Juno 423: June 12 -13. Reunions In Port Washington and Mt. Sinai, Long Island, NY

We didn’t let the rain Sunday morning dampen our enthusiasm for reconnecting over brunch with Doug and Mary Ellen Wefer in Port Washington. Given the wet circumstances, we called for the water taxi to transport us to shore and in talking with our taxi driver Matt, we discovered the Wefers were a well known family about the town and local boating community. We both have a special fondness for Doug as it was he who had introduced the two of us as captain of the University of Michigan sailing team and together we had spent many weekends together attending regattas. We chatted with Mary Ellen and Doug for several hours at Ayhan’s Mediterranean Cafe just a short walk from the pier catching up on each other’s families, mutual friends, careers, and plans for our futures - all the things one talks about when you haven’t seen one another for 40 years, before it was time to say our good-byes with hopes that it wouldn’t be so long until the next time we’d meet up. By noon the rains had stopped, a light SW wind was blowing, and currents in Long Island sound were in our favor, so we set off for a short sail (20 miles) to Huntington Bay and Lloyd Harbor for the night. We wondered whether we were heading in the right direction as we had to put a second blanket on the bed to keep warm for the night.

Monday’s destination was another short hop down Long Island (20 miles) as we’d made plans to stay on Greg & Anne Swedish’s mooring in Mt. Sinai for the night. Harry had befriended Greg via a Beneteau423 boat owner’s email group several years ago. We’d met up with Greg on our last trip back from the Bahamas but we hadn’t yet met Anne and so were looking forward to meeting Anne this time. Before leaving Huntington Bay however, we dinghied ashore to Halesite to mail a card to Luis, our son-in-law for his first Father’s Day and discovered a very well equipped West Marine. Our sail to Mt. Sinai was a slow one even with the pole up since winds were only about 7-10 knots out of the west, but upon our arrival, we were warmly welcomed by Grace at the Mt. Sinai Yacht Club who had been told to be expecting us. Harry fueled up while Grace gave me the tour of the club and then we moved to the Swedish mooring #234 at the back of the tiny harbor. Greg and Anne joined us on Juno around 7:30 pm and together, we exchanged horror stories of repairs that went awry, tips for outfitting nearly identical boats, and cruising destinations. Before we knew it, it was 10 pm and time to thank them for use of their mooring and say good night to Anne and Greg.