This past summer (2003) saw us finally taking a cruise for ten days with our friends Rich and Leah. They accompanied us to Capri Marina in Port Washington, then to Milford landing in Milford, CT, where we ran into Steven and Lois, former members of WBYC, who were sailing that weekend. We had a great cocktail party while a tremendous thunderstorm raged around us. When the storm was over, we were treated to a double rainbow as the sun came out again!! From there we all went to dinner and just had a great evening.

The next day we left for Sag Harbor where we stayed at the Sag Harbor Yacht Club (actually a commercial marina). Unfortunately, this marina is directly next to the sewage treatment plant and wouldn’t you know it, there was a problem with the plant that day!! PHEWWWW!!! However, we were assured the odor would be gone by that evening and it was. Sag Harbor is a great town for walking. We wound up going to see the Fireman’s Museum in an old building and the exhibits were very interesting. From there we wandered through this quaint town to the Whaling Museum where we learned how people lived during that period. Just across the street is the library, which is very ornate and has a magnificent domed roof in the upstairs reading room, as well as free internet access downstairs, of which we all availed ourselves.

We had fun hitting the supermarket to replenish the cupboard for lunches aboard, while in the evenings we would hit the local restaurants and sample some great dishes. Rich and I decided to sample the New England clam chowder in each restaurant we visited to try to determine who’s was the best!!

After two days in Sag, we fired up the engines and left for three days at Block Island. The trip across was great. As a matter of fact the weather was terrific the entire trip with one exception, which I’ll get to later.

Brenda loves Block Island!! We stayed at Champlain’s Marina where they raft boats together and it is a real party atmosphere. While there we met a fellow who was staying the season aboard his 36 Marine Trader Aft-Cabin. It turns out in exchange for keeping his boat there he ran a free tour of the island for Champlain’s’. To make it interesting , he was a retired history teacher from the Pt. Jefferson school district, so the tour was terrific.

While at Block we had a great time walking through the town, going into galleries and have a fresh lobster dinner at the landmark Ballard’s. We also felt like kids again, while at the marina we rented giant motor powered inner tubes that were the on water version of bumper cars!! Did we have a ball crashing into each other!!

From Block we then were on our way to Greenport, a location we picked so Rich and Leah could catch the LI railroad home. While crossing Block Island sound a nuclear submarine crossed our path about a half mile in front of us. It was like watching a house move across the water. Once we arrive in Greenport, we just chilled at the pool for the afternoon, as they decided to leave on the evening train instead of the next day. After taking a cab with them to the station, we waited until they boarded and we said our goodbyes before starting to walk back into town for dinner. Lo and behold, while we are looking at a menu outside a restaurant, out comes Diane, a member of our yacht club who owns a home in Greenport!! What a nice surprise!! We would up having dinner with them and then Peter, her husband and I took his Corvette to the boat while the ladies walked back.

What happened next was quite a scare!! At this point it was dark, and while Brenda was walking down the ramp onto the dock, she missed a step and fell into the water between the dock and the transom of a boat!! Fortunately, she did not strike he head or severely injure herself!! Only her pride!! We managed to lower a swim ladder from an adjacent boat and she climbed out of the water looking like a soaked rag!! Needless to say this was the topic of conversation for the next several days as she turned wonderful shades of purple on her back and arms from where she struck herself when she fell.

The next morning, with Brenda feeling somewhat better we decided to get off to an early start for Port Jefferson as this was going to be one of the longer legs of the trip. It was a beautiful clear day with projected winds of only 10-15kts out of the NW. Well, after we rounded Plum Gut and headed into the sound, the winds continued to increase to 20-25 kts out of the WNW right on our nose and the forward starboard quarter. Now in the sound, this kind of wind will develop a mean close chop. In this case it was 2-4 footers right on the quarter. We wound up spending 6 hours riding a bronco, taking spray over the flybridge!! Brenda was sitting on the aft deck in the center of the deck near the salon bulkhead, reading a book. She had the best seat in the house with the least motion. I on the other hand could barely sit in one position!!

Well, we finally made it into Danford’s Marina in Pt. Jefferson, the boat covered in salt, and to add insult to injury, apparently the port holes in the forward cabin were never bedded after the previous owner replaced the wall coverings. There was an inch of water under the berth and in the drawers!!, The brand new mattress was soaked as was the foam backed vinyl wall coverings. So, now exhausted from the trip we had to drag everything up to the aft deck and hose it down with fresh water!! It was a good thing Leah and Rich left the day before, because they would have had no place to sleep that night!!!

After getting Heart’s Desire cleaned up as best we could, we dragged ourselves to a little outdoor restaurant across the street from the marina, had a bite to eat, went back to the boat and crashed for the night!!

The next morning we awoke to a fantastic day, but began to question whether this cruising lifestyle was for us after yesterday’s experience. Well, we left for Pt. Washington and were greeted with calms winds and a flat LI Sound!! Probably the most wonderful leg of the trip so far. Needless to say our prior thoughts were thoroughly trashed!!

We decided to spend another night at Capri before heading home on the final leg of our trip. We had a great ride home the following day, going down the East River. Heart’s Desire performed flawlessly. We averaged less than 5gph for the trip!! The only problem was the need to change the racors twice during the approximately 40 hours of running time due to the tremendous amount of sludge and crud that accumulated from the tanks being stirred up from the trip, hence the installation of the fuel polishing system.