Sounding out Long Island Sound

First a PS on our last post, wherein we dropped off Bill and Jean at Port Judith Marina, because we omitted a couple of great photos!

Fred and Bill Dunnington at the helm of Aviva.  Sailing brothers!

The Block Island Ferry passing us as it leaves Point Judith.  

What this doesn't capture is that they come without much warning through a very narrow channel ... fortunately, we saw them before we turned in so were able to delay our turn to let them out before we turned in.  

OK, Now we are ready to proceed to our Long Island Sound sailing!!

Monday Sept 9 -- After dropping off Bill and Jean Dunnington at Port Judith , RI, we sailed to Fishers Island, NY.  Actually, on account of zero wind, we mostly power-sailed.  Along the CT shore we passed Watch Hill, Stonington and Mystic (places we will visit in future, reportedly very scenic/historic, though the cruising guides do not indicate much free or good or easily accessible anchorage).

At Watch Hill we saw Ocean House, a luxury hotel, quite a large establishment:

Ocean House, Watch Hill

I'm sure everyone knows that boats depend on buoys to mark navigational hazards, channels, etc.  Buoys come in many varieties and are described with standard symbols on charts.  The key to the symbols is located in a special chart book, Chart No. 1.  Below is a typical buoy, which we saw en route today, described on the chart as shown in the caption.

R "6" Fl R 4s BELL

This is a red buoy (R) whose name is "6", which flashes red every 4 seconds (visible at night), and also sounds a bell (think fog).  Green is another common buoy color, gong and whistle are other common buoy sounds, and there are many flashing patterns.  These are our road signs on the water, and we must be as vigilant looking out for them as automobile drivers are for traffic signs.

At Fishers Island, West Harbor, we anchored at sunset.  Dear Reader, does one ever get tired of beautiful sunsets?  You never know what locations will offer a beautiful sunset, or not.

Sunset, Fishers Island

Although the anchoring at Fishers Island was easy and the holding was good, the night was quite rolly. In the morning we were buzzed by multiple speedboats and at least three ferries!  Oh well, time to get up and get moving.

Tuesday, Sept 10 -- We set out from Fishers Island toward the Thimble Islands near New Haven, CT, with wind predicted for 10 knots in the morning, 15 in the afternoon.  The morning's 10 knots quickly built to 15, then 20, then 25 knots, with waves also building, from 1-2 feet to 3-4 feet, and even 5-6 feet.  We put out the sails reefed to begin with, and reefed again as the wind continued to build.  We wondered just how far this was going to go!  As if on cue, to lighten the mood, Dorothy and Fred were both surprised and could not help but burst out laughing when Dorothy, standing in the companionway facing aft, was sprayed from behind by a large wave -- a salt-water shower!  I don't usually like "stepped in a paint bucket" humor, especially if I am the one stepping in the paint bucket, but I have to say that thinking about this wave-smack still makes me laugh a week later.  After the wave-smack, as the wind and waves continued, it started raining, which at first it was hard to tell, due to the wind and spray, but as the rain came down harder, the boat got a fresh water rinse.  We suited up in our rain gear and stayed comfortable under dodger and bimini.  Eventually, the rain stopped, the sun broke through, the wind relaxed a bit, to 15 knots, and the waves settled back down to 1-3 feet.  It was a challenging ride, and we did it!!  Best of all was our teamwork through each change in weather and waves, navigating and tuning the sails.

Almost as challenging was anchoring for the night in the Thimble Islands.  We happily set our anchor in a nice little 10' spot at 1 hour past high tide, then discovered upon further review of the tide table that the tidal range was almost 7 feet.  Ruh roh -- that was not going to work!  We tried twice more before we were happy with our spot, which was at 11.4 feet mid-way between high and low tide, enough water for us to stay afloat at low tide at 9:30 pm.  But the boat doesn't lie straight above the anchor, so we stayed up to double-check at low tide.  Here is a snap of the depth gauge at 9:30 pm -- we were fine.

A-OK at low tide.

We took a few pictures of the Thimble Islands.  While we were there, a Thimble Island Tour boat came through.  And there we were, part of the scenery for their photos!  Hopefully I've got the island names right below.  Each island is very small, and generally they have a single house, except for Money Island, which has a lot of houses.  This is just a few of the islands; there were many more.

East Crib Island

Wheeler Island

Rocks to watch out for, with little egrets flying by and mainland in background

Cut in Two Island (really, that's the name!)

Money Island

Sun setting past Governor Island

Another beautiful sunset!

Since our anchor was set in an area too shallow for us to go at low tide, we planned an early start the next morning, to pull the anchor up before the next mid-tide, about 6:40 am, after which time it might be too shallow to risk.  We were out of there early, with no problems.

Wednesday, Sept 11 -- We had thought we'd go to Port Jefferson, NY, today, but since we got such an early start, we decided we could go further, to Oyster Bay, NY.  We sailed until about 10 am, at which point the wind died, and I mean DIED.

Flat flat flat flat flat!

The glassy water is beautiful, but not amenable to sailing.  We motored from 10 am to 2 pm, mostly using the autopilot, and remarking on the difference between today and yesterday, when the wind hit 25 knots!  Today certainly fit John Bernetich's comment about Long Island being "the Dead Sea!!"  At 2 pm the wind came up again, and we sailed into Oyster Bay.

Lots of racing boats in Oyster Bay

Inside of racing boat -- bare bones.

It was a HOT day, high 80's, and after all, we were surrounded by water ... so a dip off the back of the boat seemed the right thing to do!

Weenie going down the ladder.

Refreshing!

Oyster Bay has a beautiful waterfront park with tennis courts, and a frequent train to NYC:

Oyster Bay arm of Long Island Railroad

Thursday, Sept 12 -- Since we were making such great progress down Long Island Sound, we decided to take a "down" day.  We headed into town to survey the scene.

First off, Dorothy was delighted to find a yarn shop.  Fred was even more delighted by his good fortune:

Lucky Fred!

(However, she who laughs last, laughs best -- it was open later in the day -- but I kept it short -- rain was imminent!)

We visited a variety of shops, the Oyster Bay Waterfront Center, viewed some historic buildings, and decided that since we were in Oyster Bay, we should eat some oysters:

Delicious Oysters at Canterbury's

We got some kitchen-y and household stuff at a storefront that housed several stores, and we noticed that they had hand-made goods by local people -- chocolate, crocheted items, art, and more.  If I had had any sewn or quilted items to sell, they would probably have taken some!  Good to know!

In the evening, about the time thunderstorms were imminent, we decided maybe we should run the engine to charge the batteries, since we had not moved in the morning.  Imagine our dismay when the engine wouldn't start!  We had to jump it to start it, then ran it for an hour to charge.  During our trouble-shooting, we noticed that the LED on the ACR we had installed in Portsmouth was indicating that it was combining the batteries even during discharging, when it is supposed to isolate during discharge and combine during charging.  And we had strong evidence that the DC panel indicators for house and start banks were reversed, because when we cranked the engine, the HOUSE bank went way down, which should have been the start bank.  Clearly we were not out of the woods on the battery front.  ARG!!!!!!  Heavy thunderstorms passed through during all of this.

Friday, Sept 13 -- We found again in the morning that we could not start the engine, and jumped it again.  We researched the battery and ACR issue further, and found that the ACR was wired backwards compared to the installation diagram.  We went into town again to use internet and charge computer and phones, and found that the Episcopal Church was giving out free pizza, and the Oyster Bay Library allowed internet usage for anyone for free, and printing for 5 cents/page.  Terrific!  We got some Mexican food at a little market, and home-made ice cream at Carvel.  A good day!  EXCEPT that darn battery, which we again had to jump, then ran for an hour to charge.  At this point we were sure we needed to replace the engine start battery, and correct the wiring of the ACR.  Meantime, we snapped this photo of another oyster-related icon of Oyster Bay, one of two or three that were combing the bay:

Oyster harvesting vessel

Saturday, Sept 14 -- With water a bit choppy, Dorothy brought the boat to the dock unscathed (yeah!), so that we could buy a battery.  However, they did not have the right kind, so we headed on, bound for City Island.  Fred called ahead and found a Group 27 AGM battery at Bridge Marine Supply, which they kindly delivered to the North Minneford Marina.  We sailed on a lovely beam reach, with wind NW ~12 knots (although we didn't know the true wind because our GPS had stopped working again when the battery issue recurred), with speed over water reaching 7.2 at times!  As we approached a buoy near Execution Rocks (!) that we needed to keep to port, and we saw that we were not going to be able to do that on the current tack, we decided to start the engine, and ... right, it would not start.  Fred deployed the jumper cables yet again, and we were both surprised and extremely concerned that it still wouldn't start.  Miraculously, Fred thought to check the breaker inside the engine compartment, which was tripped and prevented the engine starting.  After flipping that, it did start with the jumper cables.  That was quite unnerving, and we kept it on until we were in a slip and ready to connect to shore power.  Fred got the new battery in and corrected the wiring on the ACR, and we charged on shore power overnight.  We tried starting the engine before bed, and were relieved that it started!!!  We got showers ... one of the benefits of being at a marina!!

Sunday, Sept 15 -- Shore power means the sewing machine comes out, a favorite pastime and stress reducer for Dorothy.  Today's creations:

A dozen tissue pack covers

I like the ones on the bottom right the best.

Fred had gone into City Island and scoped it out, and after my sewing fest, we both went in.  City Island Avenue runs the length of the island, a mile and a half or so.  We walked to the north end and back, checking out the shops and buying this and that, including submarine sandwiches.  A few sights:

City Island Ave road sign, street lamp, architecture

Slate sidewalk.  Does anyone else remember riding their bikes on these?

Slate sidewalks with guard dogs.

Back to the boat, out of the slip, and now anchored at Throg Neck Bridge in preparation for passage through Hell Gate tomorrow.  Here is tonight's sunset:

Sunset over Throg Bridge

And finally, a map of where we are and where we've come in the last 6 days.  You can also see Warwick, RI, on the map, where we originated this trip.

The last 6 days.