Sag Harbour

We had a very sporty sail over to Sag Harbour and the entrance was the worst. The wind picked up and it was very rough, but we had reefed the head sail early and we were fine. 

We are never really sure what to expect when arriving in a new place but we were surprised to find a large bay. There were a lot of mooring balls but also enough space to anchor behind them. We found a spot in which we thought was fine, however a few days later the water police came to our boat and told us to move. Apparently we were in the recreation zone.

The following day we woke to clear skies and flat water. Amazing what a difference a few hours makes in the weather.

We dropped the dinghy and went ashore for an explore. The supermarket was small but well stocked.

That afternoon the little boats came out again. It must have been a sailing school as there were instructors on the little boats. 

Andrew and I went to fill our Jerries with water from the dock. When he was lifting the heavy jerry onto the deck, Andrew tweaked his back. He had back problems last year and he was trying to be so careful! So frustrating!

The weather wasn’t great for most of our stay in Sag Harbour, so we spent those days on the boat.

The water here is so much cleaner than we have had in ages so we decided to flash up the water maker. It had a problem! It wasn’t holding the pressure once Andrew switched it over to the making of the water part.  It seemed to be getting air in the pipe. He looked at everything to see if there could be a hole somewhere. Eventually we realized that the sea though hull wasn’t letting much water in. He stuck a screw driver down it and cleaned it out. And voila! The pressure was back correctly and we could make water.

We went across to Mellow Puff for sundowners and a chat. And then met their friends from Siren’s Call when they popped over as well. Mellow Puff are a family of three from New Zealand. Siren's Call are a family of five, with three boys on board. 

The following day, Wednesday,  we went ashore to go to the Whaling museum. I had downloaded a wonderful app that has various walking tours of the town. We started one and it narrates all the stops as you get to them. 

Unfortunately, quite a few of the places were not open.

The Whaling Museum was interesting but quite sad. The life of the people of Sag Harbour was hard and whaling was even harder! But thinking of those poor whales…

We continued our stroll around the town finding the Sailors church and graveyard.

It was quite funny because when we got to the museum we were the only ones there but were told that a tour group was arriving. So we had to wait for them before watching the video. Then when we left they had all boarded a bus which took them round the corner to the church which was our next stop.

Happy 30th birthday, Matt

Thursday 26 June was Matt’s 30th birthday and it was terrible weather again. We spent the day on devices. Matt phoned us at around 1pm when they were ready to do cake, sing and open presents.

I was sad not to be there, missing out on the celebrations. It doesn’t get any easier no matter how many we miss.

We had to do some provisioning before we left, so Andrew and I bombed across on Friday morning. The weather wasn’t great again and after shopping we got a bit wet getting back to the boat. Thank goodness we got wet going back to the boat and not to the shops! It is not pleasant at all.

On Saturday 28 June we waited for the rain squalls to stop before upping anchor and heading off, setting sail for Montauk. We always seem to leave a place in the rain!