Saturday morning we were off the moorings at Deering Harbor’s
Shelter Island Yacht Club at 6:30am – and on out to the trip along Long Beach
to Orient Point.
Ed Bausman’s suggestion
worked perfectly – in fact we have a picture to prove his point – over in the
PICTURES page of this blog.
Ed has noted that the “typical” boater in our situation
would travel up to Orient Point, spy the lighthouse, and then use it as a
turning point to pivot into the Sound.
Not good. They get beat up in the
tumult in the gut, and are not happy.
Rather, he suggested, stay clear of the gut, point to the NorthEast to
head towards, and get close to, Plum Island, and THEN turn NorthWest to travel
along the coast-line, as close as prudent, until clear of the confused water in
the gut. This system worked very well
for us.
Sure, the water was roiling and
confused where we were, but it was worse “over there” to our port-side and
further out towards the center of the channel. High speed within the gut?
About 9 knots on the GPS. And
then for the next half hour or so, a steady 7.5 to 8 – and for the next several
hours: 6 to 7. We were moving right along.
I think that we had made a subconscious decision to go for
the “home-run” for the day – but this sustained boost of favorable current
sealed the deal. Now, we were: “Homeward Bound.”
There is another secret to coming into the Sound via Plum
Gut, rather than the Race or Fishers Island Sound: it’s closer to home! Roughly speaking, Plum Gut is South of
Saybrook, the Race is South of New London and if you are coming out of Fishers
Island Sound you are barely past Mystic before it opens up.
More specifically, Plum Gut is “only” 56 miles from Greens
Ledge Light (on a course of 275m). Add another
9 miles to the Gut from Deering – and there you have it: a 65-mile day. (By the way, in contrast, Race Rock is 64
miles from GLL)
What do you do, then, for the next eight hours, on the long
ride home? Beats me. I don’t know where the time went – I knew it
was going to be a long ride – I knew it was going to be boring – I knew that
the wind would eventually come up in the late afternoon (it always does) – and the
time went by. Roger and I had a deal
that – we would check in with each other ‘on the hour.’ The conversation would go like this: “Owl, this is Lovinde.” “Owl here.”
“Owl – this hour we averaged 5.5 knots, we have 26 miles to go, and our
ETA is still 6:30pm.” “Very good, steady
as you go, talk to you in an hour. Standing
by on 72.” “Roger, Roger: standing by on 72.”
And then the new hour would start.
What do you do for the hour?
Turn the VHF on to scan all stations – listen in on a race committee
looking for enough air to start their race (Boy, did they need a Sam Bridges on
their signal boat – Sam would have secured proper reports from the Mark and Pin
boats – shortened the course and got a few races on the books, in just the time they dithered
around). Drag the anchor line behind, so
as to unkink it. Vary the diet: one hour for Chips Ahoy, one hour for Fig Newton’s. Charge the cell phone off of the spare 12-volt
motorcycle battery. Do a calculation as
to gas consumption and figure out what the margin would be in fuel. (Yes, I used five of the six 3-gallon tanks
in the run, and had one 3-gallon tank to spare on arrival at home). Call radio checks on the Sea-Tow automated
answer-back system.
Well – that used up about 55 minutes – during the next 5
minutes, gather, and log, the statistics for the next cryptic hourly check
in with Roger: average speed, distance to go,
ETA. And then the next hour begins.
Look, it was a long trip – right down the center of the
Sound. But it made the Sound “ours” –
i.e. from end to end (end to Home) – we ‘owned’
it today. The day went by – the miles
went by – and it was good.
About Branford, however, the flood current gave out – and the
ebb started – and then the hours got longer.
But a breeze came up: a little sailing, a little motor-sailing, then a little sailing. None the less - it took an age to get by New Haven, and then, Bridgeport was a real
problem: it is big. You start seeing Bridgeport’s features long
before you are South of them …. And then when you think you are past the mouth
of the harbor – the ferry crosses waaaaay in front of you ….you are not done
with Bridgeport yet.
Then the local landmarks start to appear – Penfield Light
falls behind you, and then the fine stretch along Fairfield, Southport,
Sherwood Island – leads to Cockenoe and the Norwalk Islands: HOME.
Arriving about 6:30pm – I was early for the Midnight high
tide that could get me into Holly Pond – so I diverted to SoNo Seafood’s ‘dock
and dine’ and had a pleasant interlude with PJ and Peter. Roger went home to
the FiveMile River, and crashed at home, taking a pass on one more lobster
dinner. After supper, Peter and I
brought Lovinde from SoNo around to Noroton YC, where PJ picked him up.
Then, it was soon time to cross the dam at
Holly Pond, and a beautiful moon-lit approach to the dock at home – quite a
satisfying end to a satisfying 6-day voyage AROUND LONG ISLAND.
My co-conspirator in this trip? Lovinde.
The boat is sound. The boat
takes care of me. Remember the
double-reef episode on Day 1? Fine. Remember
the grounding on one of Great South Bay’s mud flats? (Of course you don’t, ‘cause I didn’t write
about that one – editorial control, y’know.)
The boat is a ‘work-boat’ – that is – a lot of work would bring it up to
the brilliant standard that Roger sets for his OWL – what a beautiful boat she
is. But Lovinde is my pal – she is a
good trustee, a guardian, a play-pal who gets me there – safely – and with oh,
so much joy and good cheer.
The other co-conspirator?
Roger Klein – who had this trip on his ‘bucket list’ too. I haven’t talked to him about this – but I
have to say – this trip – or another one like it ….. is STILL on my bucket list
….this event does not get ‘scratched off the list’ the way Morgan Freeman and
Jack Nicholson scratched off their ‘to-do’ list. No … this type of a trip is a ‘keeper,’ – I’ll
do it again in a heartbeat, ……or two.
Signing off for now – Frank
On behalf of Roger
Klein and Frank Kemp’s splendid adventure:
Catboats
Around Long Island 2014 - - - - - - Catboats Forever!
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