Happy Together - Sailing the East Coast

Our first stop was Oyster Bay, we dropped anchor across from the wharf in front of an island with some beautiful houses on it. That night we decided to play Billy Joel to honor the legend he is in this area, and the song “Downeaster Alexa” memorializes it like no other. It was a peaceful night and great anchorage. The next day as our friends were dropping us back to our dinghy, Lennie asked them “Hey, where on Long Island does Billy Joel live?” They pointed to a massive brick house right behind our boat and said “Right there, you’re anchored in front of it”. Ha, serendipity. Our next stop was Port Jefferson. We had a decent sail downwind with the parasailor. This place has a beautiful, long protected bay and a quaint working historic town. From there, we headed to Sag Harbor. We saw the yachts on display including hundreds of high-end sailboats both catamaran and monohull. Our next stop was jumping off from Long Island and the Sound to Block Island. Then we arrived in Newport. We sailed past the famous mansions on the cliffs and into the harbor with the beautiful New York Yacht Club to starboard and what seemed to be thousands of sailboats of every description. This is the US sailing capitol for sure. Then we headed to our final two stops of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. We made it by motoring in flat calm conditions. We tied to the main wharf marina and started exploring the downtown with its cobblestone streets and intense whaling history. Our best sailing day of the entire trip was leaving Nantucket in a strong 20-knot north wind and heading 18 miles to Martha’s Vineyard. We flew the code zero and full main and averaged 10 knots, which is flying for us. It was great to be sailing again. This trip is full of land-based activities so the boat is not being used like it is in the Caribbean, but we needed this day to remind us how much we love sailing.