We got up early to take Archie in to shore and were able to pull up our anchor by 7 a.m. The day was overcast and it was quite foggy when we left the Thimble Islands. Thankfully, the seas were pretty calm and there was very little boat traffic as we cruised along the Connecticut shore heading towards City Island.
Examining all the weather apps convinced us that staying on the southeast side of City Island would provide the best protection from the winds. We called the South Minneford Yacht Club that had been recommended by the NYPD police officer we met on our last visit. The yacht club was very responsive to our calls but they urged us not to come because of the approaching storm. However, when we told them of our plight they assured us that they would have room for us in a safe berth.
We approached the yacht club after a seven hour cruise and a Tow Boat US kindly escorted us to the entrance of the marina. Several dock hands were present to help us tie up. South Minneford Yacht Club is located at the far southeast end of City Island, the exact opposite location of the Harlem Yacht Club where we usually stay. Where the Harlem Yacht Club has only mooring balls but a beautiful club house with a restaurant and bar, South Minneford has completely rebuilt floating docks but just a temporary portable building for their clubhouse. They were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy and apparently put all their investments in building excellent wide floating docks with full finger piers between each berth. We chose this club due to its safer positioning with the oncoming storm and the convenience of being at a dock with easy access to land.
Once we tied up, the work began. We spent 3.5 hours taking down everything. Jonny kept insisting that because it was a named storm we had the obligation to take down all our canvas. We kept “discussing” whether we had to take down the bimini since we had already removed all the Stratoglass. Back and forth we went, Jonny leaning towards doing so, me leaning against it because the winds were not predicted to exceed 40 mph. When Jonny called out to the dockmaster asking for his opinion, he said to take it down and so we did. If we hadn’t done so Jonny would have fretted all night! By now the V berth was filled with all that had been removed. We were pretty exhausted by then so fortunately we had leftovers for dinner.
That night it rained some and the boat was a little rolly but not bad at all. We expected the worst of the storm the next day but even though it rained quite a bit we never got any of the expected winds. The storm was heading towards eastern Long Island and expected to hit Rhode Island. It turned out that our friends in East Hampton called it a bust but Jonny’s cousin David in Rhode Island was one of thousands there who lost power. We definitely dodged a bullet! Jonny then spent the day lamenting that we hadn’t needed to take everything down as we did!
It was expected to rain all day on Monday so we thought we would have a totally down day. As it turned out, the sun came out and we were able to put the flybridge back together, bimini and all, stopping intermittently for the occasional short shower.
That night we rewarded all our hard work with a date night dinner at Arte’s a local restaurant with good traditional Italian fare. The best dish we ordered was a scungilli salad which was especially delicious. Lynn was eager to try their clams casino so we shared three appetizers and split a dish of very good pasta. It was a fun night.
We are now officially starting the return portion of our journey as we plot out our travels over the next few weeks. We plan to resume our cruise on Tuesday afternoon.
Glad it was not a problem for you, except for all the work.
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