Before we started cruising year-round, we used to take a two week cruise on the Sound, and we were excited to get back to that this year. We spent the weekend racing on our friend’s J/80, Upsetter, in Huguenot’s Governors and Mayors Cup races. Rushmore had some engine issues and canceled racing for the weekend, so we jumped at the chance for a ride on Upsetter (turns out Rushmore was fixed in time, and seeing them out on the race course felt a little like cheating on our regular crew). The J/80 is a totally different beast than anything I’ve raced before, but she was a TON of fun to sail. I came away with a few bruises and lots of learnings.
After Sunday’s post-race party, we finished a little prep and cast off the lines for our summer cruise. We split the cruise between a working week and a week totally off from work, and we absolutely could NOT wait to sail the waters we called home for so long. Sunday’s wind was light, but with the power boats mostly gone home for the night, we had a beautiful, lazy sail at around 3.5 kts in 6 kts of breeze. We were only going to Oyster Bay, so we had the luxury of letting our boat speed rise and fall with the wind speed. We were treated to a beautiful sunset, and as the lights of the city became visible in the distance, I found myself tearing up with joy. After missing out on being able to sail Windara on the Sound last year, it was overwhelming to sail the waters we love on our floating home.
The anchorage off of Cove Neck in Oyster Bay has been a favorite spot of ours for years, and when we had Silent Sky, it was a comfortable distance for a weekend sail. We could make it to Northport, but we always felt like those weekends were rushed, so we ended up spending TONS of time at Cove Neck. We were in well after dark and were greeted by a chorus of katydids and crickets, and when we woke in the morning we were reminded why that spot was almost a second home.
We spent Monday night at anchor and decided to get a mooring at OBMC on Tuesday so that we could have a nice dinner at 2 Spring. (The big drawback to Oyster Bay is that there isn’t a public dinghy dock.) We didn’t realize that Oyster Bay was hosting a classic car show, and we had fun checking out all the cars before dinner.
The next day after work, we motored over to Northport and anchored just north of the mooring field. We spent the next couple days there and visited some old favorites (Sand City Brewing, Shipwreck Diner) and found some new ones (Brew Cheese, Lics Ice Cream). Despite a rainy start to Saturday, we visited the farmers market and picked up a few things before heading out for the Thimble Islands.
We sailed as much as we could, but when our boat speed dropped to under 2kts just before Port Jeff, we turned on the engine. We debated just making Port Jeff our stop instead, but we’ve been meaning to check out the Thimble Islands for years, and we didn’t want to miss the chance. Getting into the anchorage was a little sketchy because of some shallow rocks, but it was an absolutely beautiful spot that reminded us of the coast of Maine. We had a beautiful sunset and a near-full moon, and we spent a couple hours in the cockpit just watching the stars and listening to the chorus of crickets. We were up with sunrise to get ready to head off to Block Island.
Shortly after leaving the Thimbles, we stumbled on a HUGE pod of dolphins feeding. We paused to watch them for a bit before raising the sails for a perfect morning sail. By the time we reached the Race, the wind had died off, so we motored for a while until it came back about 10 miles off Block. I shut off the engine and we sailed that last little bit, and it felt great. We were excited to return to Block after a couple years’ hiatus, but we were equally happy to have the time out sailing.
