We have been sailing our new boat in Jamaica Bay and a few times out into ‘open water‘, [ the outer bay.] The haul out was done: now it was time for a more extended cruise. Madeline came for the first two weeks;. We explored Long Island Sound, crossing from one side to the other, out as far as Block Island. We swam every day and got more than the back of our hand tanned.. The return trip, on my own took three weeks. I lucked out on the weather. I had been thoroughly miserable the first week when it was hot and humid, but finally it was really nice - dry, sunny and pleasantly warm. I lingered at Shelter Island then went up the Connecticut river and anchored in a secluded side creek in the middle of a marsh.
Apart from a small leak at one of the through hulls, nothing went wrong. Those of you who have heard my accounts of previous sailing misadventures will appreciate this took some getting used to. Much worse, in terms of safety and enjoyment, was the inconsiderate and at times dangerous behaviour of the owners of big sport fishing boats, and mega yachts, coming by too close and too fast. Must be the same people that own the big ugly mansions that dominate the Long Island and Connecticut shorelines! Actually there were probably fewer power boats than usual because of the weather…a hurricane passed by offshore one weekend, then there was a major storm. I don’t know if more people own boats here or there are just lots of people, but it sure is crowded especially on weekend.
Getting to Long Island sound means going through the city. We left with the ebb, caught the flood at the Verrazano narrows. Wow says Madeline as we sail into the inner harbor and first the Statue of Liberty then lower Manhattan come into view. I guess I’m impressed but for me this is Mordor, the belly of the beast, a monument to all that is wrong with our world. Motoring up the East river was pretty miserable with all the wakes. The notorious Hell gate, even at mid flood, was no big deal compared to Stuart Narrows or even Cattle pass. On the way back there was a wind, lots of it, and I sailed the whole way, from City Island to Coney island.
From the charts it looks as if there are plenty of sheltered bays for overnight stops. However most of the bays are shallow - 3ft or less outside the dredged channels and the low lying land offers little protection from the wind. Even worse, nearly all the decent anchorages have been commandeered by mooring fields, effectively privatizing what officially is public property. So we ended up doing what other cruisers do: we tied up to a vacant mooring and were never asked to move on. To tie up at a marina, even for an hour cost $20 and up while overnight fees were a minimum of $4 per foot.
Back in Brooklyn the owner of the marina is not impressed. Mocking the slow pace of our trip he brags how he and a friend got to Block Island in an hour [in a speedboat] He’s proud of this. I’m thinking of all the fuel burned - and the wars that have to be fought - to make possible that kind waste of scarce resources to satisfy a whim. Of how much he missed by going fast. Of how that is one of the great lessons of traveling by sailboat…that it’s the journey not the destination.
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