A few days on the ball

Friday, August 29^th – Our best sleep in a long time…proper sized mooring, calm and quiet…we slept for 12 hours.

The next few days, while we wait for our weather window (which looks like mid next week), we will enjoy some down time - some time to relax a bit since we won’t be moving. We fire up the genie to charge the batteries and run the Nutri-Bullet (grinds up fruits and veggies for a healthy drink). We call the Richmond County Yacht Club (RCYC) boat launch (taxi service provided by the club at no cost…just tips) for Julie to go in to town for a few things. I stay on the boat to get a few projects done  I’m still trying to get a handle on the engine oil level. I secure the dinghy to the davits with extra lines for our ocean voyage and fasten a 2”x6”x8’ piece of lumber to the stanchions; this will be where our four jugs of diesel fuel will be mounted on the deck.

Peter Lennon called to finalize plans to pick us up for tomorrow…he’s taking us to Long Island to party with his friends on the beach…how nice is that!

Our first few signs of being by the ocean in salt water is a little crab attached to our mooring line, a jelly fish about the size of a soft-ball comes floating to the top and the hull of the boat looks like a salted peanut.

Julie emailed me from town, excited to report that she is having a manicure & pedicure (all 20 nails cleaned and polished) and she is thrilled to share that she has found a Sushi restaurant for dinner. She returned back smiling and feeling like a million dollars…happy wife, happy life. A little while later we call for the launch boat again, walk up to the street and wait for the public bus to take us to Sushi Excellent. Upon our return, we visit the club next door that has a Tiki Bar next to the water. It’s packed and the wind was chilly. We walked over to RCYC, their club house is closed waiting on building permits to demolish and rebuild new. Their club house was destroyed by hurricane Sandy almost 2 years ago. They took a few pieces from the old bar and now congregate under a tent socially…they have no available bathrooms or shower facilities – 3 latrines in the parking lot. I hear their very clean. We discover over the next few days and Julie put it well… “The club may be broken but the spirit lives on” Great people! Julie and I then press on down the street to Great Kills Yacht Club; we were just exploring and looking for wifi. We make it back to RCYC for 22:45 as the launch boat shuts down at 23:00 on Friday’s and Saturday’s.

Saturday, August 30^th – another great night sleep, we clean ourselves up and wait for Peter to pick us up at 10:00…it happened to be 10:45 as he was suffering from a little hangover. We packed a few things for the beach, eat and drink. 

Looking down the dock

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning for the hour and a half drive through NYC out to Jones Beach where Peter keeps his 33’ power boat. The beach is massive, runs for miles…not something you think of when you think of New York. Peter and Heather are great hosts, we feel welcomed immediately…they introduce us to their daughters and all their friends throughout the day. 

Peter's selfie

A few of the wives

Without getting in to too much detail, they and their friends moor their boats stern in on both sides of the public dock and stay there for weeks, so everyone parties together every weekend…a couple of them have blenders attached to their stern with massive coolers filled with drinks and ice. The setup was surreal, it was so much fun! After a BBQ lunch and some drinks, we all walk to the beach to play in the waves; the water is unexpectedly very warm. Back to the boats in the protected harbour we have a few more drinks, laughs, BBQ steaks for dinner and before we know it, it’s dark and we need to get back for the boat launch by 23:00. Peter has already arranged for a Black Car to take us back. Good times, good laughs, good people!!

Sunday, August 31^st – we slept in from yesterday’s fun, when Peter texted to say that everyone was asking if Julie and I were coming back. We toyed with the idea. Instead, we were feeling pretty hot and sticky, we went ashore at noon to use another clubs shower that was generously offered. 

We went to the Tiki Bar for lunch and headed back to the boat for 15:30, but first, let’s stop for one drink at the RCYC tent…that was the best decision! 

We met and had drinks with the Commodore and his wife (Bob and Rachelle), the Rear Commodore and his wife (Tim and Betsy), the Vice Commodore (Keith), Richard, Brian, Carlos and Santa the awesome Bartender. Tim described RCYC as a drinking club with a sailing problem….that had us laughing for a good while. I asked about other club’s burgees (a pennant identifying each club that members fly on their boat) as many clubs will display other club’s burgees that they receive from boaters as they visit and pass through. They do have them in a box while their club gets rebuilt and we discuss hanging them up under the tent.

Rachelle & Julie

Their plans for the day were to be out on the water rafted (one or more boats tied together in a row), but thunderstorms were forecasted so they brought all their food under the tender which they graciously insisted that we help ourselves to. Rachelle is from St. Vincent (The Grenadines in the Caribbean). She is a great cook and also makes her own homemade pepper sauce, which she had on hand…she gave us the bottle at the end of the night. We didn’t get back to the boat until 20:30 with an invite to join them the next day for a club pot-luck party starting at 14:00.

And a big thank you to the Launch boat crew - Bernie, Zoe, Meredith, Frank, Steve - that we're so very polite, helpful and responsive taxiing us back and forth to our boat....Back at the boat, where we had left our cell phone, there was an email invite from a lady at the GKYC to come up for BBQ’d chicken, ribs, etc…another example of how everyone has been so friendly and welcoming. After charging the batteries, we settled in to watch a movie on the laptop in the cockpit…Life of Pi.