Rendevous with a car ferry

Thursday
The forecast for Thursday was mixed, fog, possible rain and Thunderstorms. we checked the doppler radio and decided to push ahead with an intended destination of Port Jefferson. As you may have seen we caught a couple more bluefish - each is being named using the first letter of the fish number landed. Number six was called Sebastian (see picture beneath). After catching the fish, the weather started to turn a little sour and we were talking about how pleased we were that we had headed to the southern side of long island sound because all of the storms seemed to be on northern side of the sound. Then the coastguard warning of a severe storm heading to Port Jefferson could be heard on the VHF radio. We were 20 minutes from port, and the skies opened. visibility was almost zero, and then lightening started so we entered into no visibility mode of boat operation. Every ten minutes I called out our gps coordinates to Dave and Lande who recorded them and plotted on a map. We put our ipads and a spare backup radio into the microwave- no we didnt nuke them,rather the metal screen in the microwave would/might stop them from being nuked if we were hit by lightening.

Because visibility was poor we couldn't head into port so we steered to starboard and out to deep water to wait out the storm. Now you may have recalled that we said visibility was poor. Well Dave - now called eagle eye - spotted a car ferry heading for us. we took evasive action and decided a cup of tea was in order.

The storm was still hanging over port jefferson so we decided to head on further west, after consulting the doppler radar which showed we were now west of the worst of the storms. we plotted the paths of the remaining few storms and navigated around them and headed for oyster bay. Based on the homes in the bay, and comments we have read, this is home to the rich and famous including Billy Joel.

Its a bit foggy as I write this, but we will cruise around a little and try to get pictures for you.

We went into the town of oyster bay last night with the intent of having a beer, appetizers, then coming back and cooking salmon. Well we achieved most, but by the time we got back we were all so tired we just went to sleep - and it wasn't because we stayed out late.

We are only 36nm from our destination in Manhattan. We are not certai n whether to head there today as we have spent a lot of time this week pushing the speed. we may just go part way and have a relaxed sail.

our next major navigation obstacle is Hell's gate where the current runs at up to 5 kts. We do about 6 kts under engine power so we need to time our arrival there so that we have a current that is in the same direction as our journey.

We had some good guesses in our comments boxes yesterday. Dustin and Rochelle win the prize for initially guessing Port Jefferson and later Oyster bay. Rachel wind the prize for the most creative guess. We are yet to decide on actual prizes but are considering allowing you all to help us clean Prairie Gold. which reminds me, we h ave scrambled eggs in the floorboards of the cockpit. I cooked eggs and bacon for brunch. Guess who dropped his bowl immediately! And it wasn't me and there are only two he's on board. his face was priceless.

Got to go, time for a cuppa and hobnob that mum sent over for the trip (thanks Mum xxx). then we need to call a launch on channel 71 to take us to land for a shower, then we will see what winds come today and where we end up for the night. don't forget to hit the "spot" button on this blog page for real time tracking of our journey. It really helps with guessing where we will stay tonight. Comments are welcomed, we love seeing them when we dock. over and out