Thursday 13 September: Sag Harbor, Long Island NY – boat maintenance and visit Sag village.
Not exactly early birds today, but who wants to jump out of bed when it’s cold and raining?
We spend the morning onboard, doing a bit of cleaning. Glen removes the companionway steps and gives them a good clean with Oana’s secret concoction (a mixture of vinegar and water). And while at it, he also gives the saloon carpet a good scrub. We noticed that since we arrived in USA, the decks are always covered with a layer that gets your feet black, which we then bring onto the carpet. Another reason why we look forward to return to the Caribbean, where the frequent showers are always leaving the decks spotless because the Atlantic rain is so pure.
At mid-day the sky clears a bit, and we venture ashore for a walk through the village. Another pleasant and quaint village, with beautiful houses, inviting cafes and restaurants (slightly more upmarket than we have seen in previous places) and few shops.
We come across the 1796 home of Annie Cooper Boyd, a museum of the Historical Society. And we venture in to learn who Annie was. As we approach the door, a lady dressed in a traditional dress welcomes us and gives us a tour of the house, which comes with an interesting story. Annie was the daughter of a whale boat maker, and since she was 16 years old, she kept a diary, making notes of how life in Sag was. She also made hundreds of sketches and paintings, which are an important part of the documented historical information of Sag.
After so much history, we are ready to give our brains a break over a coffee, and we stop in an interesting looking cafe. Where we are shocked to notice that tips options start from 20% upwards. And the tip is only for them taking your order and your money. Because there is no table service, no china ware (coffee is in paper cups), and you go and pick up your order when the food ready buzzer rings. And they reserve the right to mess your order, twice. Hm, we hope this is not going to be a generalized practice while in state of New York.
The good part about this stop was that we met a very nice British couple who lives here, and we ended up chatting to them for about an hour. On anything from British politics to American lifestyle.
We continue walking through the village, aiming for a bikes shop, where we inquire about pins for our GoCycle. After that, we come across an ACE hardware store, and of course we pay it a visit and we buy few bits. Among which, toilet paper holders for both our heads. Oana has been asked for new holders for more than a year now, and now she is very happy to have them. So happy, that Glen feels motivated to make her waiting so long for most things she wants!
When we start feeling spots of rain, we rush back to Cloudy Bay. Perfect timing, as it was starting to feel chilly. While Oana prepares lunch, Glen climbs the davits to finish installing the new WiFi bat now that we have the sleeve to put it in. And with that, we finally conclude the installation of this new BAT replacement. Now we only need an internet network ashore to connect to!
As we have our lunch in the warmth of the saloon, we realize it is already 7pm. Where did the day go?!
We seal ourselves inside, switch on the heating, and carry on with more boat maintenance jobs. Glen installs the toilet paper holders with double sided tape (Oana is not allowing any holes to be drilled anywhere visible on the boat).
We look up hire cars to drive around Long Island, and the cheapest rate we get is $125/day. We’ll pass that, thank you. Especially after we paid $40/day only two days ago! Again, we cannot help thinking: is everything going to be significantly more expensive here?
No hire car and looks like dry weather. So Glen ventures to tackle the faulty GoCycle again. Last time he dismantled Oana’s, he removed the pins from the pedal’s arm because they were bent. Now he tried to straighten the bent pins, which he does quite successfully. Hurray, we can cycle tomorrow!
While both bikes are out of their locker, Glen starts re-thinking the batteries situation. The bikes locker used to be the former lead-acid battery bank storage space. During the refit, we installed the new LiIon batteries under the galley floor board, leaving a huge space under our berth. And ever since, Glen randomly starts thinking maybe that was not such a good idea, and maybe we should revert to having the batteries under the master cabin berth where the old batteries used to be. If the boat ever floods (heaven help us!) we will need battery power for as long as possible. In their current position the batteries would be flooded before water even raises above the floorboards. Whereas under the master berth, in the watertight locker, they would stay dry almost till we sank! So he spends quite a bit of time measuring, looking at old photos and thinking…. and cursing a bit that he didn’t think about this when installing the new Li-Ion batteries. Trouble is, we have got used to the huge locker space under the bed. While the 2 Li-Ion batteries are much smaller than the original 14 lead-acid batteries, we would still lose half the locker space if we reinstalled. Decisions decisions.