Love/Hate Relationship with LI Sound

Port Jefferson, NY to Fishers Island, NY

We planned to leave Port Jeff early on the 5^th to take advantage of the outgoing tide, but neither of us slept well the night before due to the swells and wind coming through the North West inlet of Port Jefferson.  Since we’d eventually be against an opposing tide on our way to Fishers Island no matter what time we left, we opted for a couple hours of additional sleep before heading out.

We tossed off the mooring at 0735 and had 15kts of wind on our nose heading out of the channel.  Again, we got lucky and timed our departure perfectly with the ferry schedule.  As we came out of the channel we turned up and began our 57NM trek back to Fishers Island, NY.  Fishers Island would be a good stopping point before we made our way further north, and it provided good holding and shelter from southwesterly winds. 

We took advantage of the outgoing current and made good headway in the morning.  Unfortunately, as late morning approached, I started to feel less than great.  Seems I spent a little too much time on land :) Actually, the day prior to our departure I had started to feel like I was coming down with a little something, so maybe it was that.  Either way, it sucked.  I tried all the tricks, but nothing really seemed to help. I’d lay down for a bit and feel better, but once I was back up, I’d start to feel sick again.  This made for a very long day for Jason as he was forced to man the helm for the majority of the day.  To add to it, the Sound decided it was going to give us a reminder of Chesapeake Bay sailing and give us shifting, inconsistent winds.  We’d go from 6kts on our stern to 20 kts on our beam back to 20+kts on our stern. At one point we were on a broad reach with 30kt gusts.  Winds were forecasted to be gusting to 25kts so we reefed from the start and I am glad we did.  We toyed with the option of shaking out at least one of our reefs when the winds got down to 6 kts, but decided against it since the winds were being so unpredictable.  This proved to be a wise choice as the winds later approached 25 kts again. 

The rest of the sail was basically a repeat of the morning – inconsistent and shifty winds.  We pulled into West Harbor on Fishers Island at 1915 and dropped anchor in nearly the same spot as the week before.  We had another long day to follow so we prepared a quick dinner, took in an amazing sunset, and called it an early night…

Here’s an excerpt from our Logbook:

Departure: 0735

Estimated Arrival: 2000

Actual Arrival: 1915

Distance: 57NM

Barometer: 1026 and rising

Wave Height: 1-3’

Wind: 5-20, gusting to 30

NOTES:

0900 – Sailing under single reefed heads’l ~5.5kts SOG, winds WNW 20-25kts

1000 – Wind shift to NW at 15kts, gusting to 20kts, double reefed mains’l, single reefed heads’l

1730 – After winds shifting from NW to W and from 30kts to 6kts, started engine and doused sails about 8NM from West Harbor

1915 – Anchored in West Harbor, Fishers Island, NY

As the placard says in Tango, "We can not direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails," or fire up the iron genny, if need be.