4 February, 2016, Thursday: to Salt Pond

     Today we make a 20 mile passage down the West side of Long Island.  We had a good 15 knot SE wind and motor-sailed right along.  True to form, all the boats we saw underway were going on a reciprocal course.  We had a great ride down in the lee of the island, sometimes under main and jib, sometimes with main alone.  For a while we actually sailed with the engine out of gear, and lets just say that if the engine fails we hope our destination is off the wind and that we have a running start!

      5 miles shy of our destination,  Salt Pond on Thompson Bay, we stopped at Whale Head and did some snorkeling.  We swam among thousands of small fish and Jackpot!  We found 2 big   Hairy-ass crabs.  Joe stood guard on one while Kathy and I swam back to the Willie to get the dinghy, mesh bag, and dip-net.  We got back to Joe, he scooped up crab number-one, into the boat, and then I led him to where I had seen another.  Once there, Joe got the crab to squirt out from under the rock, netted him and also into the boat.

      Kathy already had fixings for crab soup, so finally a sea dinner!  Up anchor once again and off to Thompson Bay where we went ashore to check out the island’s grocery for a few staples. 

      Staples aboard, and met a few cruising folks ashore, we came back to the Willie, steamed up the crabs, Joe and I picked ‘em out, and into the broth had going on the stove.  After having crackers and fresh guacamole Canadian style on the foredeck, we retired to the galley/saloon for Whiskey Crab Soup!  A very satisfying day.