ILENE THE BOAT: July 24 - 26 -- The 2020 "Between the Forks" Cruise Begins

Well actually a sad note before departing our mooring in Eastchester Bay. The NY Times reported the deaths of two men there whose jet skis collided at night amidst an epidemic of jet ski use. Folks cooped up by the virus have chosen to use these devices when they go out. Police are investigating the cause of the accident, the article said. I submit that at least one such cause was noise. The machines apparently have no mufflers (or they are removed) and they swarm, like waterbugs on the surface of the water, ROARING about. And when not roaring the machines are equipped with high decibel music players. A driver cannot hear himself or herself think. The other potential causes, in my imagination, are driving after dark, alcohol and lack of training. A toxic brew of potential causes.
Due to a forecast of early showers we did not arrive at the Club until 3:30, unpacked and stowed the seventeen bags of stuff (two of cats), showered and dined at the Club at 6:30 and did more grocery shopping and wine shopping and had a peaceful night. (The wines are probably superfluous, however, given the lack of social events caused by the virus.) I had hoped to stop at anchor away City Island, perhaps in Manhassett or Hempstead harbors, just to get started, even by a short distance, the night before, but the delayed start time dashed that plan.
The next two days we moved to Port Jefferson and from there to the Mattituck Creek Anchoring Basin, 37 and 27 miles respectively. But one prior stop, on the other end of City Island to fill the new aft fuel tank which had run out of usable fuel when we were with Sammie. We did not drop the mooring bridle until 10:30 in an unsuccessful effort to wait for wind which never came. And armed with the GPS Chartplotter I went where I have never sailed any boat before when leaving the fuel dock: through the wide enough but unmarked channel by the middle ground shoal and past Pea Island. Fears created 30 years ago were thus conquered. I did not even raise the main and we felt the lack of the stability it provides, especially the first day in the more crowded waters near home caused by myriad powerboat wakes which roiled quite a choppy surface despite the lack of wind to drive the chop. By comparison, some of our recent day sails gave us pretty good speed without any appreciable waves, just the opposite.
One unfortunate sight was powerboats flying large Trump flags, projecting the poisonous venom of today's politics onto the water; hopefully the last hurrah of these angry misguided people.
With no sails to tend and auto doing the steering of the GPS generated course, there was not much "sailing" activity leaving lots of time for cruise planning. Weather checking, plotting and measuring distances between potential anchorages, reading the Cruising Guide and seeking "local knowledge" of the places we might want to stop at our destination: "Between the Forks" at the eastern end of Long Island. The Cruising Guide, published in 2010, told me that West Harbor, on Shelter Island, where I anchored with my first boat, "Just Cause", with less draft than ILENE, before I knew Lene, was off limits to boats drafting more than five feet due to increased shoaling at the entrance. I was worried about both overcrowding and lack of deep water in the Mattituck anchoring basin, opposite Strong's Marina. Strong's was happy to offer us dockage at their $5.75/foot/night, its weekend rate, but I had anchored in the basin before. Finally I called BoatUS who got back that there was plenty of water. I also tried to locate the marina in Three Mile Harbor where I had left the dink years ago; yep, but now $20 per day. We also got a lot of useful information about Noyack from the manager of Mill Creek Marina. Sadly, there are those in the boating industry who hang up on you when they learn that there is no revenue in it for them. We told him up front that our draft precluded our enterting his marina. He confirmed what the Cruising Guide said: that the town dock is available even to big boats, for up to two hours. And he also told us, about the areas marked off as for the fishing industry. "If you can see it above the water, keep off; otherwise you can anchor".
Anchored both nights, the start of a trend on this cruise. The Port Jeff-Bridgeport Ferry.