It looks like we're done with sailing for the season. It was a very disappointing fall. We had trouble with the fuel system after we got back from Shelter Island. The weather on the weekends was horrible. Me and Janet had too much to do as we combined belongings before I move into her house. The slowing economy means longer work hours while everyone is holding onto their pennies. Janet had to go to Pennsylvania for two weekends for training so I drove her there. I worked in the hotel room on my laptop. That blew two nice weekends. Then we worked in the shed doing some organizing for two weekends. The remainder of the fall was shockingly cold.
So I'll be packing up the boat this weekend and trying to winterize what ever I can. We need to unload everything this time. I am going to remove ALL the sails this time. I have to still finish the sail cradle boot cover. I might do some more wood finishing before it gets too cold. Until then I'm going to finish working on my second custom surfboard which I will keep on the boat next year for some quick waves. There were a lot of times that I wished I had my board.
Hopefully by spring we will have some good news to share with everyone......a little first mate on the way?
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08/06/2008, Shelter Island
We went to Shelter Island last week for 10 days.
I think Moriches is a good time saver. A friend that met we out there left from Bay Shore a few days after me. He overnighted at Sore Thumb and then left at first light. That's a good idea too. Fire island was just another 8 miles out of the way for me. Didn't make sense. I forgot to mention that on the way home I was able to raise the Moriches bridge operator on the VHF with no problem. I'm still going to check on the operability of the three bridges between Shinecock and Moriches. That inside passage might make sense on a bad ocean day.
The only thing I'd do differently is breaking the trip into smaller segments. Oakdale to Montauk in one day was way too much, but I really couldn't take anymore time off from work. Summer is my busy time. Life stinks. I would have liked to have gone into 3 Mile Harbor and I would have loved to go to Block Island, but later in the season, like September. I was there twice by ferry and last time we went the second week after Labor Day. We had the whole island to ourselves and it was amazing.
My only true regret was not having some kind of transportation while we were there. Sag Harbor was nice but we walked it. My friend left one of his cars in Shelter Island so he had some wiggle room. I'm going to look into either collapsible bikes for the forward hold or maybe those motorized skateboards (Gopeds???). I don't see anyplace to fit two full size mountain bikes on the boat. It has to be small, lightweight, and easy to get on/off the dinghy. Last years Annapolis boat show had some guys that fitted small engines to regular bikes. They almost looked like weedwacker engines. If I could get that on a skate board with a good muffler I'd be happy. Even a really small scooter for two people.
And next time I'd lighten the boat for the ride home. I carried too much fuel and two full water tanks on the way home. I should have dumped the water.
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Me and Janet sailing to Cedar Friday night so we could have some solid beach time and do some entertaining. We met up with a friend of hers from work with her husband. We didn't have a lot of time to plan it and shop, but everything went pretty good. The next morning was a different story. I lost count of how many beers I had. I'm not a big beer drinker. I must have had a specialty beer that Janet got me for Christmas from a local mirco brew. The next morning I puked. But by 12pm I was 100% again. Janet was really nice to me because she saw how sick I was. She let me sleep late while taking Tucker to the beach. Unfortunately, Janet got worse as the day went along. By the time 3pm came, she was in excruciating pain. She didn't realize there was an entire bottle of Advil in the bathroom.
We had the car there so Janet went home to shower and get ready for the big night. We had her entire extended family over that night. I cooked everything on the grill. Dogs, burgers, steak, chicken, etc.. Everything went perfect. That night we slept like a rock.
Sunday was just a great beach day. Our day to relax and not entertain, but just veg out. Too bad Cedar Marina made me sign my life away for $120 for 2-1/2 days docking. Just freakin ridiculous. But it was soooooooo worth it because everything went so well.
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