Thursday, March 8, 2012 Thompson Bay, Long Island

Thompson Bay, Long Island

Slow starting day. After coffee and weather Wayne spent the morning reading and I spent the morning dumping programs and items from my computer that I don’t use and downloading pictures from the camera to the computer. It’s a pretty day out. The sky is blue, sun shining and puffy cumulus clouds build over the land as the sun heats up the island causing the air to rise and then condense into cloud droplets. The winds are still in the 20s, sometimes going up to 32 knots (gusts). There’s a constant deep whistling sound as it flows over the boats and flutes the masts and makes the rigging hum. I almost don’t notice it now. It’s become a white noise unless I consciously make notice of it.

Around 2pm we put the diesel cans in the dinghy and met with Mary and Axel over at the Long Island Breeze. From there you have to walk the jerry cans to the Esso Station. Their fueling dock was taken out in an accident a few years ago and has never been rebuilt (things move slowly here). Wayne walked them over and back to the dingy (he used my cart – makes it easier to roll them as opposed to carrying them), while we sat and chatted at the Breeze. When he got back, we went and checked out Hardings grocery store and the hardware store to see what the mail boat brought in, then we walked over to the erosional side of the island to the Atlantic shore. It has a beautiful sculpted shore where the waves have carved out parts of the layered sandstone, coral and limestone rock. Mary, Axel and Wayne walked northward towards the wave cut platforms where the original land surface had been eroded by waves, creating notches where the waves carved out small cliffs. I walked to the south, toward a few sea stacks. They jut out of the water and remind me of old sentinels that stand watch of the changing tides and weather patterns that shape and eat them away. They stand as testament to the high power of the waves and currents that continually create these features, and then destroy them over time. The one sea stack that I just couldn’t get enough pictures of, I would classify as a Tombolo. At low tide, you can walk out to it – almost a little sea island instead of a sea stack. As I stood mesmerized watching the clouds move faster and grow darker over the water, I had to get a few more shots of the rain as it started pelting the water, the sea stack then me. It was a race to get my camera put away and by the time I met up with everyone else, it was back in my baggy but I fear it got a bit wet. We were all drenched for the walk back to the other side of the island. I felt a little guilty walking into the grocery store soaking wet but really wanted some lettuce. It looked good and the good produce goes quickly once the mail boat drops it off at the stores!



Jackie at the Long Island Breeze



At 5pm there was a get together for some acoustical music at the Long Island Breeze. Jackie put out some conch fritters for the cruisers and there was a pretty good turnout for the musical happy hour that went until about 8:30pm. Salty Paws (Jim and Bentley), Night Hawk (Ray) and First Look (Val) supplied guitar, banjo music and singing, Mary brought some shakers, Bonnie Lass brought spoons, and another person from Guardian Spirit, brought a little device that I was unfamiliar with (a concertina?). It looked like a miniature accordion that made the most amazing sounds. It reminded me of a snake charmer’s pipe. Its melody was so hypnotic. It made me feel like I was in the Greek Isles. I was ready to start snapping my fingers and stepping. It really made me want some Oozo! It was nice running into the folks from Saugatuck again and meeting new folks that we’d never met before. We’d heard that The Dove is over in Puerto Rico. We haven’t seen them in a couple years and it was kind of neat to hear about them and their travels. We headed back to the boat a little after 8pm. It’s quite a dinghy ride but the waves were calmer (we were traveling with them) the salt air smelled good and the full moon lit up the anchorage as it peeked in and out from the clouds that were racing across its face. We were able to pick out our little boat. It was one of the further ones out so easier to spot from the other 25 or so boats further in. The moon was beautifully bright and full, the constellations dimmed by its brilliance. The two other bright objects in the sky could not be dimmed though – Jupiter and Venus! Each night they get closer and closer together. They’re just beautiful! The first night I noticed them was when they were lined up perfectly with the moon a few nights ago. What an incredible sight to see 2 bright stars lined up with the crescent moon (I know, I know they’re not stars)…