The weather was supposed to be good, and it was. We had 10-15 mph winds from the west and that gave us a bumpy ride across the sound. No problem, though. Once into Gardiner's Bay, things calmed down a little and we had a nice cruise down along Long Beach.
Here we are approaching Plum Gut, the entrance to Gardiner's Bay from Long Island Sound. The "Gut" can be rough depending on the tide, but today is was smoother than the Sound. For those of you who pass through here regularly, the marker in the foreground is Red 2 "PG." Beyond that is Plum Island Light.
There are several marinas in Greenport but our favorite is Mitchell Park Marina, which is located right downtown on Front Street. The marina and its adjoining park are beautifully maintained and the marina staff is first rate.
For some reason, even in mid-June, the marina was almost empty. It began to fill up as the weekend approached.
We shot some video of our arrival. It won't be very interesting unless you're a boater, but we'll look back on it next winter and really enjoy it. We asked to tie up at "B14" which is a T-head. No sense in working if we don't have to; just pull up and hand the young man the lines.
We quickly slipped into vacation mode.
Of course, there was Frances' signature flowers. We did take a short walk to the local IGA in search of basil. We found some that were not up to Frances' standards but she needed basil so we took what they had.
The basil completed what Frances needed for dinner. First tomatoes of the year for us.
Everything needs a little more garlic.
The first night we were there, our only neighbor was the "Hannah B," a 125 ft. Westport. No rich folk partying however, just one crew member who turned on some lights inside the boat at night. We might add that said crew member needs a little more training. He forget to take in the flag at 8 PM.
Lunch at The Chequit
Whenever we're in Greenport, we like to take the ferry to Shelter Island and have lunch at the Chequit Hotel.
It's atop a hill in Shelter Island Heights and we like sitting at a table outside under a huge tree and enjoying the magnificent view of the harbor. Frances claims they serve the best mussels she has ever had. Everything taste good with a view like this.
After lunch, we walked down to the harbor and toured the shops in the heights. Lots of beautiful boats and a great bay full of moorings. The shops weren't worth the visit but who cares when you are in a place as nice as this?
Our morning walk
On Friday, we took our usual early morning walk through Greenport. The village itself has a population of only about 2,200 but that number swells during the summer. Front Street has quite a few shops and each year, we check things out to see what's new and what isn't. Many of the places shown in the video (The Coronet, the Arcade, the Rhumb Line, Claudio's, and even White's Hardware) seem like old friends to us. There's a story connected to most of these places for us, but as they say, "You had to have been there" to appreciate them.
Back home
All good things must come to an end, they say, and our trip to Greenport ended perfectly, that is to say, we backed into our slip in Norwich without having to do it twice. We mounted a rear-facing cam to collect the last few minutes of our mini-vacation.
Skip forward, if you like. Good backing takes some time!
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