Our boating season winds down

Our neighbors on A-dock have begun to leave for winter storage. On Sunday morning, October 16, the docks look deserted. In fact, we were the only ones still on our boat. There is a little chill in the air now and when we meet boating friends, the most often asked question is, "When are you leaving?"

For us, that will probably be next weekend. A few will stay into November, but most will take their boats home or, for the larger boats, head off for one final cruise to a marina where they will be hauled, winterized and shrink wrapped.

It's funny how accustomed you become to seeing the boats and the people during our much-too-short five month summer boating season. We hate to see those now empty slips

Some of our neighbors won't be back next year. Dick and Pattie's Maxum is for sale. Pretty nice boat at a reasonable price. Send us a message if you'd like their number.

Seems funny to see Lou and Janie's Four Winds sitting there without its top. They'll be heading down river soon, too.

This Carver has been at the marina much longer than we have. It's almost a fixture on the dock near the restaurant.

And the marina's restaurant is now closed, the barstools that we populated during the summer now upside down on the bar. The food was good this year and it was a place we enjoyed. Granted, the name isn't very original, but who cares?

The big tent that hosted so many weddings and other affairs during the summer has been taken down. Odd to see this space empty.

Just our faithful old Merc in the parking lot.

Frances and our boat cat, Pooka, have spent almost the entire summer on the boat and that alone made it worthwhile. We visited Greenport a couple of times and spent a week at Block Island and had some guests who enjoyed the boat. Time (and money) well spent, it seems to us, and we intend to do it again next year.

We'll continue our blog during the winter as we get through our list of boat improvements that we want to make. We've also vowed to spend time together doing other things, not boat related, during those long winter weekends.