August 24, 2014
Length of Trip: 16 days Nautical Miles Traveled: 340 Hours of Cruising: 30 hours Longest Cruising Day: 4 hours, 50 NM (on one engine): Sag Harbor, NY - Stratford, CT Pleasant Surprise: Block Island, RI Biggest Disappointment: Downtown Montauk, NY Favorite Destination: Martha's Vineyard, MA Favorite Meal: 1770 House, East Hampton. NY
August 23, 2014
Saturday morning we cleaned the boat inside and out, did laundry and took all the perishables off the boat. I tried to convince Kirk and Mary to grab a cab and head to Greenwich, CT to enjoy a nice day in town instead of working on the boat with us, but they refused. They are very hard workers (Kirk's cleaning skills an determination rival John's) and while the help and organization was great, but I felt a bit guilty about it as they were our guests! We put a few sweaty hours in, got packed and...
August 22, 2014
We untied the next day to head out to Port Jefferson. About an hour into the cruise, there was a thud, then the sound of a little underwater clatter and the engine sound went from smooth to not so smooth. In the boat's wake, two dark pieces of a smallish log drifted their separate ways. So, on what was to be the second to last cruise on our trip, we had to begin running on one engine as seemed certain the propeller blades had been bent. We ran slowly while John and Kirk did some planning and...
August 21, 2014
We rode bikes through Sag Harbor to breakfast then Mary and I headed to East Hampton to check out the shops in town and John and Kirk took a ride around the harbor in the tender testing out it’s speed (or lack thereof) while checking out the harbor full of fancy boats. They later joined us there for dinner at The Living Room which is a Scandinavian restaurant in The Maidenstone Hotel, a charming, warm, yet chic hotel at the end of town. When we arrived, we were the only guests there. By the...
August 20, 2014
The next morning we worked out at the fitness club at MYC, then had lunch at a taverny type place called The Dock before heading out to Sag Harbor. The cruise to Sag Harbor was the best yet, so glassy and smooth it was like a lake. After docking and boat cleaning, we took a 7 mile cab ride to East Hampton to check it out. As expected, the very upscale town of East Hampton offered many high end shops which Mary and I plan to explore in detail tomorrow as we will be here for two days. We had...
August 19, 2014
The next morning we cruised across the Sound to Montauk Yacht Club, where we had a nice lunch at the Club. They have a shuttle to town, so we took advantage of that and walked around Montauk which was disappointingly tacky. Our restaurant for dinner did not disappoint, however, as we had lovely meal at a restaurant called Harvest in their garden overlooking the Fort Mill Pond. There were beautiful swans with several grey signets and giant carp sticking their faces out of the water looking for...
August 18, 2014
The next day we were up early to walk through Newport to tour some of the Mansions. We went to The Elms, The Breakers and Marble House. First we took the Servant Life Tour at the Elms to see behind the scenes areas of the house and what the servants lives were like. The Elms was built by the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind. Completed in 1901, its design was copied from the Château d'Asnières in France. The house was so efficiently run and the thought and organization that went into making it...
August 17, 2014
The next morning we unrafted from two other boats and had a pleasant cruise to Newport, RI. Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island 23 miles south of Providence, and 61 miles south of Boston. A New England summer resort and home of famous Newport Mansions. An 18th-century port city, Newport now contains among the highest number of surviving colonial buildings of any city in the United States and apparently was the center of piracy during the late 17th and early 18th century. So many...
August 16, 2014
The next day it was breakfast at the Art Cliff Café, and then to packing (Nunziati’s had to catch a Ferry to the mainland then to transport to the airport). Bon Voyage John and Nancy – we will miss you!!!!!! After the Nunziati’s departed, we cleaned and did laundry for a couple of hours, then rented bikes for a ride to Edgartown, 8 plus miles away. It was beautiful – riding by marshes and beaches and Cape Cod style houses perched by the white-capped sea overlooking the gorgeous...
August 15, 2014
We unrafted by 7:30 am the next morning to hurry to our next destination: Martha’s Vineyard. After a couple hours of smooth cruising (John and John saw dolphins) we arrived to the quiet and charming little harbor. Often called just "The Vineyard," the island has a land area of 100 square miles. It is the 58th largest island in the US and the third largest on the East Coast. It is also the largest island not connected to mainland by a bridge or tunnel on the East Coast of the United States. In...