A Tale of Two Chemists: Plum Gut

Plum Gut … Sunday 30th September 2012

For those of you expecting my secret recipe for "Christmas Pudding" I'm afraid you may be disappointed. "Plum Gut" is not a dessert, but rather the channel that runs between Plum Island and Orient Point, and it's one of the tidal races that separates the western part of Long Island Sound from Block Island sound. It's critical to pass through these gaps at the right time as the current can run at 5 knots - either with you or against you! Spending last night in Coecles harbor set us up perfectly to get to "Plum Gut" early in the morning to make the most of the favorable current. We got up at about 5.45am and prepared to leave as soon as there was reasonable light (~6.30pm). The exit from Coecles Harbor was nerve wracking as the entrance is narrow, shallow and subject to strong currents. But we made it through fine and motored into a north east wind and put up our main sail just before we arrived at "Plum Gut" around 7:45am. The passage was exhilarating! We rode a swirling mass of meringue shaped chop at speeds of up to 10.2 knots. One of us made himself quite unpopular by having to go and fetch his camera just as things were about to get exciting. Shooting one-handed with a heavy 70-200mm lens, whilst steering with the other isn't easy … and sadly the photos don't really capture the atmosphere. The experience brought back memories of a trip we made many years ago in our 16 ft daysailer around Anglesey in North Wales. We passed a similar tidal race just off North Stack and I vividly remember entering the standing waves with Gloria at the helm, one hand on the tiller, one hand to hold on to the boat and the mainsheet in her teeth. At least I had the good sense not to go for my camera at that particular moment - otherwise I would probably be doing this trip alone! Anyway, back to today. After the gut we sailed southwest on a beam reach for a few hours, initially making good speed with the help of the tide. However, both the wind and current diminished and by noon we were barely moving. As we still had a long way to go so we resorted to motoring, but it was easy going and the weather, which had started out grey and dreary, turned to sun in the afternoon and we struggled to stay alert. We arrived at Port Jefferson shortly after 3pm, having covered the 50 miles in under 9 hours. The harbor is extensive and quite scenic, with a number of different areas you could anchor. We first tried a secluded cove to the east but this was too full of moorings and so we crossed to the west side and dropped the anchor just as a thunderstorm passed close by. We are too tired to go into town now, but hope to explore it in the morning.

As a quick sidebar we'd like to note that yesterday was our 50th "log-able" day of sailing since we launched Cotinga. That's to say we have done 50 days with 4 hours or more of sailing / motoring during the day. To get a "100 ton license" you need to have logged 365 days. Including previous experience we now have close to 180 days total. We aren't sure yet whether days living aboard the boat where you aren't actually sailing can be counted.

Mike