Wednesday 12 September: Leaving Fishers Island CT and arriving in Sag Harbor on Long Island NY
Early alarm this morning, so that we can time our departure with the tide. Thick fog outside when we glimpse through the windows. Just what we didn’t need. At least it is still warm.
After breakfast we faff around for a bit with the internet, then we are ready to leave. The anchor comes up with a big lump of mud, and we do our usual washing it all off with the deck flushing hose.
As we motor behind Fishers Island, we can only see few boat lengths in front of us. So radar comes on, to help us spot any boats coming our way. Luckily, there are hardly any lobster pots here, so no high risk of catching a rope around our prop.
We can briefly sail once we pass Fishers Island, but our peace is not long lived. The wind drops and a cross-tide kicks in at 3.5 kts, pushing us sideways. And since we are not exactly sailing fast (doing only 3kts boat speed), the tide almost spins us around. Sadly, we furl the genoa away and switch the engine on, so that we can go where we need to go, with our boat heading about 35deg off our COG! The fog is getting thicker and thicker, we only see the boats on the radar, and hardly see their silhouettes as they go passed us.
We run the watermaker to top up our supply, and when Glen goes to switch it off an hour later, he realizes that it has stopped on its own. Same as 2 weeks ago, the feedwater filter is clogged by this seawater that is full of small life and other fine debris. In the clear water of the Caribbean, the filters never clogged, even after 4 months of making water.
As we get across the Long Island Sound, out of the tidal current we set the sails again. We are gliding on the water, there is hardly any sound even on the bow wave. Today is not about speed. We just love the calmness and peace of gentle sailing.
We call a couple of marinas in Sag Harbor to inquire on moorings. One is $7/ft for docking the other $3/ft for a buoy. Will pass those, thank you very much. So when we arrive in Sag Harbor, we drop the anchor just outside of the mooring buoys area. In 3.8m of water. Let’s hope the tide will not be more than the documented 1m! After lunch Glen goes out in the dinghy with the hand held depth sonar to double check we have enough water. Which we seem to have just fine.
After lunch, we get ready to go ashore and explore Sag Harbor. But just as we lower the dinghy, the rain starts and even darker clouds seem to be coming our way. Hm, change of plan then: we dive down below, strip off and do some chores. Or better yet, let’s watch a movie, instead of editing our videos for once! The Way Back, an interesting story about escaping from a gulag, then an epic walk from Siberia to India via the Gobi desert and Himalayas.
