to Abbots so we dined at The Sea Horse, located in Spicer's, the six of us from ILENE and Blast. Food pretty good. It was another quiet night. A bit of wind would have cooled things off. It is always cooler on the water but snuggled into slips it was hot.

Last Winter -- 230 Days -- A Compilation

Avid readers of this blog (are there any?) knew that this post was coming. It is based almost entirely on information contained in the 91 posts that described our activities during the period October 7, 2014 to May 26, 2015, compiled for statistical purposes.

We devoted about 1.5 months transiting from City Island, NY to the northern border of FL and the same amount for the return trip, with the remaining 4.5 months in Florida, almost two thirds of the 7.5 months total.

We made 85 passages. These took 89 days because a few were multi-day passages. This means 141 lay days. So on 61% of the days we just stayed where we were. The longest stay in one place was in Ft. Lauderdale, 17 days between five on our southbound and 12 on our northbound stops there. Though given the number of places we stayed in Miami (Miami Beach, Coconut Grove, and on Key Biscayne, all in Greater Miami, we spent 24 days there. And we stayed in many places only overnight, with the longest number of consecutive passage days being five, from Portsmouth VA south through the Dismal Swamp to Whitaker Creek, Oriental, NC.

The furthest ILENE got from City Island was Marquesa Keys, an uninhabited atoll about 25 miles west of Key West. This was 1063 miles (all miles are nautical miles unless otherwise indicated) from City Island, as the crow flies, for a crow's round trip of 2126 miles. But we can't sail as the crow flies -- over land -- and we made several side trips up rivers such as to Jacksonville and Washington DC. So our total mileage for the round trip was 3561.5 (equal to about 4095.7 land miles). Average mileage per passage was 41.9 miles, ranging from 268 miles for the first passage, from City Is. to Annapolis MD, to only 1.5 miles from an anchorage at the south east corner of Coconut Grove to the Coral Reef YC, in the NW corner. And the median mileage per passage was only 34. Of the 89 passage days, only 22 were outside, in the Atlantic, though another twelve were in Chesapeake (11) and Delaware (1) Bays, where, with a little luck, one can sail. All the other 55 passage days were in the ICW or on rivers, where sailing is an iffy proposition at best. In fact, the lack of opportunity to sail is the biggest drawback to Florida as a cruising destination as compared with Maine, the Bahamas or the Caribbean. And we were underway for 577 hours, thus averaging 6.1 knots of speed overall.

Destinations: by State:
New York.         1 (City Island)
New Jersey.       2. On the way back
Maryland.          9
DC.                    1
Virginia.             8
N. Carolina.      11
S. Carolina.        6
Georgia.             4
Florida.             31
This adds up to only 73 ports, rather than 85, and the difference represents arrivals in the same port for a second or third time. And significantly, 57 of the ports we visited were "new" ports to us, with the other 16 being places ILENE had visited on prior cruises. In my opinion a new port is many times more challenging than a return visit.

How did we attach to land?
Five nights were at sea - overnights, with no attachment.
Of the rest, 38 were on moorings, 89 were on our anchor, and 98 were at docks. Unlike the kitties who see docks as roaming opportunities, we prefer less docks and we could have had a few less dock nights except for rough weather in some places and the desire for electricity to get heat in others.  Our stops were as different and varied as a few hundred yards off the back side of Miami Beach in the middle of a bustling harbor, to quaint towns like Swansboro NC, and anchorages in tidal creeks where we saw no one and beside islands in the Atlantic such as Rodrigues Key. So it never gets boring.

Dining?
230 days makes for 690 meals. Altogether, 140 of them, about 20%, were taken off ILENE, some on other boats, some in friends' homes, but off ILENE. But we had the most dinners off - 88, and only 31 lunches and 21 breakfasts. Our grocery bills exceeded our restaurant tabs

Our ashore activities, in addition to cleaning, shopping, cooking, laundry, haircuts and the usual activities of life maintenance were many and varied:

The Annapolis Boat Show
Sightseeing by auto on Islands in the Chesapeake off the Eastern Shore
Stand up paddleboarding
Car tour of a proposed bike tour
Fast Ferry to the Dry Tortugas and visit to Fort Jefferson there
Evening lectures on Dorothy Parker and on the history of Miami Beach
Snorkeling from a catamaran on a reef off Key West
Concert  by band led by Cab Calloway's son
Power boat ride through Miami Beach harbor
Sabbath prayers at synagogue near Fort Lauderdale
Hospital visit to Lene's cousin Naomi with broken pelvis
H.S. Class Reunion (Lene only)
Radio controlled model sailboat racing
College graduation at St. Mary's College, MD, because we were there
Tour of monuments on the national mall in DC
Tour of the Capital building and the Library of Congress
One science museum
Twenty seven history museums
Six art museums
Six art gallery tours
Four maritime museums
Three hospital, doctor or vet visits
The Kennedy Space Center
Universal Studios
Two wildlife preserves
Three botanical gardens
Five beaches
Twelve movies
One ballet
Four live plays in theaters

Lene read 30 books and I read ten,

And the best thing about Florida is the number of friends who we met along the way. I counted 28 persons or couples who we had the pleasure to meet on our travels, several more than once, such as going south and coming back. Some we met both in Florida and at their summer homes in Maryland. Connections included family, grade school, college, the navy, work and of course, boating. Nine of the 29 are current or former members of the Harlem Yacht Club. None of our other sailing trips came close in providing access to people from home who you know.

HYC Cruise Days 2 and 3, July 26-27 -- Port Jefferson to Mattituck --29 Miles

Saturday night, Port Jeff Harbor was calm as a birdbath. PC Bruce later pointed out to me that the ferries run very slowly past the mooring field to avoid waking us.
Rain was predicted at about 11 AM on Sunday but it came at 9:30, fortunately while Lene and I were having breakfast in Toast. So it did not mar the funeral.
It was a hot day and I noted the strong wind from the west during the funeral which made it easy for Blast, North Star and Shanghai to make the eastward passage. Tively II tacked back to the Harlem and reported a peak sailing experience. Dan and Mary Jane have an imminent land vacation and could not remain with the fleet.
ILENE made the passage on Monday and the wind was not so great. We were underway from 9 to 2, motoring all the way and with the main up but not doing much good. Three times I put up the genny, but each time the wind soon veered too far directly in front of us, so it luffed and it had to be furled. Lene took the helm for about an hour and a half, while I went below.  Mattituck Creek is a scenic narrow twisty dredged passage to the basin where Strong's Marina is located. It reminded me a bit of the ICW, complete with shallow spots. Well we did come in near low. But the depth alarm that Selwyn Feinstein had programmed in for me at seven feet in 2006 beeped while we passed stretches as shallow as 6.3 feet, only about seven inches of water under the keel.
In Mattituck we missed Shanghai, because CJ and Jenny had gone ahead; we expect to see with them in Block Is. Bennett, with relatives, on "Ohana" also plans to meet us there.
Upon arrival on Sunday, the other boats here went shopping on Love Lane, Matituck's shopping district, enjoyed the pool and had a barbecue. After ILENE's arrival Monday we gave her a needed bath and filled our water tanks. We ran out, from the last fill-up in Washington DC many sailing days ago, and used bottled water to brush teeth and wash coffee cups. We joined the group at the pool and in the traditional Harlem barbecue.

Roasted meats and veggies and s'mores for desert. The wind ruffled the plastic table cloths that Diane brought along, but this was not a problem and as we dined the wind died down, letting the insects join us. Here is the fleet, from left to right (or from shortest to tallest) North Star, Blast and ILENE.

HYC Cruise Day 1, July 25, City island to Port Jefferson on Long Island -- 39 Miles

Every cruise  has some boats that try as they might, just can't make it for mechanical or personal reasons. This year, so far, it has been Paul and Mary on "Little Jumps", a victim of the press of business. I use to be a slave to the law so I know. We will miss you.

The day was warm and sunny; well you know, pretty much the same as back in Eastchester Bay.

Mark and Marsha of "Leeds the Way",  spent Friday night in Oyster Bay to make a shorter sail today. They got to the mooring field of the Seatauket YC in the 2 to 2:30 time frame. As did "True North" who motored from the Harlem.

ILENE, left the HYC mooring field at 7:30 in a dead calm and put up the main for almost the whole way and one or the other or parts of both headsails for most of the way -- after a bit of wind stirred the surface of the water. So we motor sailed almost the whole way. The problem was that the wind was from the east, where all the boats were heading. Motor sailing took us from Huntington, Long Island to Norwalk, CT and back across the Sound again to Port Jeff, arriving a bit after three.

And that's why Leeds the Way and ILENE were the only ones able to enjoy the wonderful cocktail party that True North hosted, starting at 5 pm.

PC Mark, Marcia, Lene, Diane and PC Bruce. I'm the photographer and I kinda like the diagonal of the heads though this was purely accidental.

But we three were not the only Harlem boats here in Port Jeff. The rest just arrived too late for the party: PC Ernie and Camille and their guests, pc Marty and Ghenie, on "Blast", Dan and Mary Jane on " Tively II" and CJ and Jenny on "Shanghai" (who sailed with us and the Hermione on the Fourth of July).

Shanghai wins today's award for most intrepid sailing, not motor sailing but sailing. They had a long day.

Tomorrow, Leeds the Way and Tively II's schedules require them to turn back but the armada is headed for a two night stay in Mattituck, LI. Unfortunately, ILENE will be there with them for only the second night. A funeral for a dear friend's son means we will spend Sunday in a rental car, catching up with the fleet on Monday.

July 11-24 -- To The Departure on the Harlem YC Summer Cruise

Two days of shopping, cooking and enjoying a dinner at our house. Not a sailing activity except that Bennett and Harriet was one of the three invited couples.  Menu included a cold stewed stone fruit soup, salade nicoise and a linser torte ala mode. And all was delicious; if I do say so myself.

We spent a four day weekend up in the Berkshires during which the only remotely watery related item was during the second half of the Alonso King Lines Ballet Company's performance at Jacob's Pillow Dance Theater. The work was called Biophony and the "music" consisted of the recorded sounds of wild creatures from around the world. The third of the eight sections was called Mare Nostrum (Our Sea, I think) and was danced to the sound of "Ocean waves, humpback whales, fish and killer whales."  A stretch to relate this to sailing but its all I have.

A day of work: featuring the plastic cockpit enclosure panels, which were fitted together with snaps by Junior of Doyle Sails. I have left the aft three panels attached and rolled up at the top of the bimini, out of the way and ready to roll down. The two forward panels, which hang from the connector between the bimini and the dodger, together with that connector, are rolled up and stored in the aft cabin. I also topped off the seven batteries which drank about a quart of distilled water and made arrangements to get the lettering for the "licence plates" for the dink. And some cleaning -- four hours total.

Lene and I sailed one lovely Sunday afternoon for about three hours with Christine and Heather, the young women who were with us in Miami last winter, followed by dinner with them at the Club where I came to appreciate how talented our caterer is. I hope we Harlemites can eat there with guests often enough this summer so Anne can make a living. We actually only sailed back, having motored to off Sands Point where the girls went for a dip in the sea. I did not lower the dink but loosened the band cinching it securely against the ILENE's stern so they were able to climb the ladder and slither up into the boat from the sea from under the dink. This worked fine in moderately calm waters though I do not think it could be done safely in big seas.

I went to the Club for the Old Salts event both Wednesdays, but the first of them we were confronted with the strong threat of rain and no wind. So while I enjoyed the food and the camaraderie, there was no sailing.

 But the other Wednesday was a peak sailing day, clear skies, little traffic and good winds in the teens from the NW. I sailed with Richie, his brother, and three of their friends, while Mark sailed four of the regulars on "Deuce of Hearts." And everyone came over to IWe went out into the Sound to the far end of hart island. And everyone came over to ILENE for the after-sail libation. This was our largest outing of the summer so far -- eleven participants. I will miss the next two Wednesdays, being on  the Club Cruise.

The last day before that Cruise I sailed with Anne and her friend, Janet. I tried a new experiment in dragooning crew or let's call them sailing companions: I put up a poster in the gym in our apartment house (300 apartments) offering a sign up sheet for free sailboat rides. I was taken aback at the underwhelming response and next time will do a better job of advertising. But we had a great afternoon in much the same wind as the Old Salts enjoyed, but a little less of it. My new friends were content to not experience the effect of the genoa so we moved slowly and they had a good time. I would say that we "beat" up Hart Island Sound except that beating somehow suggests stronger winds; so let's just say we "patted" up the Sound, and around. Some wine and then dinner at the Lobster Box because their hearts were set on lobster, which was not on our club's menu that night.

The Friday before the start of the Cruise was devoted to packing and transporting and loading the stuff for sixteen days away-- including the kitties and their stuff.
Well needless to say, we forgot a few things, including the Wifi device needed to right these blog posts. And the Club wants one per day for the Cruise if possible.

But we were there in the early evening and I was pleased to sail with Mike and Sandy (Old Salt regulars) and their niece, Alissa, aboard "Pas de Deux". We did no worse than and of the other ten boats that circled slowly near the starting line. This is because after a delay to wait for some wind to come up, the race had to be cancelled. But no one seems too upset by that development:

July 7- 10 -- A "W" Day, an "O" Day and a Very Short Day-sail on "Deuce of Hearts" with the Old Salts

I read an article in a sailing magazine of the Chesapeake last fall about how that publication tried to incentivize its readers to count their sailing days, as a means to increase their annual totals to a target of 100. As a part-year live-aboard retired guy, I soar past that target. And such an incentive is not needed for me because, as riders know, I've long been a compulsive counter. The article included days of "messing about in boats" toward the hundred. My own log has three basic categories. The largest number of my days are those on which I sail or sleep aboard or both.  "W" days are those on which I work on the boat but neither sail nor sleep aboard. And "O" days are for days of other sailing related activities -- off the boat -- such as hanging with sailing friends, visits to Maritime museums, club work parties or meetings and the like.

I had the most productive W day with Ed Spallina On Tuesday. Fresh water, Check. Cockpit VHF, Check. Inverter, Check. Port side hatch screen installation, Check!  All in four very low cost hours. Ed solves boat problems intuitively; he just noodles them until he finds the solution. And his price is a very small fraction of the price that, for example, Precision Marine charges. And in addition he does not charge for travel time from his home in Connecticut. Another thing: he does not mind and indeed enjoys the fact that I work with him and never makes me feel stupid for not being able to do it myself, as some mechanics do. Two hands are much better than one for many jobs, like the VHF radio: he held the wire in place at the breaker panel in the salon while I pushed the "On" button at the radio in the cockpit. If you want a good man, contact me for his number. Then I stayed two hours longer to put away many tools, vacuum the boat (including all the sawdust created by the carpentry job) and a proper washing of the dishes and pots from the L'Hermione trip which had only been salt water washed.  A very productive day, indeed. I was ecstatic over how much we got done. I can tolerate dirt, disorder and systems that do not work, but Alene is less tolerant.

The "O" day was for a visit the the Department of Motor Vehicles to register the new dink and pay the almost nine percent sales tax on her.

We had the shortest day-sail yet of the Old Salts. Six of us, including Marcia, whose boat is undergoing engine work, and Ray, Ritchie's brother, sailed on "Deuce of Hearts".  But we were underway for only about 45 minutes because visual observation of the clouds coming in from the NW confirmed by radar views on the phone wisely persuaded Captain Mark that we better get back to the mooring before getting drenched. Rain had been predicted, but such predictions are often false alarms. The passing front looked ugly but an the event it was not electrical and wind and precipitation were moderate. Better safe than sorry. The G&T was just as good as ever, in the cat's big partially enclosed cockpit.

July 3-4 -- Parade up NY Harbor with L'Hermione -- 60 Miles

The New York Times of July 3 had a full page article on the visit of The Hermione. (We learned that while we pronounce her The Her-my-oh-knee, the French call her L'Air-me-own.) A replica of the French square rigged wooden gunboat that ferried Lafayette across the puddle to help us win independence from the Brits. She visited Yorktown VA, where the original boat helped defeat the British resupply and re-enforcement fleet, thus causing General Cornwallis to surrender to General Washington, effectively ending the military aspects of the Revolution. We visited Yorktown on our way south and on our way north. Hermione is doing this as a good will tour, to remind us of our friendship with the French and making stops up the eastern seacoast to Boston. 

As Fleet Captain I put this out as a potential Club adventure and three other members joined us for the parade, though only two of us on  HYC registered boats. My friend since 1972, Marty, joined us at ten a.m. at the Harlem and we got underway at 11. But a failure of communication caused us to spend half an hour, drifting, waiting for "Shanghai," a Pearson 31, the other Harlem boat, with CJ and Jenny, while they had gone ahead. During the wait the NYC police burned off a vast stash of fireworks they had taken.

No problem once communications were restored; we caught up with Shanghai at about 90th Street in the East River, making great speed with the favorable tidal flow and engine.





ILENE, shown here passing 25th St.,used mainsail pretty much the whole way, but the wind was so light that except for a few puffs it mostly just prevented rocking.

 We anchored in Gravesend Bay, off the west end of Coney Island, Brooklyn, On the way we were passed by Gandalf 3, another Saga 43 out of Stamford, which I had visited to study its dinghy davit blocks before connecting ILENE's
Gravesend Bay is huge but exposed. But it's very near where the parade was to start and there was very little wind at night, so we anchored out on the flat in 17 feet of water, with 70 feet of snubbed chain. There is a deeper channel, 25 to 27 feet, closer to shore, so we stayed further off. Our new smaller stainless steel snubber hook was deployed and it works like a charm. Finally!

Having left at 11:30, we arrived at 3:00 and lowered the dink. You can't miss the spot, Toys R Us put out a big welcome sign. The boats to the left are among the four French flagged Beneteaus,  Waquies [the key for the last letter of the alphabet is inoperative] and hard chined aluminum sloops "dressed" for the parade with their signal flags. They came in after us and anchored far enough away from us. I had expected more boats.

Then came a few hours rest, except I used the time in an unsuccessful attempt to get the cockpit VHF radio to power up. It is so convenient and useful because VHF Channel 8 was used for communications during the parade, but we had to use the inside radio turned up loud.

A shared dinner aboard ILENE for the five of us: Lene, Roger, Marty and CJ. Thanks for your pictures Jenny!

Everyone had brought food that did not need to be cooked and the menu was varied and delicious, starting with a bottle of champagne and cheese provided by Shanghai. We were together from 6 to 9 before I dinked CJ and Jenny back to Shanghai and everyone had a good night's sleep. Jenny, became infatuated with our cats, and can you blame her.

Sunset under the bridge:

In the morning, mango- sweetpotato pancakes were on the agenda, sweetened by honey that we had, and peanut butter that Jenny brought, not that the pancakes really needed to be sweetened much. And I forgot the bacon as well as the maple syrup! And the final system to seemingly go down was the fresh water pump. I can hear it run but it is not bringing water to the tap. So the dishes were rinsed off in a bucket of soapy seawater and will be properly washed once order is restored.

The parade formed up: about a hundred boats at its peak, all at the sides and rear of Hermione once she turned at the start.

I felt bad that I had not yet purchased a new American flag and flagpole after ours went missing during our winter excursion. But marty wore a sweater during the parade which eased my guilt.

The leader had a fetish about arriving under the Veransano Bridge, and at the Statue of Liberty, at precisely pre-scheduled times

presumably for the coordination of a US Navy flyover by two jets, for the media and for fire boat blasts, center in next photo.

But this caused me problems because Hermione did not maintain the five knots speed over ground that had been the plan and was repeated via VHF. I had only the small jib up and engine but it is hard to go straight when you slow down to 1.8 knots and when boats are perhaps fifteen feet away on both sides of you. I should have furled that jib but no harm done.    Here is Shanghai:

 The other expected Harlem participants were Gene, not on "Chandi Nerissa", but on a friend's boat out of Stamford, which I did not see, and Rear Commodore Peter, not on "Annandale" but on Rick's boat, now in Jersey City who hailed us immediately after the parade formally ended. Several other Harlem boats rafted up in a rendesvous in Oyster Bay these days so there were plenty of guest moorings available.

I felt guilty for not having purchased a replacement for our American flag and pole, which went missing during our winter travels to Florida. But Marty assuaged my  guilt somewhat by wearing an appropriate sweater.

It was too early to go home when the parade ended because the tide in the East River and Hellsgate were adverse. So we drifted slowly down the Hudson from midtown to the Battery under only the small jib and tide.

The wind was down from the 15 knots out of the north that had faced us during the parade: still from the north but perhaps six knots. And a light rain was falling. When we reached the Battery Lene wanted to go home as soon as possible to see the fireworks from our roof so we did what was silly: we went up stream against the tide using motor, full main and small jib. Unlike the eight plus knots we had enjoyed on the way down, we made speeds that got as high as 4.2 knots, briefly, and as low as 1.1 knots at times.  But we were back on the mooring by 7:30, an hour before sundown. If we had waited two hours before starting, I think we would have arrived only fifteen minutes later, having expended a lot less fuel in the process.
A good time was had by all.

June 22 - July 2 -- Home Waters

We had a great Old Salts Wednesday afternoon aboard ILENE after lunch at the Club on one of the nicest sailing days of the young summer sailing season. A counterclockwise circumnavigation of Hart Island and west to the Throggs Neck Bridge before beating back to the Club in light NW winds for our G and Ts. Here is the gang, in the launch on the way back to shore. We have regenerated from four to seven so far this summer thanks to Mark who could not make it this time.

From the left: Richie, Mike, George, Morty (hidden behind George) Larry and Klara. The launch, I find, is the best place for group shots because our bimini and dodger screen out the sun for on-board shots.

When I learned from Facebook postings that "Volare", who we sailed with in the French West Indies, was on a summer vacation from New Bern NC to Nantucket, I private messaged them to stay at the Harlem and we enjoyed a delicious buffet dinner on Friday night -- for the racers and anyone else who might show up. The lads are excelling in High School after their year of home schooling aboard Volare.

                              Nathan, Andy, Lori, Roger, Lene and Aiden.
After dinner we took them  adults to Throggs Neck by auto to provision and obtain metropass cards to tour Manhattan the next day. Its the thing that cruisers love to do for each other; we have been the beneficiary of this custom many times.

Next day it was lox and bagels and mimosas and a lot more in our apartment in Greenwitch Village with Judy and Meridel, of Portland Oregon, who sailed with us in the Turks and Caicos. A fourth member of the "Spa" coterie with those two and Lene, is Norma, who, with  her friend, Harold, also came for brunch.

And by the way, my Mom died in Atlanta at the age of 100 years plus eight months. It was Dementia and her last six years were dreadful for her, being cut off from the life of the mind, her only organ that she treasured. She had prepaid her funeral 32 years ago when my Dad died and so all my brother and I had to do was fly to Fort Lauderdale and back for the short graveside funeral. Down and back in one day, a lot shorter than the time it took when we sailed there and back last winter. During the last six years, when her mind had become fully vegetated, I did my mourning for her loss and look upon her death as a release for her, not an occasion to be mourned. She would have agreed. Rest in Peace Mom.

A lovely albeit windless day of sailing, actually 90 percent motoring, with Dana from my congregation, her friend Bill, her two sons Charlie and Aiden, and her Mom, Susan, followed by Mom's birthday party for all of them and me at the Club. Same route as with the Old Salts with an excursion in past Orchard Beach to fuel up ILENE and in to Manhassett Bay to see Port Washington. I very much regret not taking a picture of Dana and Bill, but took one of them from a Facebook posting from another venue on a different day.

Here are the others in the launch on the way back to shore.

Love those smiles!