How is it that we fly around the world each with “carry on and personal”, but require eleven bags of stuff for a short cruise. It’s because when flying we don’t pack bedding, towels, cats, cat food, our food and pots and pans.
Anyway, we got to the club before 9 am to take advantage of high tide to bring ILENE to the dock and fill both water tanks and blast the remnants of the bird mess off the boat. A bit of a problem getting her tied to the dock with the wind blowing the boat away when going slow to approach. Fourth try was a success. Being at the dock made it easier to load the eleven bags and the two blocks of ice. All tasks achieved, including buying a sandwich for our lunch, removing a lot of cat food intended for the Florida trip to the car and taking the garbage from the boat to the dumpster — and we headed out at 11. A lot of time to get as far as we could toward Block Island before nightfall. No need for reservations after Labor Day they have plenty of room.
And the wind at 15 knots was nice and strong to move us. But from the wrong direction. Be could have beat our way east, tacking to cross the sound, back and forth, but the word beating has a secondary meaning relating to its effect of boat and crew. The wind and two foot waves were straight at us as we motored directly into it. Alpha Girl, a veteran in her fifteenth year of cruising, is becoming an old girl. She gave a loud yell of terror before losing her lunch.
Lene asked, what is near that provides protection from ENE wind? Well Zieglers is straight ahead, only 16 miles away. But at 2000 rpm’s we were making only between 5 and 5.5 knots speed over ground, so near, yes, but still more than three hours away. What is nearer? We were passing Manhasset Bay. I thought about the area behind the sea wall jutting out from its east side at Glen Cove. We turned to starboard, put out just the small jib, doused the diesel and sailed at 4.5 knots. The chart shows lots or water behind that sea wall but much of it at 20 to 25 feet. Google earth’s photo view showed no boats moored there but that picture must have been taken in the winter because today, much of the area was full of moored boats and 100 feet of chain made for a swing radius larger than the holes between them. So we took a stranger’s mooring and its rode was quite dirty, meaning it was little used and its owner somewhat unlikely to show up on this grey Wednesday night. We backed down hard on it to test its holding power and it passed the test. We are the blue dot.
The sea wall was one end of the finish line of the Around Long Island Regatta, the other end being the committee boat anchored off of it. This was the case when I crewed for Sean on his 32 foot Oday “Kaithleen” back in the early 90’s. Fond memories, even the year when we did not finish within the time limit. Just south of us is the Sea Cliff YC, which we have visited several times in the past, but this behind-the-sea wall mooring field is a “new port” for us. My other memories of Glen Cove are not nautical of personal. When he came to this country fleeing from the NAZIs, and before he met and married my mom and needed to work year round in one place, my dad worked as a waiter “where the rich people were” as he told me. This meant Miami in the winter and the Glen Cove Country Club in the summer. I’ve never been to that Club but it is part of my inherited memory.
Underway two hours for ten Nautical miles. At this rate we won’t make it to Martha’s Vineyard and back in eleven days, but who cares? No one is waiting for us in any port. We have nothing to prove by way of distance. Actually, most of the ports are fun. We’re taking it one day at a time and trying to enjoy each of them.
A cool, dry, quiet night.
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