We had a big trip ahead of us this day. It was now Saturday. Helen was due in Connecticut midday Sunday so we had to make progress. Our goal for this day was Montauk which was round the end of Long Island and on the north side. We also had to plan around the 2 to 3 knot currents which swoosh each way along the stretch of water between the end of Long Island and Connecticut. I had an ‘Eldridge’ which is a book which predicts when the currents are in your favour and when they are not.To meet our window for the right currents we had to again set off early. Waking up at 3:30 we had no infernos and were able to set off by 4:15. Winds were good so soon after leaving the inlet we had the sails up and the engine off.
We followed a parallel course to Long Island just over 1.5nms from the shore. This continued until about 9:20am when the winds began to shift. We had to head further out to get better winds.
By 2:10pm we had reached our furthest point east of our whole trip. We were rounding the tip of Long Island about 2.5nm from the shore. This was due to my caution as the GPS chart had lots of dangerous rocks further inland. In hindsight we could have rounded a lot further in.As we entered the sound I began to realize I had misinterpreted the current charts. We now had a 2.5 knot current against us which made things interesting. When we passed the buoy, 2.6nm from Montauk which indicated where we could turn in avoiding a reef, we found that under the engine, we could make very little progress. The wind was picking up and coming right from Montauk. The current wanted to push us onto the reef. We had no choice but to put the sails up again and sail out of the danger we were in.We had some fun sailing but the combination of wind and currents meant the last 2.5nm meant we had to sail 7nm. The wind did shift as we got nearer to shore so we made better progress.
Entering Lake Montauk, all the wind and current disappeared. We motored over to where we had booked a slip. This time I made a better effort at bringing us in. We had a bit of help from our neighbours for the evening.
That evening, we ate at a seafood bar, the only one we could walk to, which was full of professional charter fisherman talking fish tales. We had good food but it was a bit crowded and noisy.
Distance covered day 4 was 54nm which took us 14 hours and 40 minutes.
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