Every adventure has some misadventures. Fortunately, ours have been minimal. The swans have nothing to do with those; it was just a nice picture, and they did visit us in the location discussed below. Here’s a synopsis of a couple of misadventures.
Crossing Block Island Sound last Sunday from the south side of Fishers Island to Montauk was an adventure, and fortunately merely uncomfortable rather than a misadventure. The marine forecast predicted 2-3 (maybe it was 4) foot seas and 10-15 kt winds from the west. What we got were 4-7 foot waves and 20+ kt winds from the south, the direction we were heading. To say it was choppy would be an understatement. Let’s just say our bow seats got repeated salt water dips. About halfway across, we started seeing large logs floating on the choppy waves, so Dave & Dad had to play dodge the logs. Our anticipated 4 hour crossing took a little over 5 hours, but we arrived safe and sound. Then we called the Coast Guard…
Sometime last Saturday, Mom whacked her right ring finger on the sliding door. It swelled only a little, but didn’t hurt much after the initial shock. She did not remove her ring. See where this is going? In the wee hours of Sunday morning, she woke up with a very sore and much more swollen finger. Dad helped her ice it, gave her ibuprofen, and when it stopped hurting so much they went back to sleep. It did not look any better around 9:00 am. She could turn the ring, but barely. She said it didn’t bother her “much”, so we decided to leave Fisher’s Island (NY) and head for Lake Montauk as planned. During the trip she alternately iced it and soaked it in cold seawater, and took more ibuprofen. No change. Once we anchored in Montauk we decided the ring had to come off. Of course it was Sunday, so none of the urgent care places were open and the nearest hospital was a long drive. So we called the Coast Guard, who happened to have a station right at the mouth of the harbor. They arranged to meet us at the marina we were anchored near, and had the fire department call for a paramedic. We were met by 4 nice Coasties, a man from the fire department, and then a very funny young paramedic who immediately put my mom at ease and then removed the ring (which will be repaired upon her return home). Lo and behold, within 15 minutes of the ring coming off, the swelling went down. A huge thank you to the Montauk Coast Guard, fire department and paramedics!
A little after 3:00 am Monday morning, I awoke to the faint sound of an alarm going off. Dave checked and confirmed it was the anchor drag alarm and that we had dragged about 100 feet. Our dinghy, which was still up in her lift under our roof panel, was kissing one of the two pylon channel markers, the only thing near us in the entire lake, of course. So we geared up, hauled anchor, and were fortunately spared trying to re-anchor in the dark and high winds (25 kts with higher gusts) by noticing an empty mooring ball, which we picked up after deciding it would hold us. Back to bed. Next day we tried three times with two different anchors (a plough then a danforth) to stick in the “fair” holding ground reported for Lake Montauk. No dice. We picked up a more robust looking mooring that appeared to belong to the town. It was still their pre-season, and we were the only non-local boat in the anchorage. Nobody bothered us that night and we slept well. In the morning, the swans pictured above visited us for about half an hour. What a lovely family!
I am happy to report that future anchorings in subsequent locations have not resulted in the anchor drag alarm going off. I have gotten in some good anchoring practice.
Life on Lady 
So nice to see the swans. I love the idea that they mate for life.
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