Summer 2013

As summer 2013 comes to a close I must say the season went off without much trouble. Which in boating is surprising . After some tweaking of certain systems onboard the boat ran flawlessly all summer . Had the props scanned and adjusted over the winter but didnt notice any difference in either performance or economy. Removed the factory ice maker from the cockpit and installed an Ac/Dc fridge in its place . We made a few overnight trips to Fire Island and enjoyed every minute as usual. Our long trip was planned for the beginning of August. We departed the south shore of Long Island on Thursday night with a planned stop at a friends marina 15miles East of Robert Moses bridge to meet a few other members and stay the night .we left on time in the Am and headed East to Riverhead. There we spent the day at Atlantis marine world and dinner at the Restaurant nearby.
Again departing in the Am for Shelter Island with 4 other boats we where heading through the Shinnecock lochs. And into Great Peconic Bay. Finally some deep water!  It was reassuring to see 60' of water under the boat and not the usual 3' I was accustom to in the Great South Bay. We met up with more me,bers already anchored in Coecles Harbor just south of Shelter. A well protected anchorage. The other boats had spent the night and where awaiting our arrival. As we tied up in the raft one at a time folks kept walking from boat to boat assisting in the smooth tie up. We spent two night here and the raft grew to 22-24 boats and families. We had arrainged to rent Taylors Island for the day of our feast" feast of the East" was the official name we voted on and what a feast it was..we learned the history of the island and really enjoyed the sunset . The following day we broke off and headed to Block Island RI. A beautiful trip east past Montauk point and some very nice picture opportunities of both the landscape and the boats. As we approached Block Island we had a helicopter take aerial photos of our arrival into port . Some boats where more comfy at slips (Champains marina) others rafter again in a group of 6 or so. We spent 8 days there in paradise no wonder the refer to Block as the Carribean of the northeast! Great weather and friends you can't beat it. Sunday morning we departed Block with a stop in Montauk for gas aft filling up it was time to say our goodbyes for now to our boating buddies as we where headed in different directions, us from Long Island others from Conn,upper New York, New Jersey . The seas where 1'-2' with very little wind as rounded Montauk Point and set a course west to Fore Island inlet. We reached the Great South Bay 6 hours later, backed into our slip and where happy to be home . This was by far the longest overnight boat trip for us and we learned a ton about this type of boating, power management, water management, waste disposal etc. all in all it was a fantastic trip and I thank my friend Alex for putting it all together and watching over us all . So as we come to a close, I'm hoping for one last good weekend of weather to head to fire island to enjoy the very last minutes of the season aboard
"Mirage'"