Long Island South Shore Get Together

[RobS]

Our plan is Watch Hill Fri thru Sun. Depending on how busy I am at the office I will either take Fri off or work a half day. So we will be there in the AM or afternoon. Glad you can make it Matt. Hopefully Gery (and anyone else) will as well.....

[RobS]

When are you thinking of? Karen has changed her idea for our September vacation to possibly be Montauk.

Well Ric, the weekend of July 19th is set. Are we worth 200 to 250 naut miles ?

We'd love to have you and Karen. If you can make it I'll supply all the Heineken and Pyrat Rum you can drink

[RicM]

Rob:

You are certainly worth the miles, but we are not going anywhere for a while. Karen's Mom (84) is having surprise hip surgery on Monday. She was scheduled for Sept but an opening has occurred and she needs to get this done badly. We are still talking about a week long trip to the LI area in September, most likely 6th-14th, with stops on Block I, Montauk, Greenport, and Fishers' I. Hopefully we'll see you then.

[RobS]

Keep in touch as the Sept. trip approaches and my best to Karen and her Mom.

[RobS]

Was reading "Boating World" at lunch and found this in an article titled "Fireworks By Boat"

[mhanna]

Should be in a good spot to see the fireworks then !!!!

Matt

[Legacy]

Hope you all had a good holiday. My wife and I were in Old Saybrook, CT this past weekend, what a great area for future raft ups. Looking forward to exploring CT River too.

All the best,

Rick

[RobS]

Should be in a good spot to see the fireworks then !!!!

Matt

Wonder if we should stay at Watch Hill or take one of our boats out across the bay to get a little closer for the show We may then be putting ourselves in the line-of-fire with the drunks on the go-fast boats

[gerygarcia]

Hey all

Just got back from Greenport. Just to let you know, they have moved the buoys around just east of the Moriches Inlet. On our way out to Greenport we went through the shoaling area and made it without touching bottom - barely (going there at the highest point of the tide). Coming back we were going though the same area and the bouys were missing. We were following our gps track and were surprised. Needless to say we ran aground (soft) and were able to turn around and find the "revised" route taking us further north of the previous buoy settings. There were at least 5 other boats making U-turns. I am sure there were a few boats this weekend that needed sea tow. So if anyone is going through that area, be on the lookout for the new path.

On another note
We are making plans to to go to Watch Hill this up coming weekend. We'll probably be going on Saturday for the overnight and the fireworks. Hopefully we'll be able to dock close to you guys! I've got my burgee ready Looking forward to meeting you soon!

[RobS]

Just to let you know, they have moved the buoys around just east of the Moriches Inlet.

They have relocated buoys 27, 28 & 29. I believe this was in the afternoon on Thurs 7/10. The way it was described to me by a CG member was that you'll be hooking around closer into Hart Cove (more to the North as Gery put it).

Gery, hope Greenport was good. Glad to see you are planning on coming to Watch Hill - looking forward to it.

[gerygarcia]

Just to let you know, they have moved the buoys around just east of the Moriches Inlet.

They have relocated buoys 27, 28 & 29. I believe this was in the afternoon on Thurs 7/10. The way it was described to me by a CG member was that you'll be hooking around closer into Hart Cove (more to the North as Gery put it).

Gery, hope Greenport was good. Glad to see you are planning on coming to Watch Hill - looking forward to it.

Greenport was okay. Stayed at Townsend Manor Marina. Next time I have to request a floating dock. It's a PITA with a baby. Low tide makes it hard to get on and off
I think it will get easier as she gets older

There is a possible chance we might be able to make it to Watch Hill on Friday evening!
I'll let you guys know.

[mhanna]

Gery,,,, hope you can make it tomorrow. We are here now, it cooled down some and turned into a great evening.

Matt

[RobS]

Unfortunately, Gery did not get into a slip. Matt and I spotted Gery circling in the marina late morning Saturday but there were more boats circling than there were slips available.

Matt and I both arrived Friday morning and were early enough to get side by side on C/D dock.

Thanks to Dr. Paul a few slips down I soon realized that this dock was named “C/D” for “chewing and drinking” as the great food and mixed drinks offerings were continuous over the 3 days. I ended going home with food in the cooler but we did manage to finish all of the beer we brought along.

The weather was ideal – warm breezy days and comfortable nights with a continued breeze. The breeze never let up – reminded me of Caribbean weather.

Sunday AM we awoke to thick fog that appeared to be lifting right up until the point when we started to pack up the boats and prepare for departure – then it came back in heavy – pea soup.

The first 8 miles of my 15 mile ride home was fine, enough visibility to run on plane safely. Once I approached the area of the Smith Point Bridge the fog thickened to twice as thick as it was when I left Watch Hill Marina. If it were this thick at the marina I would never have left as I had nothing on Monday morning's schedule that was pressing.

So under and then beyond the bridge, tugging along safely under 2000 rpms, I had the radar dialed in where I could differentiate between bouys, stationary boats and moving boats. I did my best to stay to the right in the channel and to stay to the right of all my radar marks with the exception of what I knew were the Red Nuns.

A few times I had fast moving marks coming straight at me and I was picking up their wakes as well. What made this a bit uneasy was the fact that at this point I am in a 4.5 mile stretch known as the Narrows, with an avg depth of about 7ft. The channel is well marked but very narrow. In some areas if you pass a boat coming at you the spray of each boat will touch. Other areas are more open but still not much room to maneuver. I just kept it to the right and all boats passed uneventfully on my left side.

So, at one point I was riding the right edge of the channel in about 5-6 ft of water in one of the tightest sections of the Narrows and a mark is moving fast right on me. I must have sounded like a fighter pilot or an episode of Empire Strikes Back. “We’ve got one coming in – heading right for us – and fast!” Idling in gear with hand on throttle, I’m trying to stay to the right of the mark and in no time flat I’m in 3.0ft of water and it drops to 2.8ft so I have nowhere to turn to on my right – can’t go left cause he “should” be going that way - nowhere to run. Now I can hear him running and I can hear the water he's pushing, then he appears out of the fog on full plane and passes me on my left! And wouldn’t you know it – It’s a Town of Brookhaven official boat. I guess the low draft of the twin outboards allowed him to continue thru the less than 3ft of water he passed through. I prayed he ran aground but he did not. What a f#$%ing jackass! I taught me kids a few new words (that of course they NEVER heard before).

From then on it was uneventful and team TOY-RIFIC made it home just fine, thanks to first mate Erika's diligent lookout, the electronics and good old common sense seamanship.

It was a great time had by Rob, Erika, Grace & Elle on TOY-RIFIC and Matt, Janet & the pups on Doghouse and the various friends and family that came over to visit both boats. The crowd at Watch Hill was an absolute pleasure and we surely met some nice people over the 3 days. We will do it again and hopefully be joined by Gery and others LI’ers. Here’s a few shots of the Albins at dawn.









In this shot you can see the dock is loaded with “Clorox Bottles.” Matt and I had more rod holders between us than there were on the other 50 boats on the dock combined.

[Elizabeth Ann]

Looked like a great time, despite how crowded it looked.

Hey Matt, Is your boat located in Bayshore by Dicksons?

[gerygarcia]

Looks like you guys had a great time. I am sorry I was not able to get docking at Watch Hill.

On Friday I called to try and make reservations attempting to get get a slip but all of the slips they had allotted for reservations were taken. Around 11am they said they had 4 slips available (first come first served), but there was no way for us to make it out there that early. On Saturday morning I called at 8:45 am and they said they were completely full - except for dayslips. Well, we probably should of left much earlier than we did to possibly get a slip that would work for us, but it didn't happen. We left and arrived at the basin around 12:30 - too late in my opinion. We attempted to squeeze into two slips to no avail, plus the wind was blowing pretty hard. After circling around, we decided that it wasn't going to happen for us . I guess next time we'll have to be a little more proactive with the reservations thing. It was a very popular weekend (probably due to the fireworks). I hate to say "next time" because thats no guarantee.

Sorry Rob about the fog situation and the Town of Brookhaven boat. They should know better than that.

We ended up going to Great River for the day. My father and mother came with one of my nieces on their 27 Whaler. We rafted together till late afternoon and went home in pretty rough weather. We had the "car wash" effect blasting through the waves with the wind whipping. Better than the fog you guys had to deal with.

It was probably for the best that we couldn't stay overnight, because little Marissa developed pink eye sometime either Friday night or Saturday during the day. We were able to get anitbiotics on Sunday to treat her.

Hopefully I'll be able to get together this summer with you guys. There is still alot of summer left.

Watch Hill is definately a fun place. Missed a good time for sure.