Fri June 25 & Sat June 26: Montauk to Sag Harbor mooring ball + day in Sag Harbor

In which we go TO THE HAMPTONS! ...

We awoke Friday morning AGAIN to fog.  At our anchorage on Lake Montauk we could barely see 100 feet away from the boat.  Moist air meets cold ocean - nature in action.

 

Do you see the shoreline?  Nope - us either...

However, we are now under time pressure to get to Port Washington by Thursday to meet the kids (young adults), who are coming to visit - so we decided to go no matter what. Our nerves haven't been jangled in a couple of days now ...

By 10 am visibility was good enough to pull up the anchor and move S L O W L Y  (in our little traveling 100 ft bubble of no fog) back out the channel into LIS.  We turned on the radar, and used AIS to keep a sharp watch for other boats.  We also followed protocol and turned on the boat foghorn function which, every 2 mins, automatically blasts the boat horn. This immediately took care of the nerve complacency issue (see above) as we got the wits scared out of us every two minutes when the horn went off.  You do the math -  3 hour trip, 180 minutes divided by 2 minutes, that means about 90 blasts of the horn.

Rick had calculated that the further away we got from open ocean, and the higher the sun rose, the more our visibility would improve.  I love when he is right (which is alarmingly often)  We only came across one other boat (no one else was dumb enough to be out, which we had counted on) so, other than deafness, a successful outcome.  And we learned a lot about the boat and ourselves.  Neuro-plasticity baby! 

Entrance to Sag outer harbor - picturesque lighthouse.  Yada Yada...

This eastern end of Long Island is a famous summering location for the well-to-do  - and Sag Harbor is part of the area called The Hamptons, so we pretended that we were posh in order to fit in.  Even a mooring ball is expensive, more than we would have paid for a marina down south. If we were truly posh (which is an ocean-liner related acronym, if you didn't already know - Port Out Starboard Home) we would not be fretting over the cost of things. It's hard to understand how there is so much $$ in the world, and how unevenly it is distributed.

We got organized, put down the dinghy, re-mortgaged the house and headed for lunch at The Dockside restaurant.   Sag Harbor is a cute town, busy with locals and tourists, and with terrible traffic.  Remember traffic?  That 2019 thing?

We took a walk down to the local public beach so we can get our small sample of NY sand (we collect a small vial of sand from each state/country we visit) and then strolled up and down the streets.

Cute store - not sure what it sells though.

I have a love of wooden buoys, thanks to a childhood in ME.

This tells you everything you need to know about the Hamptons. If you don't recognize this brand then you are my kind of people.

The Sat fog/drizzle did not deter us from checking out the local Farmers Market - it was small but we did manage to find a couple of overpriced things to buy; although Rick is skeptical that the tomatoes were really grown locally at this time of the year.  Then Rick needed a hardware store, because of course he did. While he did that I ran the (more) important bakery errand:

 

Waiting for Rick to come out of the hardware store.

STILL WAITING...

Also important to our survival are grocery stores.  Our favorite store was Schiavoni's Market - just an amazing place full of things you didn't know you needed, but immediately had to have.  The cheese, prepared foods and bakery sections were to die for.  And I know from bakeries.

Heading back to the boat at about 5:30, we readied ourselves for yet another beautiful sunset and a quiet evening.   We have been watching the new Anne of Green Gables series on Netflix.  It's a good show but a bit darker than previous versions  - which probably makes it more realistic.  We are enjoying it very much. 

How the rich people spend their nights.

 

 

Thurs June 24: Block Island to Montauk anchorage

In which there is a PASTRY BOAT ...

 

This is what responds to our Channel 73 call, at 7am!  A singing Aldo pastry boat.  Legend has it that the first Aldo was an opera singer, so he came out in the morning, singing opera and delivering (expensive) pastries.  Rick wanted to leave at 6:30am but I WOULDN'T BUDGE without a visit from the pastry boat.

 

Route for the day. OPEN OCEAN - don't tell my mom.

 

Up to now we have been in the Long Island and Block Island Sounds - ocean, but not really OCEAN. Today, crossing from Block Island to Montauk, we were right out in the big ol’ Atlantic. Our wonderful boat performed like a champ, and so did my Bonine!

Montauk, on the very eastern tip of Long Island and with instant access to the deep ocean, is a Fishing Mecca with way more big fishing boats than sailboats.  We may feel a bit out of place when we come into a harbor with lots of sailboats…but next to these monsters we felt like the country cousin.

  

 

We got the anchor set with plenty of time to spare. so that I could be settled in for my virtual work meeting at 11am.    After my 2-hour meeting we decided to do ... NOTHING ... with all our extra time. My fav activity! We didn't even get down the dingy. It is hard to explain what we do all day, when we don't go in to town.  I don't know what to tell you - there is reading, and often naps, and work, puzzles and weaving.  Blog writing.  Did I mention reading? Even Rick has built up a tolerance and is able to sit still and read for long periods of time. But, yes - you know him well, soon he was looking for something to fix.

 In the absence of the usual crisis fixes, there were a couple of (totally not urgent) things he found to play around with.  The deck lights have not been working (has anyone cared about this, ever?) and also the fresh water gauge has been acting up (the gauge shows how much fresh water is left in the thanks - we have a total capacity of 150 gallons of fresh water, so we monitor use to make sure we have enough to last) ((ok - that's gauge is actually kinda important)).  

Adorkable!! 

All of his activity required something called an electric multi-meter - that sounds like a made-up thing. Or a sex toy for men.  Which I think it is because he was happy as a pig in mud.  He decided that the old plastic switches on the deck lights had failed after more than 15 years of exposure to sea and salt air.  He removed the switches and HARDWIRED the 3 deck lights in.  Let me put that in plain English for you lot - when you flip a switch inside the three outside deck lights come on and make it AS BRIGHT AS DAY.  When will we ever use such a thing?  Why would we EVER want to be seen from the International Space Station???

Finally he got so bored he decided to fish.  We have gone through 2 years, 2000 miles and 13 states, people - THIRTEEN; and all this fishing gear has never been used.  At this point I actually think it would be funnier if he just NEVER fished, for the whole loop.  I'm all about the funny story.

 

Ok - first of all that would have to be a really determined fish to chase after us and battle our wake. And, second, this doesn't look at all relaxing and zen-like.

Finally ...... he was rewarded with a giant catch of SEAWEED!

Later there was a bit of a storm, and a good omen.

Sunset over the monster fishing boats.

Wed June 23: Block Island Adventure Day

 In which we are Road Warriors ...

Curt and Cathy are the way to start the day - they came over for a morning visit.  It is so nice to have visitors on the boat.  And isn't it great just to see, and hug people, in general?!  As an introvert I thought I was fine without people, but I am enjoying contact with everyone from loopers to family to the waitress, who patted me on the shoulder yesterday (several times - it was a bit weird.  I'm well past my sell-by date). The day was absolutely beautiful and we sat on the back deck of the boat for refreshments and a nice catch-up session. 

For lunch we headed to The Oar restaurant - our friend, Alison from Legacy, said this was a must stop for a  “Mudslide” and we are nothing but obedient.  I'm telling you - it's delicious but can kick your butt!

 

Auntie Cathy is my mother's baby sister.

Rick had to have some local oysters just to 'try them for flavor', and Curt/Cathy are also into this nasty habit, so he had some company. I enjoyed every bite of my Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato and Lobster!

Took a close up of one of the racing sails for my dad - as a life long sailor he is having a hard time picturing a black sail. 

 

A nap should have been next on the list, but instead we decided to rent mopeds and tour the island. Mudslides and mopeds, what could go wrong?!  (The kids play this game called 'rock band or bar name', where you try to decide which would best suit your word/phrase.  I'm thinking Mudslides and Mopeds might be best for a bar....?) 

The girls rode pillion (yes, it's a word, but I always associated it with knights), since both boyz have experience with “hogs” ((I could see Rick contemplating a chain attached to his wallet and a tattoo.  It's OK, I, myself, was humming the words to some of the Grease music) and we headed off to explore. By which I mean I bossed everyone around and told them where we would go.

We stopped at the lighthouse (yada yada yada - another picturesque lighthouse), rode to the Mohegan Bluffs and walked down multiple stairs to the beach (oh yes, we had to climb back up those stairs), and basically zoomed from one end of the island to the other.  Lots of fun and we only swallowed a few bugs. 

 

I need to read up on the island - it's touristy, yet wild.  Developed but with farm land. My cousin Sarah says it's her favorite place on earth.  Every year Eben Horton, a glass blowing artist, deposits 500+ glass floats on the island, starting on June 4. I could really get crazy, and spend our whole island trip insisting that everyone look for glass floats - so I tried not to think about it.  I'd still really love to find one, tho.

After mopeding without incident we decided to 'shop', but that was also without incident.  It appears that we favor food over souvenirs. We all agreed at the same time that we had hit the wall - you can only have so much fun at our age, so we said good-bye and decided not to make plans for dinner. 

As we walked back to the marina to get the dinghy we passed a supermarket and had to go in to get the 'essentials' (by which I mean cheese, salami and crackers).  It was a really nice little market but given that we were on an island it was about 3 times more expensive than a store on the mainland…

This is my fav pic of the day - I love my co-captain.

 

OMG - it's been so humid.   We are sitting on water, and the air is full of water.  It's clammy and hot, yet damp and cold.  Hard to describe, but truly AWESOME.... In fact it reminds me of a Featured Boat Name of the Day:

 

We can see on weather.com that it will start to get hotter next week (into the 80’s and even low 90’s).   I’m sure that once it is hot we will be wishing for these 70 degree days… We are looking for Goldilocks Weather.

WTH even is this - we think it is called Foil-Boarding. Why? WHY????

 

Good Night Moon.

Tues June 22: Newport to Block Island RI mooring ball

 In which we learn about our limits ...

Morning skies were clear, and we decided that we would cruise over to Block Island despite a forecast for large-ish waves.  We aren't going to know our limits unless we experience some wave variation. We stopped by the water dock to fill our tanks with fresh water and then headed out into the bay, blowing our horn all the way at the big yachts.  We wanted them to know that Blue Horizon her big bad self was exiting the harbor. 

 

Saw this beauty on the way out of the harbor - I bet she is FAST.  But Blue Horizon has a good personality, and body positivity, so there.

Block Island sits about 24 miles off the coast between the east end of Long Island and Martha’s Vineyard. It is a prime location for sailing and fishing, and has a perfect harbor that can hold hundreds of boats.  As we cruised out of the Newport Hahbah (as the harbor master called it) one of the boats moored near us called us to warn that it was Race Week on Block island.  That sounded ominous - what does that mean?  No mooring balls, dodging sailboats, what???  Given Rick’s new less-anxious state of mind we decided to go find out.

Route for the day.

 

Well - it turns out that exact combination of wave height/periods was my limit. The ride over to the island was uncomfortable, with waves of about 4 feet with a cross chop wave that made the ride both rolly and bouncy (these are technical yachting terms that mean puke-inducing).  Fortunately the day cleared up so at least I wasn't getting rained on while I tried not to throw up.

We cruised out of Narraganset Bay, past Judith Point and into Block Island Sound.

 

I loved the more wild feel of the island!

In the distance we could see what looked like tall buildings on the horizon. As we got closer, using the binoculars, we could see they were many many sailboats.  Eventually we got close enough to to realize that we were seeing a race from the aforementioned Race Week.  We could see all kinds of sails and Rick lost count when he got above 100.  Later we learned that there were about 160 boats at the island, racing from Monday to Friday, some of them top tier world racers.  What an incredible thing to see. It even distracted me for the last bit of the bounce.

The race was a bit off to the south so we were able to skirt the course and enter the harbor where we easily found a mooring ball, tied up and promptly took a nap.  Even after the nap I couldn't shake the nausea, so we took a rain check on seeing Cathy/Curt - who had taken the ferry over.

We stayed on the boat watching the sleek predatory racers come in, and caught up on where our friends are:

The majority of Loopers will try to finish the loop this year, or at least get through the great lakes.  So you can see them all lined up on the way through NY, or on the Hudson and Erie canals.  Looks like there are at least 6 of us turtles over here in LIS, though.

 By sunset I was feeling better and ready for the next adventure.

. 

Mon June 21: 'Bonus Day' in Newport

In which we awake to pea soup ...

We had heard that the New England coast can get foggy, but we assumed that everyone was talking about Maine.  Turns out it can get foggy anywhere/anytime along the New England coast - and with the overly humid air and cold water we awoke to fog so thick you could hardly see the boats around us.   We felt sure the fog would burn off (which is our experience with California fog) once the sun came up so we rolled over and went back to sleep for a couple of hours.  And ..... NOPE. The fog continued stubbornly on.

The plan for today had been to travel to Block Island, but Rick was nervous about heading out in such low visibility (even if we do have radar and AIS to show us other boats, his logic was "why put yourself in danger if there is no rush?") so we decided to wait to see if the fog lifted.   At 2:30pm it was, if possibly, even foggier, so we called it - no travel today!  We called the pump-out boat to take care of our waste tank and settled in for a lazy, foggy day.   I worked, Rick wrote blog entries and we contemplated a trip to the grocery/hardware stores for old times sake.

An evening outing was a welcomed treat! My beloved Auntie Cathy and Uncle Curt are on vacation in NE, and since we delayed our departure by a day we coincided with their visit to Newport.  We chattered like monkeys through several hours of drinks, and by the end we were glad we weren't driving and could take the harbor launch back to the boat.

As the Featured Boat Name of the Day says, there were hops involved:

Sun June 20: Martha's Vineyard Side-Trip

 In which Father's Day should always feature oysters, no matter no matter how I feel about them ...

We had hoped to continue our trip northward stopping at Cutty Hunk and Martha's Vineyard, but time is tight for our return trip to NY to meet the kids, so we decided the best way to see Martha's Vineyard (MV) was to take a ferry over for the day.  It would be a quick trip but would give us a good introduction to the island so we can get a feel for it.  We bought tickets on the "Fast Ferry" and got a Lyft ride to the dock with time to spare.   The ferry ride took 1 hour 45 mins at a speed of almost 35 mph.  It was strange to go so fast on a boat - WTH.  We felt like we were flying on the big catamaran- style ferry.  

 

We pulled into Oak Bluffs at 10:45am (which was NOT AT ALL where I thought we would dock), bought a day pass for the local bus system and started exploring.  Oak Bluffs looked like it had potential.

Their ye olde carousel is famous - but the old one in Nederland CO is so much better!

 

Vineyard Haven was the first stop, but there was not much 'there' there - so it was easy to check off the retirement possibilities list.

Next we hopped on the #13 bus to go cross-island to Edgartown.  (Which is where I thought we were going to land with the ferry). This is the largest town on the island but is still relatively quiet, compared to the spring-break vibe of Oak Bluffs.  It must be crazy-pants busy in the middle of summer - we are glad that we're here early in the season. 

We had to have a lunch stop so that Rick could have oysters for Father's Day.  Doesn't he deserve that?!  He is such a good dad, and partner...* sniff sniff *  I got a little weepy there.

After lunch we stroll through town - the houses are almost exclusively white and grey, and they, plus their gardens, are exquisite. Plus the water is gorgeous - very clear, and lots of different colors.

We stopped at the "Chappy Ferry" - the ferry that makes the short crossing to Chappaquiddick (yes of Edward Kennedy fame) and ended up at the lighthouse.  From there we made our way back to the bus stop for the return trip to Oak Bluffs. 

Jaws was filmed on MV, and there is a ton of Jaws merch available.  From the bus we were able to see the iconic bridge where even today kids are jumping into the water.

 

Oak Bluffs seemed to be the party part of the island.  It is filled with young adults who were partying like it was post -pandemic 2021.  Which, I guess it might be.  The harbor was ringed with bars and restaurants full of yahoos cheering and shouting as boats entered and drunkenly tried to dock.

In my job as Cruise Director on the Love Boat, I had read that early on (1870's or earlier) MV was used as a religious retreat.  Each summer families would come to the island, set up tents and have a summer vacation with religious meetings each day.  Over time the tents turned into small cottages, and now there is a whole section of small, quaint cottages placed on twisting paths around a large public space called "The Tabernacle" (the original revival tent).   The place is still used for religious services and as we wondered through the area we found families all around enjoying the community feel of the area.  Who knew something this adorable existed?  It was IMPOSSIBLE to stop taking pix.

Rick is checking his phone to see if we have stumbled into Alice in Wonderland territory.

Nebo, our tracking app, thought Rick was the boat - so it shows the boat all over MV!

Reeling from cuteness overload, we boarded the ferry at 4:50 for our speedy ride back to the mainland and eventually found/bribed an Uber to come pick us up at the ferry terminal.   We returned to the boat to find everything feeling wet.   It was very humid, but the temperature had dropped so there was a cold, clammy, sticky wet feel to everything.  I don't know about you, but I LOVE the feel of sleeping under a wet sheet...

Last item of the day - a Zoom call with the kids, where they amused themselves:

 

 

** A shout out to steadfast reader/friend Dottie, who became a grandmother just in time for Father's Day!  Welcome Colin Tevis Brodhag. That's a Newport - worthy name.