Dan's Papers - January 18, 2008 - Winter Sailing Dreams

Living on the North Fork definitely connects one with the sea. There are so many residents who rely on the waters surrounding the North Fork for their livelihood. They brave cold winter days and nights to fish and bring home the product. Others like myself sail and use the waters around the North Fork for recreation.

This last weekend, the North Fork experienced some very mild winter weather. As the thermometer danced in the fifties my mind was on my sailboat, currently on blocks in a parking lot out of the water. I longed for the coming of spring so that once again I could sail out off of Orient and Greenport.

It was my dad who first brought me to the waters of Gardiner's Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to fish with him and my brothers for the giant tuna on our sport fishing boat. With fuel cheaper than today and the tuna more plentiful, many an August day was spent out in the ocean in search of the giant bluefin. Hours of trolling, chumming and looking through binoculars was spent searching for the elusive giant someone seemed to catch each day. The scores of albacore and yellow fin that we caught never seemed to be enough, as we always wanted that giant bluefin. My younger brother wanted to be the big deal at the dock for the day. He finally got his wish one summer when along with my dad, my other two brothers and some grandchildren, caught a nice 343 lb thresher shark.

Sailing is what I was really dreaming about over the weekend. I got to learn and enjoy the magic of sailing around the waters off of Greenport in Gardiner's Bay, as well as the Atlantic Ocean. I never can get enough of gazing at the historic lighthouse from the sea or the bluffs of the North Fork with their rich brown color topped with summer green. After leaving the North Fork, the joy I get from raising my sails and cutting off my 9.9 horsepower Mercury Engine is not quite describable. The sound the wind makes when it fills the mainsail or jib for the first time after being raised as I turn the sailboat out of the direct wind is a high. The slight tilt, the sound of the bow cutting through the water only powered by the wind, makes a noise sort of like powder skiing. The force of that first tack, the snap to the main along with the floppy sound of the jib always lazily following the mainsail to fill with the vibrancy of the North Fork winds is special. Besides forever trimming and adjusting the sails, I think of my dad, who always said he longed to truly learn to sail, who might have enjoyed that last burst of wind speed. I think of my mother, forever the adventurer, almost falling off the high bluffs on Block Island. A big smile comes across my face when I think of my oldest daughter Schuyler and her English sailor boyfriend pushing the old sailboat to carve the turns of the young and imaginative. I must admit, the Brits seem to know how to make a sailboat sail. I guess it's just part of their heritage. How many times has anyone looked at Gardiner's Island and not thought of the past, or pirates, or treasure of other times? The pristine beaches are as dreamlike as they always have been. The shoreline is practically as virgin as the day the first white man laid eyes on it.

Yes, last weekend when it was fifty degrees plus, I was longing to be on the water on my 23 ft O'Day sailboat enjoying being so alive. The warm salt air does something to everyone. The sunset sails back to the safety of the harbor through the jetty are always special, even after a thousand times. Yes, I miss my sailing but not for long. As I get older, the time to wait between seasons seems to go quicker, but so does the summer.