West Neck Bay
We spent a pleasant two day anchored in Pipes Cove and visiting the town of Greenport, including a daily stop a the local brewery. This morning we weighed anchor and motored about halfway around Shelter Island and headed up into tiny West Neck Bay.
While anchored in Pipes Cove, I noticed an oyster boat pulling up racks of oysters that were being farmed in the water around us. I dinghied over and asked if I could buy some oysters and about a half hour later, 44 Oysterpond oysters were delivered to Intermezzo. They were a small but tasty and we ate them all up.
It was grey, windy and chilly when we set out this morning, but fortunately not raining. We motored south through Shelter Island Sound and then turned east in Noyak Bay to find the narrow entrance into West Neck Harbor.
There were quite a few boats anchored in the harbor, but we continued up a winding shallow channel to get to West Neck Bay. I was doing fine keeping Intermezzo in navigable depths until I misread the chart and gently touched the muddy bottom on a bend. I quickly reversed engines and got off the mud, chose another route and had no problem after that getting to the anchorage.
West Neck Bay is more like a small lake, almost circular, about a quarter mile wide. It's fringed by very nice waterfront homes, many with private docks. There is a public launching ramp nearby which we used to beach the dinghy. I went for a run, Lisa took the Montague bike on a tour of the island.
We collected a few mussels on the way back to try out back on the boat. I steamed them and then sautéed in a little butter. I was a but skeptical, as I've never seen this type of mussel served at a restaurant or in a fish market before, but they tasted pretty good. Providing we don't get sick overnight from them, we'll collect some more for tomorrow's dinner.
The weather started clearing this evening and it's very peaceful and calm tonight. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, good for our next stop, Coecles Harbor, on the other side of the island.
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| Old boatyard buildings in Greenport |
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| Sunflowers along a Greenport sidewalk |
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| Oysterpond oysters right out of the waters of Pipes Cove |
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| Intermezzo's position shown by the red arrow in West Neck Bay |
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| Intermezzo at anchor in West Neck Bay on a cloudy grey day |
