We wanted to take a family trip in Juno and haven't been to Shelter Island or really much anything west of Block Island. Last year when we took delivery of Juno she was in Mystic CT. Then Columbus Day weekend we went to Fisher's Island via Block Island, encountering a US submarine enroute! So for our family trip we decided head to Shelter Island. We have been burned before by New England vacations in June. The downside is that the weather can be really crappy for a week at a time. Due to scheduling conflicts though, the first week of June was our best choice. The upside of June is that tourism doesn't really get cranked up until July 4 so we should have most places to ourselves and we might have some decent weather too.
We were very impressed with the Shelter Island area. It was beautiful both to look at and the sailing conditions. Early June is a risk weatherwise. We got lucky in that we had bad weather early on and it steadily improved during the week. We didn't do much exploring on land but probably will try to do more our next trip back.
For a guide we occasionally used Duncan's "The Cruising Guide to the New England Coast". It is a bit outdated, but had pretty good detail.
6/1 - Jamestown
We arrived at Juno too late for the launch service so used the dinghy to get out to the boat. Winds weren't too strong, but we are glad we didn't arrive much later. By midnight it was up to 20 knts out of the ESE which is a bit exposed where we keep Juno. It was a bouncy night on the mooring.
6/2 - Newport
Foreacast was for scattered showers by noon, turning to more persistent showers through the afternoon. Temps about 60F. Winds were going to be 20-25 kts during the afternoon. While it could be a day of good sailing, the ladies thought and afternoon in Newport could be just as fun. I had a few items I was hoping to find at one of the area consignments shops, so it became a land day for us all. Dinner that evening was at Scales & Shells in Newport to celebrate our oldest's 23 birthday. The food was excellent but it is a bit noisy. Also, they don't take credit cards.
6/3 - Mystic/Noank
When we woke, the wind was out of the NW at 15 so instead of a slow start, we dropped the mooring at 7:30 and headed out. The sun was shining and we had a wonderful sail towards Mystic. We were able to reach most of the way to Watch Hill. Approaching Watch Hill the sea breeze began to fill in causing to have to throw in a few tacks. After getting through Watch Hill Passage a storm cell to the north began building and was heading our way.
We didn't have any definite plans for where we would stay that evening. Good options for us were Stonington, Fishers Island, West of Mason Island, or somewhere up in Mystic. Mystic would have meant a slip. A slip at the Mystic Seaport museum includes entry fee but was still a bit more than we wanted to pay. At Stonington we could anchor the dinghy into a dinghy dock and call a cab to get to Mystic. Fishers Island and Mason Island would be further than we wanted to dinghy to get back into Mystic. We decided the Stonington option would be good as it was somewhere we had not been and we could get a cab to Mystic if we decided we wanted to head there.
The edge of the cell passed over us just outside of Stonington. As it cleared and we prepared to head in, a text message arrived from a friend suggesting we stay at their yacht club in Noank. This was a wonderful offer so off we went to the Ram Island Yacht Club in Noank.
We had never been there so didn't know what to expect. On our arrival we found a long pier with no floating docks and us without a fender board. (It is on a list but further down as we had never encountered the need for one during our rather limited cruising in New England.) The forecast was for the wind to be out of the north so we swung around on the south side. We turned a fender sideways and put out some long springs and hoped for the best. Our friends were there to meet us so we talked for a while as another cell, much darker and much larger than than the last headed straight for us. We were secured to the dock with enough slack to hopefully account for the tidal changes, so we took some drinks and snacks up to porch of RIYC and sat down while the storm blew through. Juno stayed off the pier while we finished up our drinks. The temperature was dropping so we took hot showers and met our friends at a local restaurant - The Sea Horse at Spicers Marina. The restaurant was okay, but not worth going back to. It didn't matter though as it was fun spending the evening talking to our friends.
6/4 - Mystic
We woke to north winds 15-20, with a forecast of drizzle to steady rain all day. Our next destination was Shelter Island, so the northerly wind would be perfect, but the rain didn't sound too appealing. The north winds were keeping Juno nicely off the pier. So we headed into Mystic with the first stop at the Mystic Seaport Museum. A short cab ride got us there for about $10. It sky was partly sunny but temperatures were on the cool side. We spent the better part of the day there. By 3:30 we were ready to move on.
One possibility was to head to the Mystic Aquarium, but we decided to save that for another trip and walked back to town. En route, we passed a marine consignment shop. It had just closed a few minutes earlier at 4:00. That was a disappointment, probably for the better though. We grabbed some coffee and poked around the Mystic shops for an hour or so, then headed back to Juno who was still hanging nicely off the pier as the north winds persisted. That night we had our first dinner on board and turned in.
6/5 - Coecles Harbor
Tuesday morning greeted us with overcast skies but a nice NW breeze at 12-15. Perfect to take us to Shelter Island. We sailed along the CT coast about as far as New London, then bore off to head for Plum Gut - the passage between Orient Point and Plum Island. The current was ebbing most of the day. We arrived at Plum Gut around 1:00 with the current still ebbing toward the SW through the gut. With the wind also out of the NW this kept the standing waves down, but it was still a pretty exciting ride through the gut. Ferries also come out through here so it is important to keep an eye opened for them. We had it all to ourselves. As we popped through the gut our SOG went up to 10 kts for a few minutes. If the current had opposed us and the wind, I think we would have gone through between Plum and Gull islands. It is reported to be a little easier.
Our destination was Coecles Harbor so we headed that way on a nice beam reach with the chop about a foot or two and the sky clearing. It was like sailing on a lake - quite lovely. The entrance to Coecles is a bit tricky. All week around Shelter Island we had low tide late in the afternoon, just as we were trying to get into various little passages. Coecles was the first. We draw 6 and Chocles is supposed to be dredged to 8, but it looked narrow and down to 3 or less on either side. Since it was still a little early and the wind was so nice we sailed on towards Cedar Island Point and Sag Harbor Bay. We reached that point and turned around to head in to Coecles around 6:00.
Our chart plotter chip is a little outdated and the buoys are privately maintained so that kept us guessing a bit. Even the paper charts looked a bit different than what we saw. And to add to mix, the channel lined up perfectly for the setting sun. Not the best planning but with quiet seas and light winds it wasn't too bad.
After getting into the harbor we headed to the anchorage area. The harbor is restricted to possibly one designated anchorage May - September. There may be another but we didn't look for it. The designated anchorage is in the southwest corner just off the Mashomack Nature Preserve. Being early June, we were the only boat there, so there was no reason to look further for another anchorage. After dinner we took our newly acquired dinghy for a quick trip over towards the preserve and explored a creek.
Another idea instead of Coecles Harbor was to go directly to Greenport and get a slip at one of the marinas for the night. Then we would rent a car and go to the Vineyards on the North Fork. That is supposed to be a very nice trip -m aybe next time.
6/6 - Smith Cove
Wednesday morning the sun was up and a nice NW breeze of about 8 knts was beautiful. Our oldest daughter decided she wanted to try out the bosun's seat and our deck light has been flakey, so up she went. She got some nice pictures had bragging rights over her sister. After her descent and another dinghy trip, we headed off towards Greenport to pick up or youngest daughter.
The sail was uneventful and the wind picked up nicely as we headed along. The current wasn't too bad coming out of the north side of Shelter Island either. Our youngest daughter took the train from Boston to Mystic the night before and stayed with our friends in Noank. They dropped her at the ferry in New London. Her ferry took her to Orient Point. The plan was that on her arrival should would call a cab and meet us at the town dock in Greenport.
The first complication was that when she arrived she had trouble contacting a cab with her cell phone. It turned out that I had given her the wrong number so she was connecting to someone whose first language definitely was not english. When she finally got in touch with a taxi they had a two hour wait. At this point I recall that when I made a similar trip a few years back I had reserved the taxi ahead of time.
The next complication was that there wasn't really a town dock that we could get Juno into. We went to the Mitchell Park Marina which I had understood to be run by the town. However, it is a privately run marina. We could tie up until 10:00 PM for $1 a foot, but we only needed to wait at most two hours. I asked if we could give them $10 for an hour, but no dice. We did make use of their free pump out but had to rush as a dark store cell was headed our way. After the pump out, our daughter called and she had managed to find a taxi and was only 15 minutes away. Next to Mitchell Park there is a town dock that we could send our dinghy in to pick her up. The pickup was made and we were off again now with all four of us on board.
We had a delightful sail around the north west side of shelter island, then down into Noyack Bay in 12-15 knots out of the SW with the sun shining and the last of the rain behind us. We had read about a beautiful anchorage up in West Neck Harbor and headed that way. As mentioned before, tides were such that it was always near dead low - astronomically low as well - late in the afternoon. In addition, the SW breeze made the entrance a lee shore. We had conflicting information from NOAA charts, the chart plotter, cruising guides and feedback from others on just how shallow the entrance was. We went slow but when I say 6' flash by on my depth sounder we made a quick U-turn. The waves weren't that big but I didn't want to run aground with the following breeze and an extreme low tide. We'll save it for another trip when we don't have so many things against us.
We headed back out into Noyack Bay and were going to try to find something in Little Peconic Bay for the night. However it was now about 7:00 PM so changed that plan, gybed around and had nice run up to Smith Cove. This is on the south side of the same Preserve that Coecles Harbor is located on. Staying here would give us a chance to run into Sag Harbor in the morning to poke around before the sea breeze came in (hopefully) for another afternoon sail.
6/7 - Robins Island
As planned, in the morning we headed down to Sag Harbor. The sky was nearly cloudless, with 5 knots of breeze so we ended up motoring most of the way. We anchored outside and took the dinghy in through the break in the seawall to the town dock. At least it looked like a town dock. It wasn't obvious but given that the path out when past the water treatment plant I'm guessing it was.
We found the town of Sag Harbor to be fairly quaint in early June. I suspect it is a bit different in July and August when the town and marinas fill up. One shop we went into was run by a doctor in NYC that sold herbal and other natural remedies. That seemed a little contradictory, but I guess he wanted to keep his bases covered. The interesting thing about the shop was that much of the lumber for the building was made from parts of abandoned or wrecked ships. One wall was supposedly the transom off of a ship.
After picking up a few essentials at the IGA, liquor store, and bagel shop, we headed back to Juno. The north-easterly was still in so we picked up our anchor and tried to sail. Once we got in the lee of Shelter Island we the the engine back on to get through to Noyack Bay. Not too long after getting to Noyack a 12 kt SSW sea breeze filled in so we could have a close reach and beat down Little Peconic.
The cruising guide suggested some creeks to explore along Cutchogue Harbor. We would have liked to try to get Juno in there to anchor for the night, but instead headed for a spot in the lee of Robins Island. The island is private and the sand spit that runs out the north side is also restricted due to nesting Piping Plovers. One advantage of mooring at low tide was that we were able to walk the beach below the high tide mark quite easily. One short-coming of the Shelter Island area, as much of the North East (and probably US) the properties along the coast are privately owned. There are plenty of signs to remind you in case you forget.
6/8 - Block Island
As the end of our week approches we are beginning to think of which way we will go back to Jamestown. Some of the same options as on the way out are in play. We could go back by Noank and visit our friends again, and with the nice weather take them out for a day sail. Neither of our daughters were with us on Columbus Day when we went to Fishers Island so that might be a possibility. Columbus Day was nice there because there were practically no boats in West Harbor so we could pick up a mooring for the night and go exploring on shore in the morning. Stonington was also a possibility since it looked like a nice place to stop, though not so much to do on land there. It would probably just be a stop over on our way to somewhere else the next day. Block Island was thrown out but it was 30 miles from Greenport and we were still west of there in Little Peconic Bay. We also talked about trying to sail in Great Peconic but decided that was pushing it and we would save it for our next trip. The other thing weighing on us was that we would have to go back through Plum Gut, The Race or one of the other passages to get through to Fishers Is. or the Connecticut options.
We talked about the different destinations and decided to see how the day went since at this point we didn't need to decide. There was very little wind in the morning and whichever destination we ultimately chose, we had a lot of distance to cover, so on came the engine.
When we reached the entrance back into Noyack Bay the tide was flowing at a couple of knots and numerous boats had taken up positions to make the most of the fishing. As passages to this one is fairly wide. Fishermen in more narrow passages drive me crazy and can be a real hazard. Well, Fish & Game was out chasing people out of this area even though it really wasn't that crowded. This time however I had to slow down for the F&G boat as I don't think the saw me coming up from behind.
After getting through there and into Noyak we decide to retrace our steps around the north side of the island. But before setting off our 19 year-old wanted to go for a swim so we stopped and she jumped in off the stern. It turns out that there are a few jellyfish in that area and she got stung, probably by a sea nettle. Fortunately it wasn't too bad. We also decided to have her try out one of our self inflating PFDs that had expired (a friend that was getting out of boating gave them to us.) It turns out when the they say they are no good, they really are no good. I had bought new cartridges when in Newport so started replacing them later that evening. We still need to test one.
We sailed up Southold Bay and around the north side of Shelter Island. We sailed past Dering Harbor which is another one to put on our list for a future visit, though it looks a little crowded for an anchorage. After getting past Orient Point, if we were going to head for Connecticut, the various passages were pretty much straight downwind. So we stayed on starboard and had a broad reach towards the north side of Garndiners Island saving the gybe for later.
As we progressed, we noticed we had a nice sailing angle towards Block Island and a favorable current. When we were back closer to Greenport, our conservative calculations made it look like we wouldn't get into Block Island until 10:00 or so. We've been there enough times that we weren't worried about a night entrance, but it seemed like a lot of effort just the same. However, now as we passed Gardiner, the SW wind was picking up to 15-18 kts, and coupled with the favorable current we were seeing 9 kts SOG. This made BI a possibility by 8 - 8:30. So, we finalized our plans to make BI our destination. It was one of the best sails we had had in Juno so far. We have an auto-pilot but my wife and I each steered for an hour for fun. Our daughters chose to sleep.
We arrived at the entrance to Great Pond on Block Island at about 8:15 so we still had plenty of daylight. Again, there was a pleasure fishing boat right in the middle of the entrance. A toot of our horn got his attention and he quickly motored out of the channel. We cruised into the Pond and debated whether to anchor or to pick up a town mooring. At this hour we decided to go for the mooring to keep it simple.
After getting the boat squared away we took the dinghy ashore and had dinner at The Oar. It was another unremarkable restaurant but it is right at the boat basin so much easier after a long day to drop in there than going into Old Port for a better selection of restaurants. We celebrated our 19 year-old's birthday so now she was officially 19.
6/9 - Point Judith
We decided to split up to tackle Block Island. My wife on oldest daughter headed to the beach while our youngest daughter and I rented bikes to tour the island. We rendezvoused back at the launch at 2:30 and left the mooring about 3:30 to sail to Point Judith. As we headed south toward Point Judith we were met by the 60 or so boats finishing the Off Soundings Block Island regatta.
Several years ago we had sailed up the Point Judith Pond and found a quiet anchorage. Last fall we had tried for the same area, but it was too late in the evening and the passage a route a little shallow, so spent the night in the Refuge which can be nice or can be a little bumpy. We headed up the pond and kept our eye on the depth meter. It briefly got down to 7 feet but we found a nice spot behind the Garner Island. We weren't alone. There were three cabin cruisers anchored but they kept their generators off, or at least we couldn't hear them. The area is supposed to be a no wake zone, and mostly boats were pretty respectful of that as they passed through.
6/10 - Jamestown
In the morning my wife and daughters went out exploring in the dinghy while I took the time to fix a malfunctioning shower sump. The exploring was successful, but the pump repair didn't work out so well. All the parts went back, and it pumped, but a little water leaked out while pumping. That was a little disappointing for my first attempt at a pump rebuild.
We made our way back out to the refuge and headed towards Jamestown. There was very little wind so we had to motor from Point Judith to Jamestown. The wind did finally fill in to so we could finish off our trip unders sail. Back in Jamestown, we made a stop by the pump out, cleaned up the boat then headed back home.