Memorial Day Weekend, Heather joined us on a trip to Montauk, NY. Got a little sailing in but as usual it was mostly motorsailing. Spent a little time at the Ditch Plains beach and Heather got a some photos of a reasonably well known actor. She totally missed his hot wife who was nearby. Go figure. BTW the definition of a reasonably well known actor is... one that I've heard of (and seen on TV, at least) but not a movie mega-star. Heather also got the chance to meet up with some friends who were vacationing in the area. A very light wind on the return trip gave us a chance to play with (for the first time) our spinnaker. It worked, got dried out, but was not a great success. Plus, Carol hates spinnakers.
The third week in June had us in West Neck Harbor at Shelter Island, NY. We met the Squadron there for a raft-up and we all had a grand time. One minor issue was dragging our anchor Saturday morning when three boats were rafted with us. Two more than I like but it's hard to say no. Re-anchoring solo was not a big deal and then another boat came to raft with us afterwards but we had no further problems. We had our usual get-together in the afternoon and had two dozen people aboard. A drop in participation from last year. The other major event was the discovery of how many barnacles we had growing on the bottom of our boat. They were huge and covered large sections of the hull. We got started on scraping but ran out of air and energy before the job was done. Blood was shed. Mostly by me. Didn't do the barnacles any good, either. On the voyage home we caught an unidentified fish (maybe a Coho) near The Ruins near Gardiner's Island, NY. Released it.
We just got back a few days ago from a mini-cruise to Port Jefferson, NY. for the 4th of July holiday. We left on the Thursday before the holiday weekend and sailed (sailed!) towards Mattituck, NY. We got as far as the eastern end of Plum Island before we ran out of ocean and had to turn west into the wind and motor the rest of the way. Quite typical. A mile or two from the Mattituck Inlet entrance we caught a bluefish. It was about 16-18 inches and we should have kept, filleted and ate it but we were so close to the end of this leg of the trip we didn't want to be bothered. Released it. Going down the creek Carol suddenly asked about the low hanging power lines and the height of our mast. I had gone under (and cleared) the wires last year and felt we would be okay but I didn't remember if the height of the tide would be an issue. A couple of minutes of nervousness but no wire touching was the result. I found the info on the chart after we were under and saw we had at least 13 feet of clearance under the most adverse possible conditions but it sure looks closer! While anchoring we got a lobsterpot buoy caught in the port prop. No damage but someone missed seeing it ahead of time. A quick free-dive got it cleared. The next day we headed out to go to PJ (Port Jeff). Motored right into the wind the whole day. Caught another bluefish when we neared PJ. This one was maybe 12 inches and we let it go, too. Getting too picky.
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Heather came to the harbor by train and we spent three nights anchored there. Decent fireworks on Sunday (the 4th) night. Finished the bottom scraping job with no further bruising or bloodshed. Monday there was no wind on the Sound and we headed back to Mattituck under power. Caught another bluefish as we got close. This one was less than 12 inches and we let it go. Decided we should not have let the 18 incher go a few days ago. We anchored and Heather quickly jumped off the boat to catch a train back to the City. Tuesday was another H-H-H and low wind day and we finished our trip back to Mystic. Did NOT catch a fish. I guess the lure doesn't work anymore. Maybe it's broken. We had an encounter with an unescorted submarine. We got a 500 yard warning from them and altered course even though we had the right-of-way. Post 9/11 rule... stay away from warships. It was brutally hot for the third straight day, even on the water. Carol did some trolling (dangling feet in the water) while underway even though we encountered sharks shortly after doing this a year ago. .JPG)
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The only major down note of the summer is the end of my relationship with the Meriden Humane Society. They decided that nepotism and egos were more important than a core of four dedicated cat volunteers. People who were there many hours a week and donated items and money became redundant over a parody of ridiculous postings of sophomoric rules. Too bad. One of my fellow volunteers donated hundreds of dollars and hours a month but was unappreciated and unwanted. This is a 'no-kill' shelter but not always a 'no-suffering' shelter. Many damaged people running the place. Animals sometimes are undercared for as a result.
