SAILS 1990 45 Florida Bay Coaster
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SAILS....Cruising Blogs
These are all the Blogs posted on Sunday, 13 May, 2012.
New York,NY to Port Jefferson,NY
Florida to Rhode Island- Day 29
We departed from our anchorage at approximately 1040 hours and headed slowly out to New York Harbor and The Battery. We wanted to arrive to The Battery two hours after low tide. When you do this you have a boost all the way up the East River and well up Long Island Sound. Low tide was at approximately 0930 hours and it would take us about 45 minutes to get there from the anchorage. No current at all coming out of the anchorage but when we hit New York Harbor we had a tremendous outbound current that set us sideways. Turning up in to the current towards The Battery we were barely able to make 5 knots but as soon as we passed across the Hudson River and into the mouth of the East River we started picking up speed.... 6 knots… 7 knots… 8 knots… 9 knots…. 10 knots… we felt like we were flying… LOL

The 10 knots we only saw a few minutes in the narrower portions of the East River… when we went through Hell Gate I thought we might see more than 10 knots but we didn’t. We carried these speeds all the way up the East River and out into Long Island Sound. Once into the Sound we slowed to about 8 knots and passing City Island we leveled off at around 7.5 knots.

When we entered Long Island Sound someone let the small boats out… they were everywhere… power and sail. Couple of sailboats pushed the limits and came right across our bow (cross channel) and glared at us as they passed 150 feet off our bow. I think with just the size difference between them and us they would not do things like this… and the boaters here all seem to not be as friendly as the ones you cross paths with further south… wave at them and they just stare… no waves back… no smiles… nothing… We keep waving anyway.

Leaving so late we opted to stop at Port Jefferson which would put is there around 1800 hours. It was actually getting fairly windy as it has been in the late afternoon… nothing like we have seen but it was out of the southwest at 15-20 knots as we pulled into Port Jefferson. Reading in the cruising guides there was a city or town mooring field. It was forecast for rain tonight and it was already windy and might get worse so we decided to get a mooring ball. Guides told us that they were $40 a night and it included free launch service… YEAH! No dropping dinghy to get Beecha to land... awesome!

We arrived at approximately 1750 hours and hailed the Port Jeff Moorings on VHF channel 68… a real friendly young lady answered and gave us instructions as to where to go and that she would meet us at the mooring ball. We rounded green can number 9 as instructed and headed towards the launch that was already at a mooring ball. We danced around the launch and mooring ball with SAILS as she tried to hand us the mooring pendant… the wind and current were working against her on the launch and she would swing in front of us each time we approached her. Finally, she dropped the pendant and moved away from the ball which let me bring SAILS right up to the ball and grab the mooring pendant with a boat hook. We were securely on the mooring at 1800 hours at approximately N40°57.020’, W073°04.234’.

She brought the launch alongside SAILS and secured it and we discovered the new mooring ball rates… $40 was last year… it’s now $45 and the included launch service is still included but because of it being May 13th (pre season) the launch is on a reduced schedule… stopping at 1800 hours and starting at 0900 hours in the morning. So no free launch service for us… we dropped the dinghy and took Beecha to land. She did allow us to dock at the reserved launch only area… the marinas is the area charge $10 to tie up your dinghy otherwise.

We traveled for 7 hours and 20 minutes covering 53.83 nautical miles averaging 7.34 knots.
Posted at 8:32 PM by:Jay
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