Monday 14 October 2019
As I said in yesterday's post, last night was a soft night for sailing. I find it to be a contradiction. When you are planning and leading up to a night passage it's something that I admit makes me nervous. I'm responsible for the boat and, more importantly, for Barb and since I can't do it all by myself she takes a turn on watch which makes me really nervous because she could be alone one deck. But then when we are underway in conditions like these it is actually quite beautiful. Dark sky, even darker water, cool breezes, lights on the shore marking business, industry and harbour mouths, lights in the sky indicating passing aircraft and stars, lights on the water marking other boats and navigation buoys, and in this case even 60 miles off the lights of the city reflecting off the clouds above. The lights of the aircraft are particularly thought provoking for us as our daughter's fiancé is a pilot and I often whether he is aboard one of them, guiding multiple toms of metal tubing thousands of feet in the air at hundreds of miles an hour from point A to point B and we say a few words hoping he stays safe.

At about 20h00 last night we were pretty much alone and had the Sound to ourselves or so it seemed. The last transient sailboat had passed us and we had long since lost her lights; the big barge with the tug pushing it, whose photo I have posted to the gallery, had done likewise. I could see what I thought were the bright white lights on the working deck of a commercial fishing vessel a couple of miles off to port but I couldn't be sure. I know that when we head down the Jersey coast later this week heading further south to Cape May or Norfolk it will be a lot different. There from 20h00 to midnight there will be a steady stream of fishing charter boats, casino boats and commercial fishermen heading out and from midnight to dawn a steady stream of them coming back in. High traffic area and you have to stay sharp.

We arrived at Port Washington at 05h15 and set the hook. We felt that it was safer for all concerned for us to wait until daylight before trying to pick up a mooring. We got an hour's worth of sleep and then were directed to the mooring. This is a great place with free moorings for transients for the first two days but you pay for the water taxi, or $25/day for the mooring and the water taxi is free. This town gets it! There is an advantage to having cruising tourists visit your community. We arrived in time to say "See you in a few days!" to our friend Estelle before she set off through the East River. We have tentative plans to meet up at Sandy Hook if we can, but at a minimum we will stay in touch.

We took the water taxi in to Stop and Shop for a few odds and ends and to the West Marine where I once again went to look for the USB charging ports that I want, and praise be! They had one. Another to do added to the to do list.

The water taxi operator was the fellow that did such a wonderful job with all the transient boaters that were held up here for two weeks when they closed the East River due to a climate change conference being held at the UN. Besides running the water taxi he also had a tour boat and after the enforced stay he invited all the transients who had been held up for so long to an evening aboard the boat with free snacks and beer and also with him giving a running commentary and answering questions on the area. He is still the same personable guy who missed his calling. He could have served his country well as an ambassador. He certainly does so for this community. He tells us that folks down here don't go around saying Happy Columbus Day to each other but we got him started. We heard him say to one fellow on the phone, "Happy Columbus Day and may the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria always be with you!" so if you hear someone saying that you heard it first here.

There are a number of foreign boats here in the mooring field, two or three Canadian plus us, a couple of French boats with one less now that Estelle has left, one German, I think, and one with a strange flag anchored out.

I have to confess that the last two weeks have been a little draining on me. I didn't know how much until we went ashore and I was staggering about, not only from my sea legs but also from fatigue. The sea legs you just get used to but the fatigue required another nap.

We returned to town to check out somewhere to get propane and it looks like we are going to be here three nights or until Thursday since the tank has to be sent out to be filled and won't be back until Thursday AM. That's fine with us because we like it here, plus we can't continue south any further than Sandy Hook until the weekend according to the forecasts. In fact Barb and I had a meeting of the minds and decided that we will be staying until Friday so we won't be in any rush.

Barb has begun our Thanksgiving dinner preparations but first we went back into town for a general walkabout. As a result, there was enough delay that we couldn’t have the dinner tonight. Instead, we will have it tomorrow.