August 26. Scout had their anchor up and was underway while we sat for a while at anchor. We had less than 20 miles to do today so we were in no hurry to get moving. We also had free internet that we were able to “borrow” here so we were taking advantage of the opportunity.

Once underway we raised the sails and headed out towards the Connecticut side of the Sound. Our planned stop for the night was Port Washington in Manhasset Bay, N.Y. I was hoping to make a long run across the sound, tack once and sail right to the mouth of the bay.

Yeah, no. We were moving along at a relaxed pace with about 10 knots of breeze. Shortly after tacking the breeze slowly died out and left us to motor the last 10 miles of our day.

Port Washington was our destination because the guide books tell a tale of free town owned moorings for visitors. The town looked cool in the guide as well as having a West Marine and a real full sized supermarket. Oh my.

You are allowed to pick up a mooring for 2 nights for free. So it was nice to see that the guide book was right as that’s not always the case. We were moored next to a cutter rigged ketch that’s got to be over a hundred feet long. It didn’t look that big until I saw it next to Veranda from the dinghy. Our boat looked like a toy next to her.

On the morning of the 27th after the pooping of the dogs we went into town in the dinghy. We walked to West Marine and stopped at the Stop & Shop on the way back to the boat. After taking our provisions back to the boat Christy and I went back into town for an early dinner ashore.

We chose Louie’s, a waterside restaurant. It was a very eclectic crowd with people in business suits, groups of women out for lunch with the girls and me wearing my “homeless sailor chic”. We were given a great table at the edge of the outside deck over looking the anchorage.

Something that I’ve noticed lately is the fact that in an area with a big tidal surge, that at low tide there’s a lot more stink exposed. If the tides only a foot or two there’s not much of a noticeable smell at low tide. Here there’s an 8 foot tide and at low tide there’s practically another zip code exposed. We’re talking about extra acre’s of stinky bottom exposed, just an observation. Consult your tide charts before making reservations at any fancy waterside eatery.

Something else that I’ve noticed that’s a lot more troubling that the smell of low tide is the general attitude of people as we get closer to the city. People seem to be less considerate and down right nasty as we move further west. The VHF is full of immature assholes using the radio to talk as much crap as they can. It’s not uncommon to hear racist “jokes” tearing apart every ethnic group. We’ve listened to the VHF all up and down the east coast and this is really the only area so full of venom and negativity. There might be a rude comment once in a while, but here its common place.

We’ve met some wonderful people up this way and spent some time in beautiful anchorages but we’re really wondering if there’s another trip this far north in our future.