August 23 - 24 -- Start of the Delayed Hudson Jaunt - HYC to Croton Point Anchorage 47 NM

A good start -- transporting selves, cats and nineteen bags of stuff from home to the boat with a very efficient stop for provisioning. After stowing and resting, dinner at the Club was a pleasure with the wait staff in mid-season form and the restaurant (outdoors only) full, busy, friendly and giving off an "almost normal" vibe. 

But the cool evening breeze was replaced by two unpleasant events which deprived us of a good night's sleep. The first was that the breeze got shut off, making it hot. We had thought maybe we would need to break out the quilt but sadly, no. The other event was even worse. Someone, probably on Throggs Neck, presented a lovely program of male troubadours singing Latin ballads backed by full bands of brass and percussion. And they turned it loud and kept it going until after 3:30 a.m.! The loud sound filled Eastcheser Bay, probably disturbing the residents of City Island whose windows face the Bay, unless they turned on AC, shut their windows and tried to ignore it. I think the police should investigate by power boat next time to localize the culprit and then call in shore based police to summons them. 

In the morning the tides behaved predictably and for once I somehow managed to get them almost exactly right. By leaving at 6:00 a.m. (before official "sunrise" at 6:13 but after the sun had spread light over the horizon) we did the 16 miles to the Battery arriving at exactly 8:30 with favorable tide the whole way. Glassy water under the Whitestone Bridge with the skyline behind and you can make out the Hellsgate Bridge arch to the left.

-- averaging 6.4 knots with some slow parts while getting started and raising the main and with some parts as fast as 9.4 knots. 

Close pass by tug with barge under the Triboro Bridge.

The New York skyline from the east in the early morning light is a magnificent sight. Here is looking south at the upper East Side with the 59th St. Bridge to left.

Another barge between us and the UN.

Is this Krazy?

And next is NYU's Kimmel Pavilion where I was luxuriuosly inpatiented a few days ago, with Empire state building to the right. 

At the Battery, turning north up the Hudson River, our speed slowed to 3.7 knots as we fought the last two of the hours of adverse tide, gradually picking up speed so by 10:30 we were doing 6.5 and later as much as 7.4. 

We almost circumnavigated

Manhattan, except for its Harlem River part, from Spuyten Duyvil at its north tip down to about 100th Street. Those miles are spanned by seven low bridges. Though they, or most of them, can physically be opened --  thereby paralyzing the City -- this would not be done for us. So our clockwise almost circumnavigation was the only feasible route and we did pass under ten high bridges that connect the islands of New York to each other, and to the Bronx, which is the only part of New York city that is mostly the mainland of the US (except for City Island and Hart Island which are the insular parts of the Bronx). We could pass under the Arch of the Henry Hudson Bridge, except for the low railroad bridge in the foreground.

Lots of ferry boats going every which way. We zipped in front of the Staten island ferry as it was slowing to dock at the battery. The Hudson part of the passage was less photogenic, with the morning light making the landmarks appear in silhouette. Here are Grant's Tomb to the left and Riverside Church. 

ILENE has now visited waters where she has never been before, never having voyaged in the Hudson north of midtown Manhattan (with the replica of General Lafayete's flagship, Le Hermione, maybe in 2015. (I can find out when by checking the blog). My favorite Bridge has always been the George Washington, which gets two pictures, one with it dwarfing the little red lighthouse of storybook fame. I grew up about half a mile from it.

Today's passage was rather uneventful, with mainsail up but helping very little on a hot sunny clear day. We arrived and anchored at 1:30 pm, 7.5 hours and 47 miles after we started, in a broad anchorage area just north of Croton Point, which juts out from the east bank of the Hudson and creates Haverstraw Bay, including the town of Croton on Hudson. It was there, many years ago, that Lene and I had the pleasure of occasionally breakfasting with Harlemites Selwyn and Evie Feinstein. Sadly Selwyn has passed away and Evie now lives out west. They were mentors to me and it is my pleasure to remember them. Anchored in the lee of the Point with 40 feet of chain in 9 feet of water, more at high tide, I did not even snub the chain, what with the light winds expected. 

Tomorrow I had planned to anchor behind Esopus Island at the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club, about 7.5 north of down town Poughkeepsie, but after the distance we did today, the mate asked for a stop somewhat nearer, that divided into more roughly equal parts the distance from here to Kingston. The Marlboro YC was selected. Its friendly Commodore, John, set aside one of its two guest moorings (only $25) and told us where to park the dink. Then we lowered the dink, took a cooling swim, a soak actually, in the almost fresh Hudson River water, and showered off using our new, non-broken Sandvik outdoor shower nozzle before dinner. I'm waiting til later to raise the dink when hopefully it will be cooler. We had thought to possibly join Rhoda and Lloyd ashore for dinner here tonight but their planned daytime activity took longer than expected and we wanted an "early to bed" night after our early start this morning so that rendezvous was adjourned.

Aug 3-19 -- Two Work Days Around a Hurricane, One Other Day and Two Lovely Day Sails.

ILENE was spared by Hurricane Isaaias; it damaged several boats in the Harlem mooring field and nearby. Hidden Hand lost its 135 headsail which was caught by the wind, unfurled and shredded. She also almost lost her anchor which was held in place only by a safety loop of Dynema after the pin in the special swiveling anchor shackle gave way. Several Harlem boats stayed on their moorings but the moorings dragged, some more than 100 feet north when the winds were from the south! One of these was Thai Hot, otherwise unscathed. Another boat was hit by another  boat which break it off its mooring and then be blown north and under the bridge from the Bronx to City island which broke off her mast. So ILENE was lucky. A jar of dried marjoram leaves fell out of the spice rack and rolled around on the counter atop the refrigerator and freezer which caused its top to come off and its contents to make a pretty little mess to be vacuumed up. One auxiliary jib sheet worked loose and was whipped around into a crazy quilt pattern; I simply straightened out and retied it. Considering what could have happened nothing happened. 

The two work days were to install safety chafing gear on the new bridle where it passes through the chock, and tying extra lines around the main in its stack pack on the boom and around the head sails. I put a few extra turns of the genoa sheets around the genoa by reattaching the genoa furling line so that it was more tightly wrapped and put a piece of shortstuff around the furled small jib, above the tack. And I secured lines inside the cockpit sole rather than leave them mounted on the rails and removed the American flag and its staff. The thing I did not do, but will do next time, and with the increasing frequency and severity of big storms caused by global warming there will be a next time, is to remove the dink from the boat and mount it tied down securely atop the Club's dock. So just lucky.

The "other" day was a dinner we brought to Bennett's house to share with them because Harriet recently broke her leg.

The two day sails on ILENE:

First with David of Hidden Hand for about three hours of good wind. David is strong and a knowledgeable  sailor: he had no difficulty learning ILENE's somewhat complicated headsail arrangements. He wanted to use both of my headsails which we did in the course of the passage. He was interested in my secondary small jib sheets (barberhaulers), thinking he might need them when he puts on his new larger genoa. I don't think they will be needed or useful for him and suggested he not go to such trouble until he has tried sailing without them. He is naturally cheerful but was sadly a bit demoralized by the damage done by the hurricane to his boat; he had done so much work this season to improve her and was seeing light at the end of the tunnel when the new problems were created. The one problem we had during the sail was that I had forgotten the line I'd tied around ILENE's furled small jib above the tack to protect it. I was reminded when, after furling the genoa and unfurling the jib it got stuck at the ring of cordage. Unfortunately the attempt to unfurl it caused that ring to ride even higher up the partially furled sail. He suggested the boat hook and after refurling I was standing on the foredeck with the hook fully extended over my head, hooking it on one side and then the other of the loop, each time lowering it an inch until I could grab and untie it, all while he steered us on a  close reach up Hart Island Sound 

The next day Lene and our friends, Christine and Heather joined me for four hours in southerlies. This photo is on the launch so the bright smiles are masked. We used only the main and small jib but made good speeds, first, deep into first Manhassett Bay, then Little Neck Bay and to the shadow of the Throggs Neck Bridge before transiting the King's Point Channel and heading for home. Once on the mooring we shared food and drinks. The two young ladies have sailed with us for about ten years, including spending several days and nights aboard with us in Miami in 2015.

And if you are wondering why there was so little sailing in such a long period of time, it is because  unfortunately I was in hospital for four days with an obstruction  in the alimentary canal followed two days (so far) at home waiting for a severe spasm in my arthritic neck to subside. I was able to avoid the  need to cancel the Hudson River Cruise during the hospital stay, but the neck did it in. And I spent yesterday calling nine marinas and five families to tell them it was off. But if my neck loosens up we can restart it because the plan is written down. One spot on the return was to anchor off Athens, NY, near where a marina used to be, and dink over across the Hudson River which is narrow there to meet Lianne and possibly her son and grandsons in Hudson NY. Unlike the LongIsland cruise which was almost all anchorages, the river requires marinas.

Well, I have been lucky so far to have my maladies hit me at times when they did not interfere with the watery life I love. Getting old gives you senior discounts but one pays the price with more and more "preexisting conditions."

July 31 - Aug 2 -- Old Saybrook to Charles Island to Norwalk to The Harlem -- Three Passages of 35, 23 and 24 NM

This is the final chapter of ILENE's 2020 Between the Forks cruise, the last three day-passages (heading west in the Sound) and two nights (anchored by islands) before our safe arrival back at the Harlem. How's that for killing, rather than building suspense. Cruiser, nearing the end of his second cruise with us says "What suspense?"

The first two of the three days, after a wet morning due to night rain, we motored all the way, with the mainsail up and got a bit of help from the wind the last four miles. A rather uneventful passage and I whipped some line ends and tried to create a backrest by sewing two square blue cushions together to hang over the lower lifeline and stick down between the helm seat and the stern gate.  I also reckoned that we had been using fuel from the aft tank since our sail with grandniece Sammie, so it was a good time to switch to the aft tank which we had filled at the start of this cruise -- before the forward tank had a chance to run out. 

Like Duck Island Roads, off Westbrook CT, which is only a few miles west from the mouth of the Connecticut River (so we did not stop there this year), Charles Island, off Milford CT, 30 miles further west, provides a good safe anchorage from southerlies behind a small island. Duck Island Roads was created by the building of seawalls leading north and west from the island while  Charles Island, a somewhat larger island, creates its safety with a natural "bar" extending NW from it to the mainland.  

We arrived at Charles and found both plenty of room (only 2-3 other boats) and an afternoon classic rock concert coming to us from Fort Trumbull Beach.  It died down early enough and after a peaceful night's sleep we awoke to find "The Gulf"( the area protected) quite crowded with many small and midsized power boats on anchors. And more were streaming in  around the island from the west when we hauled anchor at 10:40 and headed for Norwalk.   Again, little wind, but with the shorter distance, we tried to sail for an hour, near our destination, but making only 1.5 knots, gave up the effort. Last year, our final night of the RI cruise was spent behind Cockenoe Island, at the extreme eastern end of the Norwalk Islands, where we had not been before. This year our intended anchorage was behind Sheffield Island at the extreme western end of the little archipelago of barrier islands, close to home but new to us. On the chart I have marked the shallow water as a reminder of where not to go.

We dropped where the chart shows "11" feet of water at low tide, just to the right of the purple anchor image north of the western end of Sheffield Island. We were snubbed and set for the night, but the frequent wakes caused by power boats motoring up and down the channel (white strip running to the NE corner of the chart) to the port of Norwalk made for an unpleasant rolyness. After a few hours of this, with twilight approaching, the mate complained and so we took off for Zeigler's Cove, just 2.5 miles to the west (just off the edge of the chart) where we found the same mooring on which we stayed with Sammie in late June, and had a pleasant night. The predicted storm did not show up. 

Next morning we studied the weather -- thunderstorms predicted in the afternoon -- and made a dash for home, dropping the bridle at 7:25. Full sails up before we rounded Long Neck Point and with light southerly winds, favorable tides an only 1500 rpms, we were making seven knots. The coffee that had been brewed before departure was good, as always, and the wind grew so the engine got a rest. The winds grew stronger and it was quite a fun sail, even after we replaced the genoa with the small jib. But the storm clouds were on our bow and the question was whether we could get to our mooring before they did. The New York City skyline loomed ahead in the distance under dark lowering clouds.

We held a single starboard tack all the way to Big Tom's R"2", and were on our home mooring at 10:40 am, with plenty of time to pack up our things and get home in the early afternoon.

                                                             ********

So what sort of a cruise was it, other than a lot shorter and nearer home than we are used to and a lot hotter. We made nine passages in nine days, staying in eight places, only two of them, Noyack and Sheffield Island, new to us. five of the eight nights we were on our anchor and the other three on moorings. We even paid for one of the moorings! 

The Covid pandemic has certainly adversely affected cruising, as it has all else in life. The water is still good and the sailing and just being "away". They still thrill me. But what I like to call "the pleasures of the shore" were harmed: (1) no theaters, movies, museums and historic places, (2) vastly inferior shore dining and (3) very little socializing. 

We will try again, in a different direction, later this month.

July 30 -- Orient YC to North Cove, Old Saybrook CT --18NM

In the morning the dinghy's engine decided to work again. I must have flooded it the night before. It is a fine balance between starving her of fuel and flooding her. So we got ashore for the breakfast sandwiches at The Country Store with seating on shady benches in the side yard, followed by outdoor showers.

The Orient YC is a low cost no-frills operation with no restaurant but runs an extensive youth sailing program. A noon departure for the Gut to arrive there at slack before flood at 1:45 made for a leisurely morning. On the way out of the Bay, as on the way in the day before, we passed "Baba's" (le ss than 200')another behemoth, like Odessa and Majestic, taking a free parking space on anchor. It is not like St. Bart, Sint Maarten, Miami or Newport, but the big boats like to hang out here.

But my math was wrong and we would have gotten to the Gut too early so we sailed along at three knots to kill a bit of time.  And from the Gut to R"2" off the east end of Long Sand Shoal and directly to the breakwaters of the Connecticut River was a straight shot close hauled, motor assisted, with main and small jib, assisted more and more by tide as well until we were making 8.3 knots.

Addendum: This is a page from a travel magazine advertising hotels on the North Fork; I used a Sharpie to mark it with our wake from Port Jefferson of to the west, until CT off to the north.

We got a call from the person who now has the phone number that the Cruising Guide said was assigned to the Old Saybrook Harbor Master. He gave us the correct name and number of the current Harbor Master and I was reminded to spring for a replacement to the 2010 Cruising Guide. We had once gotten stuck aground in North Cove but it was dredged before our most recent visit about 2-3 years ago. The new Harbor Master, whose name and number is now in the Guide, advised that they still have plenty of water for us since that dredging. This chart shows the course (in the white deep water) from the Sound and  breakwaters at the south end to the Cove itself, upper left, but shows the depth as only 3.5 feet as of 1999. Hence the need for current local knowledge. They now have a free guest mooring for up to 72 hours which is closest to the dinghy dock. A great place to stop.

We were in a hurry to take an Uber to the nearest propane refill place before it closed for the night, but realized that we could get by a lot less expensively on a couple more green bottles for the next few days and bought them at the same hardware store on Main Street that before refilled our tank. We will get it refilled using our car, in New Rochelle when we get back home. We also took in the local supermarket and dinner out. The issue was whether the rain, which had been threatening, would hold off long enough for us to get back to ILENE. It did. And we hauled up the dink and attached the new can of propane before retiring. North Cove used to be notorious for insects but not a big problem this year. The small rectangle of deep water in North Cove is well used by neat lines of moorings.

July 29 -- Smith Cove to Sag Harbor to Orient Harbor -- 14 NM

A day of solving some problems but not others, and no sailing, though we could have sailed a bit on the second leg of today's journey. Watermaker use was foiled by my lack of filters, so we needed to stop for water. (We do have paper plates, and can wash silverware and pots in a pint of our three gallons of bottled drinking water, but happy wife requires water.) Found our by phone that while Sag Harbor was having a fuel shortage it had plenty of water and Sag Harbor Marine Park sent two youths to meet us, help us tie up bow in to pilings on both sides,  and we filled both water tanks and out drinking water bottles, using the new small portable in line filter that David gave to us. There, at the dock, we got closer to "Odessa" which had passed us the day before.

Then off to Orient Yacht Club in Orient Harbor, the big bay between Orient Point and Greenport. Lots of room to anchor but for a mere $30 we could take showers too, and that's what sold Lene on the idea -- an outdoor shower no less, her favorite.  And The Country Store restaurant was in walking distance. But before that another problem: Water tanks are full and the foot pump pumps water to the galley sink but while the electric fresh water pump hums, it produces so water to any faucet. Must be an air leak? So I tightened everything. Still no go. The culprit was the small mechanical filter set in line between the tanks and adjacent to the pump. In sucking up the last bit of water we could from near the bottom of the almost empty tanks, we had pulled up gunk which clogged the filter. Once cleaned out the system ran fine. And the other thing that makes my mate happy is a clean boat so we spent a few hours cleaning. 

But at dinner time, the next problems: the Dinghy would not start. So no showers or dinner ashore. And when cooking dinner, the propane ran out. But we have two of those small green camping cans of propane and an adapter so that the gas can flow from the cans to the galley stove. As to the outboard, let's let her rest overnight and try again in the morning. A cool night.

July 28 - Noyack Bay to Smith Cove, The Long Way Round --19 NM

I have circumnavigated Shelter Island before -- before I knew ILENE or Lene. And having passed its east and south sides yesterday, we decided to complete the clockwise loop today with Smith Cove as the destination. Smith Cove is shown on the chart included in yesterday's post. Why circle an island? Because it is there! Smith Cove provided shelter from the  forecast nighttime Southwesterlies. That shelter, though, can be a mixed blessing, also eliminating the wind that provides forced draft "air conditioning" in this heat. We have a heat exchange air conditioning unit but it has not been used for several years because (1) it requires us to be at a dock for electricity and (2) when not docked we face the wind which blows through the open hatches to cool the boat. This summer though, we have had to rethink the issue with the near constant heatwave. Without wind the boat heats up and holds the heat. The feline members of our crew are suffering -- off their feed -- and Lene is not happy either.
During our three and a half hour passage we beat up to and on the west side of  Shelter Island. But the wind was largely blocked off in the broad reaches in the passages on the Island's north side and then blocked by the Island itself while we passed down its east side before we beat back east along its SW and South shores to Smith Cove. I had anchored in Smith Cove with the Club Cruise more than 25 years ago and it is mostly the same -- a nice big anchorage with no shoreside or other commercial activities. There are some houses on its west side and some moorings with boats on them that I did not recall. We anchored well behind them toward the NW corner, with the gigantic "Majestic", which we had seen there when passing the day before, anchored in the  NE corner.

More than 200 feet long, we can see her name on AIS or by looking at her side.

Whether its owner has jetted away to another continent or is partying in Sag Harbor, nearby is a matter of total speculation on my part but the crew is saving him a lot of money by anchoring here instead of docking in town.
We chatted with some folks kayaking by and then lowered the dink for a swim.
A problem, however: We somehow ran out of water. Well not "somehow" but my fault for not wanting to fill both tanks, thinking that the sulpherization process will not occur if we use it up fast enough. But I misguessed. Tomorrow we will try to start the watermaker and failing that, go to a marina for a bit more fuel, but mostly for water.
Lene has been unhappy because of the heat and wanting to go home a few days sooner than planned. She could take the train with the kitties and I could sail home alone in a few days time but I think that if we get water and I clean the boat, or if the weather breaks she will hang in with me for a few more days.

July 27 -- Best Day of Sailing So Far in 2020 - Mattituck to Noyack Bay - 37 NM

I had told Lene that we had to leave by 7:45 to make it to Plum Gut before the tide began to flood, adverse to us. My brilliant mate, in the morning, said, "If we leave earlier, will we have more water under our keel on the way out of the Creek?" So we left at seven. It was cooler on a fine clear morning and when we got out of the Creek into LI Sound there was wind: deep on our starboard quarter. Under genny alone, pushed by wind, waves and up to two knots of tide, we were making seven knots. But then the coast of Long Island curved to the right and it was time to gybe and we put up the main and replaced the genny with the small jib because a possible gybe in Plum Gut with the big sail up could be a problem with its ferrocious currents. And we kept with the small jib the rest of the day. When we got to Plum Gut, late in the tide cycle, and it was not ferrocious We had set out for Three Mile Harbor to meet a girlfriend who was summering there with her grandkids but it became clear that she feared social contact so we relieved her of her promise to take us grocery shopping, which we did not need to do anyway. And that relieved us of the obligation to visit Three Mile harbor, with its back door dinghy ride to East Hampton, which we had been to before. This was about a mile and a half south of the Gut, headed toward 3M Harbor and we decided on Noyack Bay, where we had never been before. We found ourselves close hauled on starboard and leading another sloop in one of those unofficial races. We did not catch her name but she was gaining slowly on us by pointing lower, until she had to tack away from Cedar point with its abandoned lighthouse. We continued in through the channels with their tricky tides on the south side of Shelter Island, past Sag Harbor to port, Smith Cove to starboard and the Shelter Island to South Fork Ferry.

Enroute we passed "Odessa" which hauled her anchor, picked up speed and crossed in front of us, heading into Sag Harbor. Noyack Bay is rather large, about two miles square, protected except from its open north side.

With winds predicted from the SW, we anchored in the SW corner, on 50 feet of snubbed chain in ten feet of water at 2 pm. We were about 1/4 mile from Jessup Neck and 1/4 mile from the entrance to Mill Creek. Only two neighbors, each several hundred yars away. We dinked in to town, walked to the local supermarket and back with groceries, filled two of our one gallon fresh water bottles and the dinghy's gas tank. We had coffee "out" our first food off the boat, and sitting on the sidewalk on the shady side of the supermarket. Back at ILENE, it having become too hot again, we took a swim before hauling up the dink and showering off in the cockpit. A strong windstorm at night with winds up to 30 knots. one of the lines coming down from aloft was too close to the mast and slatted against it in the wind: whap, whap, whap! So i got a piece of small stuff and tied it to a shroud, further from the mast.Not the quietest night but cool enough.