Port Jeff

 6/11- Port Jefferson NY

  We didn’t have far to go today so we lazed around and had a nice breakfast. We were only going about 20 miles to Port Jeff. The reason for this is that the anchorages on the CT shore would be pretty exposed to the south wind that is predicted to pipe up later. The really good reason is that hopefully tomorrow the wind will blow SW and we can sail across the sound. 

   Port Jeff is where we had one of our biggest misadventures. This happened some 25 years ago so the statute of limitations has expired. We were motoring up the sound watching the building clouds when we started getting warnings on the radio. We were racing to get into Port Jeff before the storm hit but we were way too late. It hit just as we entered the channel. The weather service later said that they clocked 70 mph winds. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that bad but I had to put on my swim mask in order to see anything. Alayne and the kids were down below while I struggled to keep the boat moving in a straight line. I could barely pick out the next buoy. Eventually we got into the bay where I spotted an old barge that had been anchored in the harbor. As it was the only thing I could see I cycled it until the storm passed which seemed like hours later but turned out to be 15 minutes. There was a lot of damage in town including power poles that had the tops snapped off. We calmly went in and anchored. Whew

   Today was much more serene as there was virtually no wind. We went into town and the other reason we came here, did some laundry. This is kind of a busy and not particularly pretty harbor as the ferries come here. The town seems a bit more run down than the last two. We accomplished what we needed to here and that was good. 

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