Adieu Port Jefferson, Hello Manhasset

Last night we explored Port Jeff, had dinner, located a grocery store
and most importantly had absolutely delicious ice-creams!!! No offense
intended - but we really weren't impressed with the place ... maybe we
had been spoiled by the beauty and "laid-backness" of Shelter Island ...
but we all agreed we had made the right choice to stay in Shelter for
our free day. Anyway it's Adieu Port Jefferson - we probably won't be
back!

Early in the morning a "Morris from Dublin" visited the marina to see
Dinah! Only Bob was up and about at the time - but apparently Morris
became hooked on watching "The Irish Boat" during the OSTAR race, and
saw on Barry's blog yesterday that we were coming into Port Jefferson,
so he came down to take a photograph!!! Quite amazing!

Before leaving harbour we slapped on the sunscreen (factor 85 all over
today... hoping not to make that mistake again on this trip!) and headed
out into a nice 8-9 knots of breeze on the beam. The wind rose steadily
through the day ending up with a 32knot squall just *after* we got into
the marina in Manhasset! Excellent timing on our behalf!!!

We're now in a marina in this lovely harbour - sensibly tied up with our
bow into the wind. Unfortunately our electricity power socket on the
boat is at the stern ... the supply on the shore is forward of the bow
... and our cable is TOO SHORT!!! So near and yet so far ... we're going
to have to make do with battery power only this evening... ah well.

Quite amazingly, the water temperatures today reached 27 degrees...
that's an average swimming pool at home!

As we approached Manhasset we finally were able to see the NY skyline on
the horizon... our first major landmark is now in sight! Tomorrow
morning we'll be up early (6am ... grumble & groan ... other than Bob
none of us are "morning people" so that's going to be painful for Bob
with 3 grumpy crewmates to deal with!) to make the tide through "Hell
Gate" and down the East River. Should be in Liberty Landing (NJ)
mid-afternoon.

We hear that some of the OSTAR skippers who are already crossing the
Atlantic on their homeward journeys are seeing some difficult conditions
... fingers crossed that we'll have an easier time!

Goodnight from Manhasset... thanks for all the emails and jokes today!

Hot hot hot

Phew - today was a hot one! Factor 30 sunblock and sadly I still have got sunburned on my legs ... very, very annoying. That’s the delicate pale and sensitive Irish skin of course... Thankfully Rebecca sourced factor 85 sunblock for me which I used on my face – no sunburn – yippee!!! We’ve been sailing and motoring all day in the bright sunshine, from Shelter Island to Port Jefferson. We started with the tide against us, then with us, and now it’s turned against us again – funny how that happens!!!

Last night we had a fantastic barbeque on the dock in Dering Harbour. Barry did a brilliant job with a screwdriver and a leatherman knife as his only cooking implements. Hamburgers, sausages and sweetcorn, accompanied by macaroni cheese and roasted vegetables ... yummy! A few people came over to chat to us (partly because we had way too much food so we kept offering sausages to anyone who came vaguely within range!) including a lovely couple from NJ who were very interested in the modifications Bob and Barry made to Dinah to make her go faster. They kindly offered us a mooring if we have time to visit their home club before we leave.

While mentioning the Piccozzi family in a previous blog entry, I forgot to mention their cute black & white cat who hangs around the marina, and decided to come on board in the middle of the night... most likely to check out the primary source of the snoring (which wasn’t me I hasten to add!!!). She was also very interested in the barbeque last night, as was an enormous herring-gull which attempted to steal food from it while we were still cooking!

That’s it for now - it’s time to get back on deck to keep an eagle eye out for the millions of lobster and crab pots that are strewn liberally in Long Island Sound.

Exploring Shelter Island

We decided to spend today on Shelter Island, relaxing and exploring in
the glorious sunshine.

A lady came by the boat in the morning while we were having coffee on
deck, asking where we had come from etc. Of course she was amazed to
hear about Barry's exploits. He recounted his tales of his transatlantic
and she promised to get the local press to call by to hear his story!

Meanwhile, Louise and I rented bikes from the Piccozzi family's bike
rental store (which is behind the Piccozzi's gas station, which is
across the street from Piccozzi's marina and next store to Piccozzi's
liquor store ... one gets the impression that the Piccozzis have
business on Shelter Island somewhat sewn up!!!).

We cycled to Shell Beach for a swim where we were both stung by
invisible jellyfish!!! Thankfully the stings were akin to nettles and
died down after a few minutes. But that'll be the explanation for why
no-one else was swimming I guess!

Bob spent the day working on the boat, cleaning floor boards, finding
new homes for diesel cans to make sure we don't have any diesel
accidentally in the bilges on the way home etc. Thank you Bob!!!

Tomorrow we're heading to Port Jefferson, which will take us about 10
hours - so unfortunately that means an early start. We're being
incredibly adventurous tonight barbequing our own food ... without any
proper utensils I might add ... so we're going to have to get creative
with the contents of the tool box ... should be interesting!!!

More from Fort Jefferson tomorrow...

Sunshine, fog and Shelter Island

This morning we left the beautiful Mystic in glorious sunshine, to find thick fog downriver (lots of boats sounding their fog horns!), and almost no wind when we got out into the channel. Instead of a nice day-sail we motored to Shelter Island, passing through several thick banks of fog which only lasted a few hundred metres. The water temperature was more than 20C so after lunch we stopped briefly and Louise and I had a lovely swim... Bob and Barry declined the opportunity, but they were kind enough to help us back onboard after we discovered that Dinah doesn’t have a boarding ladder!!! We’re now sitting in a marina in Dering Harbour on the north shore of Shelter Island, (having of course checked in with the relevant authorities to let them know that we have now cruised into New York state) debating whether we should stay here tomorrow or move on again. Weather forecast is similar to today – so we may not be sailing tomorrow either. Some of the homes on Shelter Island are amazing ... and as I type we are singing along to the music from the wedding of Mr and Mrs. Pete and Vanessa Larson which is taking place on the sweeping lawns of one of the nearest mansions... “You’re my first, my last, my everything!!!... Sounds like a party to crash later! Congratulations Pete & Vanessa – whoever you are! More tomorrow...

Ashore in Mystic

I’ve just arrived to join Barry, Bob and Louise on board Dinah in Mystic Seaport. I’m quite excited to think about the adventure that lies ahead... tonight will be my first night on board Dinah, and I won’t sleep in a “proper” bed again until sometime in early August!!!

Thanks to the kind gentlemen of the TIP team who took me to dinner last night in Baltimore but didn’t keep me out too late, due to (or some would say in spite of!!) Steve Fratini’s map legendary map-reading skills!

Thanks also to Nik, JimM, Martin and Marie for transporting clothing in various directions across the Atlantic for me, and to Nik for setting up this blog space (have a great stag weekend!!! Can’t wait to see the photos J)

And finally for now – thanks to the kind people at Iridium who have sponsored our communications capability on board Dinah, making this blog possible.

I aim to blog every day, giving you a position report and some (hopefully interesting!) updates about our transatlantic crossing, bringing Dinah home to Cobh!

I’ll leave you for this evening with Van Morrison’s lyrics:

Hark now hear the sailors cry

Smell the sea and feel the sky

Let your soul and spirit fly, into the Mystic...