Summer Starts

Michael told me last night that summer starts June 21st. Bullshit!

Summer is my favorite season of the year and I consider myself an expert at recognizing the starting signals. The excruciatingly high pitched tone of the ice- cream truck song approaching for the first time and the subsequent frantic scramble to ransack my brother’s room looking for loose change. The chaos of the last fifty nine minutes before starting my first vacation from work since New Years. The mad dash down the driveway, my heart racing as I struggled to keep up with my older, bigger siblings. Whittling down the pile of paperwork on my desk faster than the nurses can stack it up again. Barefoot soles spanking the hot blacktop absolutely desperate that the truck would not leave before my arrival. Accommodating one last double book- an 18 month old with 104 fever. The utter satisfaction of an icey rocket pop on my tongue. Being magically transported from my office to this place where the ground sways, Summer! Camp in all its infected mosquito bite, spider webby, smelly lake, peanut butter & fluff sandwich glory. Summer! Walking drunk tired from salt water intoxication to the Robert Moses Beach parking lot with sand between my toes and every other bodily crevice too. Summer! Being forty seven years old and feeling like a teenager in love, sneaking out under a starlit sky with my sweetheart- on a sailboat no less! Summer! I know when it starts and it started on Thursday, June 14th this year.

Thursday
We sailed east, wind 10-15 knots on our stern from the west, wing and wing for 12 hours.

Little slower than expected because forecast 20-30 knots. There was some excitement as we approached Stonington Harbor. The wind did a little jig. It died for 3 minutes. Then shifted to the north, increased 20 knots, gusted to 24 knots. Then big gust to 35 knots! With full canvas up on a beam reach, Gerty healed to her gunwale and rounded up a bit. Michael was worried about me cooking dinner below during the commotion, but I had the magic gimbaled stove unlatched and barely noticed a thing. Wouldn’t it be nice if I had an internal gimbal? Ya know, to stabilize me every time life blew me a surprise gust. I’m gonna think about that. Reefed, then unreefed and finished up with full main and stay sail. Anchored 9:15 as last light was disappearing in Stonington Harbor.

Friday
Lovely walk through the streets of Stonington. Stopped for coffee and met an old, salty sailor with few teeth left. Nice guy and looked much like a character straight out of a book.

Highly recommend a stop at the Fish Market, where you simply choose from an array of fresh frozen delicacies and pay on the honor system.

We got calamari and lobster bisque. Yum! Motored Stonington to Watch Hill in a drizzle. Very narrow passage between green marker on our port and sandy beach. Yes? No? Eyes glued to the depth sounder. We made it! Aaaah Watch Hill.

Quaint, quiet, fun! Walk on the beach, Ice cream, crazy cool sunset with purple front giving way to orange and pink sunburst. Calamari marinara for dinner.

Saturday
Watch Hill to Fishers Island- arguably our best sail yet! 8 nautical mile tack upwind, 11 knots from west. Cool, breezy, dry and sunny. Arrived at quirky, beautiful Fisher’s Island for incredible country road walk.

Ice cream, again! I’m pretty sure Michael has made it his mission to discover the best coffee ice-cream flavor in the world. Stop at general store, not a good place to provision- bag of chips $12. Back to Gerty for deep sleep nap. Woke up and surrounded by sailboats. Dinghied to ‘Flat Hammock’ island populated unexpectedly by an adorable population of baby seagulls.

Sunset, stargazing, I could get used to this.

Sunday
It’s Father’s Day and the kids called Michael. Yay! Truly amazing how easy it was to Facebook messenger video chat Zachary in Jordan. We called our dad’s too. All the boys are good which means we have two more days of stress free vacation! Yipee. Sailed from Fishers Island to Thimble Islands. Wind 10 knots SSW beautiful sail! Shocker. We didn’t like the Thimbles. Appears to be a playground for weekend motor boaters. I have never seen so many different types of floating motorcraft in my life! Noisy, wakey, yucky. We left to seek quieter sea pasture. Attempted to anchor three times near a town swimming hole off coast of Linden Point. Picked up a crab trap on the anchor chain-swimmers watching the whole shabang- embarrassing! Finally we get her to grab near Green Island and are rewarded with waters tranquil enough for a double paddle to the beach under the setting sun. Hence the dilemma. We love our paddle board so much we want to have two, so we can take long paddles together. But if we only have one we are ‘forced’ to paddle together on the same board. What does this look like? A few moments of hysteria while balancing the board, followed by me sunbathing while Michael paddles there and Michael napping while I paddle back. I don’t want to give up the double paddle on one board for the paddle together on two boards. Why aren’t all the decisions in my life this fun to contemplate?

Monday
Michael went paddle boarding, our new favorite hobby. Motored first 2 hours. Then close haul port tack, 17 knots wind SSW, back to Mamaroneck.