Sept 8 — Day 61 — Fishers Island to Old Saybrook CT — 19 NM

Here is a picture from yesterday’s passage of ILENE  heading west into the late afternoon sun.

Today we departed at 1:15 PM to catch favorable tide the whole way. The wind was more than yesterday, and not as accurately predicted: ten to fifteen from the south. That would have given us pretty much a beam reach. But the wind was from the south west for a close reach. When we put up sails, we had fifteen knots of wind and hence used the small jib with the main, not the Genoa.We were going along great at more than seven knots, but then the wind stopped. Yesterday, it diminished from giving us six knots, to giving us three. Today it stopped completely. We drifted. After ten minutes without steerage I turned the engine on. I lack the patience of Columbus and of racers, for whom using the engine means quitting the race. Yes, it is not about speed; “the joy is in the journey”. But drifting for any length of time when we have a destination is no fun either. After another ten minutes, the wind came back and we sailed again. On the way to North Cove we stopped at the marina’s fuel dock and filled both tanks. I have not yet calculated the latest hours per gallon ratios for the two tanks. We have certainly used the engine more on this cruise than prior ones with day long motoring passages. Here is me, wearing sun screen and trying to keep off the sun; do you recognize me?

North Cove is an old favorite for its convenience and the fact that the town maintains two moorings for free use by transients, first come first served, for up to 72 hours. We nave never used one for more than one night. The moorings in question are closest to the town dinghy/crabbing dock. I wonder why the crabs don’t learn to stay anywhere in the basin except within five feet of the dock. It makes for a very short dinghy ride, maybe 100 feet. This time, the convenience factor was magnified by Coast Guard broadcasts of trouble with the railroad bridge, a wee bit upstream. When it cannot be raised between trains, boats at upstream locations are locked in for the duration. The dock:

One time a few years ago we got stuck in the mud here and had to wait a few hours for the tide to come up to get out. They dredged a few years ago we we are leery on the way in. Lene called for local knowledge and was told to avoid coming and going at low tide. We did so, at two hours before and after high, on our way in and out. The way is between the two rows of keel boats in the center.

 Power boats with shorter drafts are moored in parallel rows further from the center. The narrow slot of water in the center of the aisle is the Connecticut River. We elected Aspen, a nice restaurant on Main Street, for dinner, our first meal off the boat after several days aboard. On the way home we saw the effect of very distant lightning: flickers of light against the clouds from bolts beyond our horizon. A strange phenomenon.