Port Washington, NY

Wednesday August 15, 2012
40 49.732 N
73 42.685 W

I had my days mixed up and forgot that today we were to move on to Port Washington. By the time Deidre reminded me it was a bit late, so we left in a bit of a rush. The weather did not look great, either. We decided to tow the dink because it would save a bit of time.

It was only a short trip, but there was one of those "red cell" storms working its way towards us and I was a bit concerned having the dinghy in tow. If it rained, it would fill up with water and if the water got rough it could flip. It is a "rigid inflatable" so it would not sink altogether, but I could imagine (I am good at imagining the worst possible outcomes) the tow line ripping the cleat out of its bow.

Port Washington likes boaters and the town provides 25 free moorings. We took one and next day we spent $400 plus in town at the super market, the marine store and a restaurant. So I think we paid our way. The bad part of the storm missed us but it rained all night..


Thursday August 16, 2012
Perfect weather today. We enjoyed the day and got a lot of jobs done.

We had dragged the dinghy behind Tide Hiker from Northport to Port Washington (never again!) and so it was already in the water. After pumping out the 1,000 or so gallons of water it had accumulated from rain and spray we headed to shore to shop. This town was the perfect setup. There was a new and free and easy to find dinghy dock. The dock was on the main street, right across the road from a large supermarket. And a West Marine just around the corner. We did a massive shop, and carted it down to the dock in the shopping cart. Deidre got on board, and then I passed bags to her till she disappeared. We repeated the process in reverse at the other end.

After a break we took the dink to a different dock, closer to the Post Office. It was still at least a mile walk, and mostly up hill. On the way we called in at the bank (to get a statement) and a liquor store (to talk to the manager about the evils of alcohol.) Our mail was waiting for us so we were very happy! On the way back we speced out a restaurant for dinner.