July 2 - 4 -- HYC Holiday Weekend Minicruise to Cold Spring Harbor

So far this young summer I have been the Harlem's Fleet Captain, but without a fleet. Lene and I can cruise alone with the furry ones,

but a Fleet Captain needs a fleet, not an armada and not to command, but at least one other boat to worry about. Both the 16 day and the 9 day itineraries I had proposed had to be cancelled due to lack of interest. But this weekend four other boats joined ILENE in near perfect weather for the three day holiday weekend twenty miles from the Harlem.

With good winds from the NNW on Saturday, ILENE motored west, across Eastchester Bay until we could set the Genoa for a port tack and gave the motor a day off. We continued to carry that tack all the way except for one jibe about two miles from the anchorage (at North 40 degrees, 52.6 minutes;  off the west coast of Cold Spring Harbor's outer harbor). The seas were low and we briefly achieved eight knots of SOG with the wind just aft the beam. We covered the 20 miles in three hours with no mainsail. One thrill was creeping up from about three miles behind and eventually passing a Beneteau 47, which was flying her main and staysail. After being passed, she swapped her staysail for her Genoa, and then was able to keep up.

We anchored in about ten feet of water in a shallow bight in the west side of Cold Spring Harbor. The snubber was attached to the chain but was not needed. A problem occurred while trying to lower the dinghy. It is held in place by two strong ratchet straps so that the dink won't beat itself to death swinging behind the boat in rough seas. Well the ratchet device tightened up nicely when I hauled the dinghy up a few weeks ago, but did not want to release to let the dinghy down. Thoughts of a knife to cut the strap entered my mind, but a lubricant did the trick.
We were joined by Dan and Mary Jane on Tively II (31.5 foot C and C), Mark and Marcia on Leeds The Way (31 foot Hunter),  CJ and Jenny on Shanghai (31 foot Pearson)

above, and Dave and Chris on Lady Cat (28 foot O'Day) below.

Two mishaps befell Mark: his new eyeglasses fell into the sea, and later, so did he, with skinned knees. He was easily recovered and the wounds treated, but not so lucky with the glasses.

A highlight of the weekend was a big shared pot luck dinner for ten aboard ILENE on Saturday night.

Most of the food is gone but, from the left: Dave, Chris, Mark, Marcia, CJ, Roger, Lene, Mary Jane and Dan. Jenny took all the good pictures in this posting.

One minor problem involved dinghies. I had told the folks that if they did not have one, I could provide a lift. I figured one or two boats might be dinghyless. In fact, no one else brought a dink except Dave, whose outboard was temporarily out of commission, though he got it working again on Sunday morning. No big deal because we were so close to each other that the four round trip taxi rides were easy.

The wind died down and we had calm seas.

Sunday morning began with mango, blueberry, apricot, sweet potato pancakes on ILENE with turkey bacon and cut fruit. All came except Chris, Dan and Mary Jane, who slept in.  Dave did the taxi service. After breakfast, Leeds the Way made a day trip to nearby Oyster Bay, for a retirement party of a friend, and Lady Cat detached for the duration and headed over to Oyster Bay where he connected with Bruce and Diane on Northstar (34 foot True North motor yacht) which was rafted with Walt and Rita on Into the Mystic (29 foot Hunter). Another couple that spent the night away from our home moorings was Peter and Lesley on Annandale (10 M Pearson) in nearby Port Washington. (So all told, eight Harlem boats engaged in cruising.)

In the afternoon CJ, Jenny, Dan and I dinked in to the town of Cold Spring Harbor to visit the local Whaling Museum. We located the dock of H and M Marina, which allowed us to tie up our dink for $10 per day. The anchorage site was a great one for the shelter it provided our boats, but a rather long dinghy ride to the dock. almost a mile and a half.

I have been to several whaling museums but this one was different from the others, except for its displays of scrimshaw and portraits of captains. It focused on the details of the killing of whales, how the carcasses were processed for their commercially valuable ingredients, why the demand for those products declined, how whaling is now largely forbidden since the 1970s and how whales appear to have evolved from land mammals! Also, after expenses, the owner kept about 55% of the net proceeds of the two year voyage, with the rest shared by the whalers, the Captain getting twelve times the share of the least experienced members of the crew. These days the rewards of enterprises are shared between management and labor with vastly greater income disparity.

Before dinner, I dinked back out to the anchorage to pick up Lene, Mary Jane, Mark and Marcia. The dinghy ride is fast when I am alone, planing across the surface of the water, but with four or five adults it was a slow trip.

We enjoyed dinner, accompanied by live adult music at Grasso's restaurant, about .4 miles walk from the dinghy dock. The sunset was lovely on the way back, but led to a problem with the two return rides to our boats. The first leg, bringing out four passengers was accomplished  before dark, as seen below.

But the last two legs, the return to the dock and the trip back with the other three people took place after dark. Our dinghy, Rojay (9.5 foot AB aluminum RIB), has proper navigation lights, but there are two small unlit buoys by the entrance through the narrow channel to the basin containing the marina. I required a strong flashlight to locate them, which Dan lent to me.

Another  still cool night before we pulled up stakes for the return trip. ILENE was the last of the four remaining boats to leave and again minor problems. The salt water deck wash system did not work and will have to be looked into. Actually, I later realized, the pump was fine and it was only my failure to open the seacock which prevented the flow of water. But meanwhile, the dumping of several buckets of water on the chain washed most of the mud from the chain onto the deck, thereby keeping it out of the anchor locker.
And the Rocna anchor presented a problem that was not really a problem but a benefit: it held the bottom so strongly that the windlass was not able to break the seal. So we had to use the boat's engine and propeller to lunge forward to break loose.
We had the main up all the way back, with appearances by each of the jibs but it did little good; we motored most of the way, except from Execution Rocks to the southern end of Hart Island. During that relatively short portion of the trip the wind came up for two long close hauled courses, the first to past the Blauses. It was a three and a half hour passage, arriving at 1:30 and the engine got a good workout which she needs, to burn out the carbon deposits.

The Club had its annual all-you-can-eat barbecue from 1 to 4. I enjoyed the food and talking with the members; Lene does not like such gluttony contests so she remained aboard until the food tables were closed. Rain at night dampened the fireworks.
A great weekend!