Kim
08/04/2009, Port Washington NY

After a couple of days in Oyster Bay we headed north to Manhasset Bay (ie Port Washington). It's a great anchorage for cruising because there is a free dinghy dock, huge grocery store, West Marine, and various other shops all within walking distance.

At Port Washington, we also added 3 new crew members. The boys now have hermit crabs. They are having a great time racing them, watching them climb, and fighting each other. They can even play Yatzee. Who knew? They have been a welcome addition to our crew and are still alive after 2 days. That's longer than "Jack Sparrow" (last trips hermit crab) lived on our last trip. He apparently wasn't destined to be a crab of the sea.

We decided to stay in Port Washington and sand the rest of our teak decks. It was a hot, all day project but they turned out really nice. What a mess though. We are both glad to be done with that.

Tomorrow is the day we head back through NY City. It is always an interesting trip. J

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Kim
07/31/2009, Oyster Bay, NY

Oyster Bay


Yesterday, we sailed to Oyster Bay. It was only about a 20 mile sail, however, it took us all day. The wind direction forced us to tack back and forth and we could barely make 5 knots. It was calm, relaxing sail though.

We dropped the anchor and had a yummy fish dinner (thanks to the boys). After we got all cleaned up, we decided to head into shore and see if we could locate a library and Laundromat. The met the dockmaster who informed us that they were showing a movie at the park 200 yards away. When we went to investigate, we found they were going to show ET at 8:30pm. After doing a little exploring we decided to find a soft patch of grass and watch the movie. We really couldn't have planned this.

The boys were out rowing the dingy around this morning already. They spotted a school of fish feeding and wanted to check it out. The fish were really stirring up the water, jumping out all over the place. When the rain started, they headed back for breakfast.

Guess I should get going. The rain stopped and we need to head out to get some laundry done before the rain starts again.

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Kim
07/29/2009, Port Jefferson NY

Continuing south, fun along the way

West Neck Harbor turned out to be a great stop for us. We were anchored about 200 yards from a peninsula with beaches on both sides . We collected shells and the boys snorkeled. They found several crabs which we brought to the boat in sand buckets. We ended up keeping the crabs for a couple of days and releasing them. Nathan's crab was beating up the other 2 crabs... sounds sort of familiar. J This made for hours of entertainment.

We left West Neck Harbor bound for Port Jefferson. They were only forecasting 5-10 knots of wind. There was a glob of storms far away and moving slowly. About half way to Port Jefferson the skies darkened and we donned our foul weather gear.... The storm was coming our direction and faster than predicted. With no where to hole up to wait it out, we decided to bring in the main sail. We were already sailing at 8knots... so with storms coming, more wind was coming. As it turned out, the storm headed northest and missed us entirely. Whew.

The highlight of this passage was the numerous Bluefish we caught. We only kept 2, but it seemed like every time the boys dropped the line in, they got a fish on the line. It doesn't seem to matter how many fish are caught, they never seem to tire of it. The biggest fish we caught was 27 inches...

We were thankful for the winds and made it to port about 6pm. Shortly after we finished dinner, the thunder and lightening began. Man are we ever glad to be in safe harbor tonight.

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Kim
07/27/2009, Coecles Harbor, Shelter Island

Coecles Harbor, Shelter Island

We got off the dock at Mystic Seaport around noon on Friday. About 10 miles out, the current was against us and the wind completely died. We had planned to sail all the way to Shelter Island, however, at 2-3 knots, it would be midnight before we would arrive. We decided to drop the anchor near Fisher Island and wait for the wind the following day. We had pretty good thunderstorms during the night, there was even a strike right on shore. The storm seemed to pass pretty quickly.

Nathan, Seth, and I pulled up the anchor around 9am and we made it to Coecles Harbor on Shelter Island around 2pm. It was a pretty warm day and within 15 minutes of dropping the anchor, the boys were swimming around the boat. There was some jellyfish in the area but they were the non-stinging type. J The boys had a good time trying to net them.

This morning we went to shore and did some swimming in the marina pool. The boys enjoyed getting to use their goggles and snorkels. Aaron is starting to really pick up on the swimming. We will be heading out shortly as there is a 48 hour anchor limit in this harbor. We will head to the other side of the island to anchor in West Neck Harbor.

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Kim
07/23/2009, Mystic, Conn.

Mystic Seaport Museum

After a night of rolling inside Point Judith breakwater, we made our way to Mystic Seaport, CT. It was a beautiful day ,and we made good time. This area is gorgeous with all the islands and different lighthouses.

Mystic Seaport has been on Ben's list of places to see for some time. It's an 18th century seaport village set up with people in period costumes, doing things like running a blacksmith's shop, fixing sails, hoisting anchors on an old fishing schooner. It was really cool. We are at the dock here for 2 nights. Its pretty neat because we are literally docked inside the museum. They have all kinds of activities for kids... they made wooden boats today, furled an old sail (normally 60 ft up -- but in this case only 2 inches off the ground), and had to decipher signal flags. One of their favorite parts was playing an old game called skittles. Who needs video games?

We toured the last wooden whaler from that time, the Charles W. Morgan. We learned all about whaling. I, of course, felt a little sad for the whales. J We watched sail and anchor exercises on an old wooden schooner. We saw a Cooper making barrels, a blacksmith making ship parts the old fashioned way, and got to hammer Oakum between wood planks to seal them. We got to try out a sextant and a quadrant which were used to figure your position before there was GPS.

I have a new favorite word I learned in Mystic Seaport. Anyone ever heard of baggy wrinkle? Well, they used to use it to protect the sails from getting chafed or wearing through. It looks like a whole bunch of fluffy string that is wrapped around a wire or object where a sail may chafe.

There is more exploring to be done. I don't think we will get to see everything, even in docking for 2 nights. We would all highly recommend visiting this museum.

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