Fun Rain or Shine

This weekend, the weather forecast was shitty, but it was clear early Friday evening that nothing was going to stop us from going for a sail.  I’m thankful for that cause I’m sitting in Cold Spring Harbor as I write this and it’s an easy seventy degrees with overcast skies. The Harbor Master was happy to give us a free spot at the dinghy dock off season and we are just back from a woodsy hike and of course, an ice cream stop. What really inspired me to write this blog though was another one of those quirky hidden gems- The Cold Spring Harbor Fire House Museum. 

A lovely guy (wish I caught his name) took the time to share some tremendous history. Did you know they used to put out fires with bucket brigades? The woman would pass the empties to a pond in one line and the men would pass the full buckets to the fire in another line. Needless to say, most buildings burned to the ground, but the goal was to prevent the whole town from burning down! There’s more.

They have an old pump truck and and an old Ford, adapted to be a ‘Fire car’ before there were fire trucks.  They used boric acid to pressurize extinguisher tanks filled with baking soda and water to fight fires (Yes, just like a homemade volcano.) They used dalmations to lead horse drawn buggies to fires. This stuff was really cool. And there were dramatic stories too, like the one about the Avianca jet from Columbia crashing nearby because it ran out of fuel before landing at JFK airport in 1990. Unfortunately, many of the passengers may have died not from the crash, but from the cocaine baggies exploding inside their bodies.  To us this sounded like Hollywood material, so I fact checked a bit after our visit and indeed two surviving passengers with severe injuries were arrested for possession of cocaine filled baggies inside their bodies that were found when doctors were operating. Crazy sad, terrifying and interesting story!

Tomorrow’s forecast is for 100% rain.

Sunday May 5

Guess what? It’s raining.  But the wind picked up, so whereas yesterday we had to motor, today we will sail in 10-13 knots on the beam out of the rather large harbor and then hopefully a broad reach home.  We decided to ignore the currents as they are not strong enough to give us trouble. I have been majorly brushing up on everything from the helm, anchor, electronics inside and out, galley, dinghy motor, well- everything.  Michael is over the moon about our new water maker that is working exceptionally well. He labored over it all winter so I’m sure it’s quite gratifying for him. For me, it’s a luxury beyond words. A clarification for land lubbers- this does not mean we have unlimited water as the water maker requires power and we do not have unlimited power, but it does mean that we don’t have to constantly return to land to fill up our water tanks, and I don’t have to worry anymore about not having enough water to get the soap out of my hair or wash a sink full of dishes.  Basically, we should have plenty of water until our son shows up and takes his normal length (35 minute) shower! I’m so glad we finally splurged on navigation lights for the dinghy because this is an important safety item. Other safety updates of note: new smoke/carbon monoxide alarm for total of four (Fire on a boat NOT GOOD), new back-up bilge pump, new high water alarm (watery inside a boat NOT GOOD). Last, but not least update, Cafe’LLissimo fine mesh filter for drip coffee is exactly as advertised, “simple to use, easy to enjoy!” Yum.