Finally out of the marina and on our way!

Between the weather and work, we haven't been able to go anywhere until this weekend. On Saturday morning, we headed out for Greenport, Long Island but first, we needed to stop at the fuel dock. What a way to begin a cruise. We took on 126 gallons of gas for about $605. That's not really that bad considering that the last time we fueled up it was last October when we left for winter storage.  Since then, we traveled 140 miles on 120 gallons of gas. Well, that's the way we like to think about it.

The trip down the Thames river was uneventful but when we turned west in the Sound, the predicted wind (from the west) was certainly there. Ten knots, they said, but there were whitecaps all the way, which says 15 knots or better to us.

Gardiner's Bay, which is usually a lot easier than the Sound, was really kicking up and there wasn't a boat in sight. We pounded west along Long Beach Island and then near Shelter Island, there were some wind gusts that must have topped 25 knots.

Docking at Mitchell Park Marina in Greenport was, well, interesting, although the crew got us in.

Once settled, Pooka came to life and became his usual self. Pooka loves the boat but hates going anywhere in it.

We went out to dinner with our friend Ellen and her new BBF Dave. Good conversation, expensive dinner, but that's what summer is all about sometimes.

Our marina friends Frank and Barbara had come to Greenport the day before in their beautiful 351 Silverton "Last Resort." We tried to take some pictures of their boat but were only partially successful.

Docked behind "Last Resort" was a 1983 Mainship. The owner, Larry, had just bought the boat and had run it all the way east on the Sound to Greenport from Manhaset in Nassau County. That's a very long ride. Unfortunately, Larry had let his refrigerator run down his engine batteries. Frank lent him a generator but nothing was going to charge those batteries. Eventually, Frank and Barbara had to leave and Larry bought a new battery to jump start his engines. You meet interesting people as you cruise around.

Franks and Barbara left our dock before I had a chance to race up the pier and take some footage of them leaving the marina. We'll get a better shot next time



Here's a little video that isn't meant to be unkind. We've all found ourselves in this situation.



When it was time to leave on Monday morning, we fastened our new video camera to the upper helm and recorded the scene as we left Mitchell Park Marina and headed out to the breakwater. We shortened this sequence to keep you awake. It actually took us 7 minutes to reach the Greenport Breakwater.