Sounds like you're definitely seizing the days, Doug. It's a treat to read how folks are enjoying their boats. Do you have any photos of your cruise you can share with us?
Gordon M-17 "Sapphire" Milwaukee On Aug 24, 2008, at 1:07 PM, Doug Kelch wrote: > Four M15 owners just returned from another great cruise. > > This one was only 40 miles from Manhattan on Great South Bay. I > understand that it is difficult to find a launching site in NY that > lets you park overnight, but Abbey Gura lives in the area and > hosted the event through his yacht club. Because of the limited > facilities we intentionally kept the group small. > > We kicked off the Cruise on Monday with a great New England lobster > boil, with mussels over pasta. A delicious way to start before > living on one pot meals for the rest of the week :-) > > We took off NE up the bay on Tuesday with an increasingly strong > cold front from the W - NW. Early on I attempted to launch my > spinnaker a couple of times and finnaly got it up. I was able to > have a nice spinnaker run for about 40 minutes before the strong N > wind kicked in and I got close to a broach with the big chute up. > It takes a while to get the spinnaker down while single handing. > The wind then settled in from the WNW and peaked at 18 kts with > gusts to 22 while we were sailing - a great ride. We spend the > night well protected from the strong NW winds in the Connetquot > River next to a very pretty arboretum. > > On Wednesday the N winds were much lighter so we sailed South to > Sailors Haven ( exposed to North winds). The Sea breeze settled in > from the SW so we blew up the kayaks and headed to shore for a swim > and a walk on the ocean side beach. We also hiked a long board > walk trail though the barrier beach canopy - very nice. > > The forecast for the night was for the wind to shift back to the > WNW at 5 kts. We decided to stay the night even though it was > exposed to any wind without a South component. The winds were calm > until about 11PM when the winds came up at 5 -10 kts from the > WNW. We had to break up the raft up as the waves were knocking us > around a bit much. Didn't get much sleep that night. > > On Thursday we motored farther NE up the Bay to Watch Hill (another > delightful location) and arrived just as the SW sea breeze was > starting up. After another Ocean side beach walk, we sailed back > down the bay to Atlantique (WNW) for a delightful sail with the sea > breeze holding steady at 10 - 12 kts. It was about a 14 nm trip > with only one tack - easy to get spoiled here. > > Atlantique is a popular location with lots of ferry traffic and > power boats that ran well into the night. While trying to sleep, > one wake was so strong that the roll tumbled all of my bags from > the starboard side down to the port side on top of me! Not a good > night for sleeping again. > > Friday found us sailing NNW, then NW with that delightful SW sea > breeze at 8 - 10 kts. I managed to get in a delightful 4 nm > spinnaker run in perfect conditions. > > This time the anchorage was in a beautiful cove with lots of deep > water, strongly shelving sand beachs and no houses. - Hemlock cove > - behind Jones beach. Abbey, Rick and Mike combined thier stores > into a clam sauce based pasta feast while the 4 of us stayed rafted > up. I don't do clams so I had to settle for a grilled herb and > garlic chicken breast with brown rice and green beans. I made up > for the hardship by finishing off the good boxed wine. > > Saturday we motored back, packed up and headed home. Everyone was > wishing this cruise could have lasted a little longer. -- Hmm, > maybe this was the first annual Fire Island Cruise. > > Thanks > > Doug Kelch > M15 #310 > "Seas the Day" > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
