North Cove to. . . ???

Last night we had a long talk about where we were going to stay for the now Cat 3 hurricane.

We narrowed it down to two places: Milford and Hamburg Cove.

-Milford

Pros:

• We would be at a dock so we could take some of the stuff off the boat.
  


• We know friends that are near by.






Cons:






• Milford is known for flooding.
  


• It is almost a full days sail away.






-Hamburg Cove







Pros:







• It was tucked up the CT river.



• It was only 1-3 hours away.
  


• Our friends are close by here too.






Cons:








• We would be on a mooring.



• We didn't know if there would be any moorings left.
  


• We would be so far up the river, that if there were any big debris we wouldn't be able to get out.





By the time we went to bed we had not made up our minds.




When I woke up this morning Dad was talking to some people on a mooring next to us. They suggested Hamburg Cove, they said that there were 60ft hills surrounding the harbor.




So we decided that that is where we would go. (I really didn't want to go back on the raging sea. And I also felt more comfortable on a mooring versus a dock.)






Man, was Dad anxious. He started the engine nearly 3 minutes after I woke up. And was determined to get there as fast as we could. When I say he was quite nervous that there might not be any moorings left, it's an understatement.




He kept asking us things like "Is there anybody else behind us?" "Do you think that boat ahead of us is going to the same place we are going?"






We were astonished that it was so close by. It was only an 1 hour away (and no, that's not because we were going too fast, never mind that that is a very hard thing to do in a sailboat. ;)




When we turned the corner we saw the quaint little harbor.








"Are there any moorings?" Dad asked anxiously to me.




"Yeah, I see at least one," I said looking through the binoculars.





As we got closer Dad instructed as to get the first mooring we see. "Dad look," we said, there was a selections of about a dozen to choose from.






We were very happy to be on a secure mooring ball with a low rate, and Dad, was overjoyed.








~








Once we got settled, we talked with the people on the 36ft Benteau in front of us. They were from Montreal, Canada and we later found out that they were heading to the Bahamas. The couple seemed very nice. They had a small little dog on board, slightly smaller than our little pup.




About 15 minutes later the couple came over in the dinghy and talked with us for a while. Their names were François and Marie. François looked to be around Dad's age. We all became friends very quickly. While we were chit-chatting with them, another man came by and said hi. His name was Art. He was one of those people that you could tell from a mile away that he was a sailor. He seemed quite friendly. He told us that this Cove was fresh-water. I couldn't wait to swim in it, I had never swam in freshwater before. After Art left we talked with François and Marie for a few minutes before they left to check out the showers at the clubhouse.




After they left I helped Daddy attach an extra line to the mooring chain with an extra shackle that Dad had. We threaded one of our long dock lines through it and attached it to one of our cleats as an extra storm line. This took a while however, and François and Marie were back. By the time we finished the sun was getting to us, and the water was trying to lure us in. And before we knew it we were all swimming in the freshwater.




The freshwater seemed so different than the saltwater we are all used to. Instead of pushing the water away when swimming, it felt like we were cutting through the water. I was so wicked cool.






Hamburg Cove seemed like a hotspot, many weekend boaters got moorings and spent the day swimming.

So many kids were jumping into the water off their decks that is sounded like a dozen flying fish splashing at the same time. Everyone there was having a blast, you would never guess that there was a hurricane a'comin'.

We swam over to EXP, the name of François's and Marie's boat. They introduced us to their miniature poodle, Rosilie. She is very cute (and a bit yappy I might add.) François told us that they got a rental car for a few days, and told us that there was a huge warehouse of boating supplies here that he wanted to go check out, otherwise they would have gone swimming with us. They asked us if we wanted anything while they were out. We thanked them, but we didn't need anything. We swam for a while longer before we got out to take our jib down. We had been undecided whether or not we wanted to take it down. But everyone else seemed to be taking theirs down, and we figured we better be on the safe side. This worked out much better than I thought it would. We were able to take it down quite easily and get it safely down below.




By this time we were quite hot, so we jumped into the water again. After a while we got out and decided to explore around the harbor in our dinghy. It seemed to go on forever. There was a channel just for the dinghies because if you went out of the channel soon enough you would be stuck. But as we went along there were sailboats and as we went in further there were more sailboats and they were good sizes (most of them were slightly smaller than our own sailboat.) We asked one of the guys who was on his sailboat how deep it was, he said is was 10ft as long as you stayed in the channel. That was kind of cool.




When we got back to Ilira, I made a nice dinner for the three of us. And we sat outside and ate. There was a very nice boat next to us that Dad like very much. We were wondering what kind of boat it was and Dad was hoping the owner would come so he could ask, when minutes later a guy who owned the boat came in a dinghy and boarded the vessel. So Dad got to ask him what kind of boat it was. That was pretty cool.




There was a pretty sunset at the end of the day, which Victoria couldn't resist taking a picture of. :)













Hope you will all be safe through the storm. God bless.






"May you experience the Love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully." (-Ephesians 3:19 NLT ) And may "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord," (2 Peter 1:2)






Zan