Tuesday, July 8, 2014 (Glen Cove to Greenport, NY): We say good-bye to Brewer's and Glen Cove, having had a pleasant stay. At 07:00, The Sound is flat calm reflecting the rising sun. The tide is low but this close to the bank we have 15 feet of water. However, several right angle turns force us to do 3-pointers with a little joystick maneuvering. The bones of an old boat sticking up are not exactly a confidence builder.

Since our arrival on Sunday it seems that the mooring balls are all occupied. The anchorage isn't the minefield it was when we came in.

Our destination is Greenport, NY, on the eastern tip of Long Island, the North Shore, as opposed to Montauk and The Hamptons, the other shore. 

The open sound is oily calm and a mist has descended onto the water. The only cross traffic we encounter are the ferries from Connecticut and Rhode Island. We have 80 miles of this with one slight turn for Blackthorne to put us in Plum Gut. We time our arrival around 11:00 to take advantage of a fair five-knot current into Gardiner's Bay. Plum Gut is the strait between Orient Point, the tip of the North Shore and Plum Island further to the east.

The Plum island light marks the shoals on either side of the gut (strait). Dockhands at Brewer warned us to be on the lookout for wily fisherman in Plum Gut, apparently a honey hole for large rockfish.

Once through the gut we turn southwest along the shore of Long Beach and make a beeline for the Long Beach Bar Lighthouse. New York lighthouses are picturesque structures like this one. Its function is to mark the entrance to the Peconic River between the North Shore and Shelter Island. Greenport comes into view as soon a we round Long Beach Point.

A word about marina facilities in this part of the world. Expensive! They think $6.50 per foot plus services is cheap. However, Greenport is a Brewer marina and very reasonable. That is not the reason we chose Brewer. We chose Greenport and Brewer is it! Moreover, the folks a Coecles Harbor Marina on Shelter Island across the Peconic were too uppity. Twenty-five bucks to make a reservation is not refundable. The next day I happened to look at my card charges on line and found a charge from Coecles. I confronted them on the phone and decided to let American Express handle them. The non-refundable charge was refundable after all.

The town is a mile walk of the marina offers complimentary shuttle service on the hour. We take the walk and find a fish lunch at Claudio's on the ferry dock. We learn from the server that the ferry runs regularly over to Shelter Island. That seems like a good activity for tomorrow. In the meantime we want to look around Greenport, shop for fresh stuff for the next few days at the IGA, and make the 4 o'clock shuttle back with our bundles. I score a pair of fresh Rockfish to filet and grill while the ducks above quack for a handout. 

The next day we did take the ferry over to Shelter Island. The small community is quiet, almost too quiet. We walked the length of the town and up to the golf course and back down to Dering Harbor. The homes are a mixture of permanent and seasonal New England-style residences interspersed with small shops and inns. After a light lunch at the The Chequit we took the ferry back to Greenport.