First of all...I'm tired! We sailed back from Morris Cove in just over 9 hours.

Here's how it went:

Left City Island at 3:30 dispite a lot of people suggesting we wait until the
T-Storms pass. We caught good, if not strong air until we reached Oyster Bay
when the wind picked up. We anchored for dinner, then Suzanne reasoned we might
be better off making for Port Jeff. We enterer Port Jeff LATE, after 2:00 am I
think and grabbed a mooring. Bit of a challenge due to MAJOR waves and chop in
strong wind as we entered.
Morning at about 8:am we went tried to find a 40 foot Heron (as mentioned in my
badly dated guide) and found none! But we went into town, grabbed a few things
and Suzanne got herself a McDonald's coffee. We headed out into a beautiful day
and we agreed that the Thimbles still might be a bit of a haul if we wanted to
swim and have a bit of fun. But as the wind increased she determined we could
make it and quickly. We hit the thimbles at around. I tried many times before
and after, up until 5:00 to hail Bill. I even ****ed off a few people doing it
too often. Note: The wind was quite fresh and we were reefed and furled down,
still at hull speed. There were VERY few boats sailing, unless I saw what was
typical for the area
We had a bit of a tricky time figuring out where to enter the Thimbles, finally
found the anchorage indicated (between Pot and Hi, if I remember right. Steve
walls with homes and A TON of boats anchored for fun. Some lucky devil had a
J27 (I think) actually at his own dock between two narrow cliffs. Small
cliffs...but still very pretty. There was just too many boats there and many
more coming in. We toured the area...ran into a patch of sand not far past the
cable run area...managed to get around it. The best places to anchor, shielded
from the wind, were all full up. We had lunch and left, making for East Haven
at around 3:30 or 4:00. Again, hailed Bill. Nada. I was bummed. Meeting someone
there would've been fun.
We hailed Morris Cove and got...A FREE MOORING! Wow! Even the kid in the launch
came around and brought us ashore where they had outdoor stall shower for
guests-better than our puny shower. Came back, cooked a steak for her, fish for
me and watched Bowling for Columbine...a bit overated.
We left at 6:am sunday and it was COLD! We had sweatshirts and foulies on! The
wind was great, clipping along at about 7.5 or so...then....6.5....6. Slowing
down on the GPS as the current kicked in. After 5 hours we'd made 26 miles, but
the trend was slowing down. Then the wind flipped on us and died! Zikes. We
motored 2 hours before catching good air again near Oyster Bay.
We had a great time. Suzanne loved it....we tried to change plans to allow two
more days...couldn't.
Here's a pic of Alien powering toward the channel at the Thimbles.
http://hometown.aol.com/bobsprit/images/thimble4.jpg
More pics to come. I'm going to sleep!

Capt RB