Sun June 27: Sag Harbor to Mattituck Creek anchorage

In which we run afoul of fiberglass ...

It was a foggy, rainy, misty morning and the water a bit rough, but not terrible. The world seemed pretty empty.  

 

Just us, this boat and a bazillion seagulls.

 

The trip from Sag Harbor around the tip of Long Island is long and there are not many places to stop. 

 

 

Rick finally found Mattituck Creek, which is about halfway to Port Jefferson.  He was pretty jumpy about it, though.  It's narrow, long and very skinny (shallow). But I convinced him we should try it, using our successful fog experience as evidence of our abilities (luck).

I had second thoughts when I saw how narrow the entrance was.  Can you see a waterway path here?  Nope - me either.  Hope there is one cause we are going in.  We better not meet another boat.

Of course there is another boat, coming out.  We have to inch sideways past each other.

 

There was a lot of shallow water in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas - but since Cape May water depths have typically been at least 20 ft, and in many cases we have seen water more than 100 ft deep…  So this gave us uncomfortable flashbacks to the southern waterways.  There was very little room for error, so I drove us all the way into the anchorage site, since it was my dumb idea to try the route.  Rick called out depth, and looked over our many (we are legion) charts to try to prevent grounding..  We made it - and our marriage will live another day!

There was a nice little marina, but for $4.75/ft  we decided to anchor.  After all, we have everything we need on the boat - another reason they call us trawlers 'turtles'.  We carry our homes on our backs.  The day had turned nice (by which I mean awfully hot) and many of the local boaters at the marina were preparing to go out for a day on the sea.  It is funny that we had already traveled for close to 4 hours, reached our destination and were finished for the day, while these boaters were just getting ready to start.  I guess that's the definition of “recreational boaters” - boaters who aren’t going anywhere specific.

We put down the kayaks, something we haven’t done yet this year - first fishing and now kayaks; we are just living on the edge, people....   We took our bag of trash over to the town dock (because we can't just kayak without having a 'purpose') and then paddled over to the marina to buy some ice and say hello to the “Harbor Host”  All along the course of the loop Harbor Hosts volunteer to help out, and provide local knowledge and information. Some of these hosts will monitor the Nebo app and when a looper comes into their area they will send a text message to say hello.  In this case we had a name, but no further info, so we wondered around the fancy pool area yelling 'Mike', like total loons. Pretty soon we had everyone at the pool yelling 'Mike', and thus Mike was located and we had a nice chat.

Back at the boat we discovered that the kayak paddles had deteriorated over the winter, with the end result being terrible fiberglass rash on our legs and arms.  Tape and running water can only do so much, so we will have to live with itchy skin for a few days until the tiny splinters work their way out.  Grump grump...

It is wicked hot, as we say in this part of the world, so Rick treated himself to the outdoor shower.

I haven't used nautical pun 'humor' in a few days - It's a boat time for some cooler weather.

Another day closer to the kids!  Good night...