Another thirty mile day was ahead of us, but this time we had to leave super early to catch the favorable current. The currents at Plum Gut can reach the four to five knot speed and we don’t want to try to fight that. We departed Mattituck around first light or 5:45am. The wind was calm and we wound our way back out to Long Island Sound and turned northeast. We timed it perfectly again and had no issues going through the cut between the north end of Long Island and Plum Island. Plum Island is government property and closed to the public, but the small gap between the two is what is called Plum Gut. Even the charts say “tides rip”! We are now in Gardiners Bay and winding up to Greenport. We found the area listed as an anchorage and it was pretty exposed to boat wakes and wind from the south/southwest, but this was the only option we could see and Lauren really wanted to visit the town. “Greenport, settled in 1682, remains encircled by bucolic landscapes and is a low-key and peaceful seaside village. Because of its deep and protected harbor, Greenport became a major whaling port between 1795 and 1859. The town was also a very busy shipbuilding center. By the mid-1800s, the menhaden fishing industry employed thousands of people. The Long Island Railroad arrived in 1844 and became the driving force in development for Greenport and the North Fork of Long Island. During the first half of the 20th century, Greenport became a huge oystering center. When the oyster industry began to shrink, Greenport turned to tourism and became a destination for global visitors.” Once we had anchored and made sure all was set well, we loaded the bikes on the dinghy and set off to shore. It was a bit long of a ride but we made it there with no issues and unloaded. We biked around the town and explored quite a bit. We found a brewery that was closed, so that was disappointing, but we found a great lunch spot at Lucharitos where we enjoyed some margaritas, tacos and burrito. We biked around some more and came back to get some ice cream at Greenport Creamery. Before heading back we stopped at a grocery store for some more supplies. Now we were loaded up and headed back to the boat for the evening. There was a beach close to where we anchored that I was able to take Frank to for his shore excursions. We determined our next stop will be around the corner to Sag Harbor.
As far as we know, people were skylarking at sea before they were larking on land.