Provincetown (spoiler alert -- this one involves lobster!)

Do you know how early it gets light this far east and only 4 days from the longest day of the year?  4:30...I know...

A sailboat drifted in late in the evening of last night and anchored near to us.  I have never seen a sailboat this color green...an RV, yes, but never a sailboat!

We didn't leave that early, but we did get a nice, early start to go for a walk on the very tip of the cape of Cape Cod.  Only  5 minutes from Latitudes, the dinghy got her first real run of the trip to a sandy beach.

From a sandy trail up the slight hill, you can see the Long Point lighthouse and it's associated maintenance building.

At the top of the trail stands an old wooden cross, draped with an American flag.

 

 On close inspection there have been many flags here. And no wonder - it is a tribute to a fallen solder in 1944.

Here is the lighthouse from the Cape Cod Bay side.

Of course, tourists were here...

From the point of land, there were great views of the cape.

And town.  What a beautiful clear New England day!

Before we got back in the dinghy, we spotted harbor seals playing in the water. Not the best picture, but hopefully we'll see many more.

Back to Latitudes for showers and lunch, then off to town to do some tourist-ing.  Provincetown is full of narrow, busy streets.

Narrow alleys

 

 

Old Captain's houses with their watches.

and Monuments.

Luke has found his favorite!

Wait....what IS that in Luke's hand?  Not ice cream!  Noooo...it is a Portuguese "delicacy" Malasseda. It is also known as deep fried dough that is then covered with sugar and cinnamon! It is as good tasting as it is bad for you.

Speaking of treats!  We finally had our first lobster of this trip!  It was as good as we remembered.  For reference - here in New England, we shared a 1 1/2 pound whole lobster, French fries, and cole slaw...$16.99.  Can't beat that at home!

One last treat before we headed back to Latitudes.  Luke got up close and personal with Elvis!

Elvis was actually hawking tickets to a cabaret show, but it was good enough for me.

Back to town tomorrow for some more sight-seeing.  Then off to New Hampshire if the weather holds as promised.

700th post!!!! And Enders Island and Onset

700 Posts in 8 years...it sure feels like a lot.  This started as a personal "journal" for me, but I do appreciate the readers who like it too.  Thanks for all of the positive comments!

We took the afternoon while in Mystic and visited Enders Island. Originally purchased by a Mr. Enders in the 1890s, it was donated to the Catholic Brothers of Edmund and is  now a Catholic retreat facility. It is said that the car ride across the causeway to the island causes some to feel some sort of "spiritual experience" before they even get there!

We anchored our dinghy in the small bit of sand shown in the bottom right.  First thing on the island is the private church.  Very lovely. Although, I do think this picture looks like the church has 2 big eyes and is gasping at something!  Sort of like an electrical outlet...

The home and gardens are very, very lovely.  You do get a calm feeling just walking about the property.

The second wife - the one who wanted a "better" house than the existing farm house on the property - also had stones brought in to ring the house, to look like elephants on parade.

Tile work, brought in from Italy, adornes the home.  Age and weather take their toll;  the tiles are beginning to crumble and fade from their previous glory.

The island flags were flying sadly at half-mast in the graying skies, in memorial of those killed and injured in the terrible tragedy in Orlando.

We had one last  dinner for this trip with Best of Times, and we left early on Tuesday morning for the 11 hour trip to Onset.  Onset is a cute little town on the western end of the Cape Cod Canal.  It was a long day, but Latitudes was able to sail beautifully through most of the 70-ish miles! Winds were variable at 10 to 15 kts gusting 18 to 20 from the NW, and we were generally heading ENE - giving us close to a beam reach for the whole journey. We also timed the considerable currents, ebb east out of the Mystic area and flood east into Buzzards Bay, adding about a knot to our speed. Past fishing boats, birds in full pursuit.

More New England lighthouses, this one at Point Judith..

More New England "summer cottages"...this is the largest single family house that I think I've ever seen...You can't see the extra house (probably larger than mine) behind this one.  Probably for the hired help.

Ahhhh....at anchor in Onset.  We are all 3 happy. (you didn't think you'd get a blog post without Sweet Smokie, did you!??)

Sunset at anchor. Luke caught this beautiful picture of the end of a great day.

We went into town today - we really like Onset. Within just a few blocks - pizza, laundry, barber, groceries, hardware store, post office, stores, ICE CREAM, New England clear blue skies, and a beautiful, sandy beach.

 But, that is summer.  How high is the snow in winter?  Look carefully, above the house top,  at the snow stick, the top end extending above Luke's extended arm.  Noooo, thank you, I'll stick to Virginia in the winter!

That is it for today.  Tomorrow the plan is to put up the dingy and catch the mid afternoon current through the Cape Cod Canal.  We hope to reach the anchorage in Province Town, about 25 miles away. 

Mystic, CT

The weather cooperated with our desire to see Mystic and the Mystic Museum - it was too windy to go anywhere else!

To back track a bit, a wedding party was going on at a venue close to the boat.  At 7, the wedding was done and the DJ and party had begun.  Of course, we could hear it all....First, "young" music, today's music that I recognize very little of.  But - by 10 pm, the DJ was playing "Shout" by the Isley Brothers, almost 60 years since it was released. Hurray for the oldies but goodies!

The winds did indeed keep us at this anchorage, so we put down the dingy and took a splashy ride into Mystic.  The bridge is like ones I've seldom seen before - the bridge span lifts via huge counterweights.

 
The bridge may open for tall vessels, but we dinghy sailors have to go under it. At high tide, that is not trivial...Here is an oncoming small boat for reference.

We had plenty of head space, but it sure didn't seem like it as we approached.  I am "not fond" of height impaired spaces...

As we approached the Mystic Museum, we spotted traditional "cat boats" giving rides.

 

And then a schooner!

 

 

And 2 schooners! The second one gives sails around the area.

 

 

Sitting around the corner were 3 beautiful, restored square riggers.  Note carefully on the right most ship, the folks working atop one of the masts.  The little people atop the very tall masts...

 

 

No, not a job I would want...

 

 

We tied up at the museum dock for a few minutes - long enough to get a couple of shots of the restored town. It is a wonderful museum - 17 acres - but we didn't stay -we've been here before and wanted to see the town of Mystic this time.

 

 

Back to town, we were "impressed" by differences along the waterway - there are many older homes, New England style houses.

 

 

But a good portion of the water front property is taken up with relatively new, modern condos, etc.

 

 

Yes, it is a Sunday, and the place is busy, busy!!

 

 

Luke liked the 3 dogs sitting on a bench where we tied up the dinghy.  By the way, Mystic has wonderful facilities for boaters, including dinghy docks, making it easy to visit the town.  These 3 good boys were with their master.  He has taught them to sit quietly in chairs so he can take them to outdoor restaurants with him.

 

 

I liked the dragon with her pearl of wisdom (sitting above a knitting shop... wise dragon...)

 

 

Luke, ever the tourist, got some good video!

 

 

Back to Latitudes, just in time.  The winds picked up again, this time to gale force strength (over 31 mph).  Latitudes is anchored securely and hasn't budged from her spot, thank goodness.  The winds have died down to the mid teens with higher gusts for the night. Travel tomorrow is questionable as the winds are supposed to pick up and blow hard again in the morning.  We have to time our departure so we can take advantage of the proper ebbs and floods of the currents.  We have to catch the ebb east out of the Race at the eastern end or Long Island Sound, and the flood into Buzzards bay. We can gain more than a knot in our favor for a 70 mile trip -- a free 15% boost! Tuesday will probably work well for us.  oh, well - another day of sightseeing!  We would like to visit the Ender Island.

 

698....

698 posts...I can't believe it...2 more and I will hit 700!

Oh, well, back to sailing. I keep mentioning that we "pick up a mooring".  Here is a mooring ball, lines running from an eye on the ball back to our boat.  This keeps us from having to drop and set the anchor.

These mooring  balls bounce around happily in the water, anchored securely to the bottom of the lake, bay, whatever, generally with a large "mushroom" anchor.  Some have ropes already attached to their "eye", some - the devils - don't.  My job, as Luke deftly maneuvers the boat, is to use the boat hook to reach 3-4 feet down to the water, pick up the mooring line with the hook, pull it to the top of our boat, run one of our lines through an eye at the end of it, and secure our line down to 2 cleats on the bow of the boat, running it through the anchor well twice, all while the boat/mooring ball/everything else bounces and plays hard to get. Sometimes it works beautifully, sometimes a kind soul in a dinghy will come over to help pick up the mooring line and get our line attached to it.

We left Port Washington without filling up on diesel and water - the tides and wild winds made it too difficult.  So, we dropped the afore mentioned mooring ball yesterday morning, and set sail for Port Jefferson.  I love the New England lighthouses - they are much nicer than many of the modern jumble of metal posts in the Chesapeake.

Here is the lighthouse at the point of Port Jefferson.

It had been a quiet day and we left early enough to get to Port Jefferson in the mid afternoon. We actually got to sail for a few hours in the remnants of the howling winds of the past two days, in 15 to 18 kts of wind on a beam reach. Then the wind died, and we motored -- as so often happens. We did arrive early - but a fishing boat pulled up to the fuel dock just before we got there.  She got 300 gallons of diesel...at $4.59/gal, that's a lot of money.  And a lot of time.  We dumped trash, filled our water tanks, and rinsed salt off the dinghy motor while we waited. Meanwhile, the ferry filled herself with cars and people.

We looked down at the pretty town.  Luke asked what was in town, and were told "bars, restaurants, and expensive shops".

After a very long wait, we got our whopping 48 gallons of diesel.  Then, off to the anchorage for the night.  Ahhhh...calm, quiet waters, still air.  We ate dinner in the cockpit.

We idly considered going to town...but at $168 per night for a slip (most slips in the Chesapeake are about $70 per night for us) and for $50 per night for a mooring (most are between $15 - $35), and a $10 fee just to tie up the dingy to go ashore (always free), we decided to enjoy our calm anchorage.  Don't need restaurants, bars, and expensive shops anyway!
We could even watch the ferries coming and going through the channel.

We also watched "the 1%" arrive home from work, flown in a helicopter from NYC presumably to his mansion with it's private helicopter pad (think about those houses on the  Port Washington shore...). With the "1 % er" (or was this a .01%  er ?) delivered from work, the helicopter took off again. I guess it picked him up the next morning.

We got up at 4 A.M.!! this morning.  Rain and wind were called for by early afternoon and we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather in the morning to go as far as Mystic, CT.  A quick confirmation of the weather forecast, and we pulled anchor and were in the channel by 4:45.  Look how light it is at 4:45!

I took this next picture within a minute of the first - look at how quickly the light changes and grows.

Past another lighthouse near Fishers Island.

Our first schooner, as we approach Mystic.  The weather is turning, readying for wind and rain.

Enders Island is just outside of our anchorage.  This beautiful home

church

and grounds were a private home until 1954.  The surviving spouse gave the land and buildings to the Catholic Church because the children weren't interested in having it!  Today it is a Catholic based retreat, home to the Brothers of St. Edmund.  Here is a lovely short article about the history plus beautiful pictures.

http://www.cottages-gardens.com/Connecticut-Cottages-Gardens/June-2013/Discover-peaceful-Enders-Island-off-of-the-coast-of-Mystic/

Luke's timing and Mother Nature were perfect.  It just began to sprinkle as I set the anchor.  A steady rain and some wind set in for a while. The winds are predicted to be strong - up to 30 knots - tomorrow and Monday, so we will sit it out here, in the protection of the land and Enders Island.  We are hoping that it will work out that we can visit Mystic, the museum, and Enders Island while we're here.