Greenport

Our AC was finally fixed and we left for Greenport Tuesday. The short trip was a little stressful for the first mate since the captain is not yet comfortable with this boat. Fortunately, the marina was not busy and we were given a large slip for our first solo docking.

Greenport is a cute town with several shops and restaurants. The ferry is next to the marina. Tomorrow we will use it to take our bikes to Shelter Island.

I looked up our neighbor boat, Quantum Solace, and it is for sale. $58,000,000.

Montauk

Since we are still in Hampton Bays waiting for the AC repair, we decided to take a road trip to the end of the island. We stopped at the Elizabeth Morton Wildlife Refuge along the way and walked some lovely trails. We had a nice lunch in Montauk. The tab for two lobster roll lunches without drinks was $100. This was a very casual small restaurant along Main Street. After lunch, we drove to the Montauk Lighthouse which was commissioned by President George Washington in 1792 and built in 1796. We were not allowed to go inside due to COVID, but the walk around the grounds was very interesting. We were surprised at the steady stream of bumper to bumper traffic opposite us on our ride home. I can’t imagine dealing with that traffic every time you wanted to go to your vacation home. This was Thursday. I wonder how much worse it is on Friday??

We met this guy on the trail at the refuge.

Training Day

The marina sent a Greek captain out to train Paul .

Two weeks in Hampton Bays

We have been in Hampton Bays for two weeks waiting for the marina here to complete some warranty repairs. Everything is completed except for an AC issue. The newest correspondence said the repair people will be here Thursday. We had hoped to leave Wednesday but our new date is Friday. We are the only people staying overnight on their boat at Hampton Bays Watercraft. The marina is fairly large but everyone here takes their boat out for the day. Fishing is very prevalent. We are in the last slip on the water so we do have a nice view and the weather has been great. There is a pretty good restaurant here and a couple others close by. Yesterday we went to lunch at one of our favorites. Cowfish has a Brussel sprouts salad that is wonderful. We drove to Fire island a couple days ago. Beaches were nice and there were so many huge mansions! Costco is about a half hour away in Riverhead so we have had great grocery shopping. We just heard today that Canada will keep the border closed until July 21 so we will have to make adjustments to our itinerary. Disappointing but we will just make another plan.

A nice visit with Regina and Ed, our Ft Myers neighbors, at their home in Kings Park, NY while our AC was being repaired.

We’re in the water!

After three days staying in hotel rooms and eating carryout, we were happy to be able to move to the boat. Even though restaurants and many stores are not yet open, the Hamptons are very busy and there is a great deal of traffic. Phase 2 starts this Wednesday and I can’t imagine how congested it will be then. We went for a ride to Sag Harbor a couple days ago. It was very pretty and it reminded me of Harbor Springs but much bigger. We think we will be here at least a week since there are several small issues with the boat that have to be addressed by the service people at the marina.

The Hyatt Place we stayed at in Riverhead had an aquarium attached. It was not open due to COVID but they had seals outside. I went over to watch them a few times. So cute!

Hampton Bay, NY

It was a long trip in an uncomfortable truck but we finally made it here. It only took two 11 hour days on the road and a shorter 3 1/2 hour ride today . We thought we would get here sooner but we had to deal with New York traffic this morning. The boat was a dirty mess but they were able to get our dinghy mounted so Paul was happy about that. They have promised to do cleaning tomorrow morning and we hope to be in the water by Thursday. Tonight and tomorrow we are staying in a very expensive rustic room less than a mile from the marina. It was a challenge finding a place to deliver some dinner this evening. I am missing our Florida restaurants!