Montauk, NY – The End

The title of this post sounds so ominous, but it isn’t meant to be. That’s just where Montauk is . . . at the very end of Long Island; therefore, it is referred to as “The End.” We went into a sweatshirt shop . . . are you familiar with those “interestingly” styled sweat pants that have something written across the backside like, “PINK” or the name of a university? You can guess, we saw some that said, “THE END.” Okay, that’s a little funny.

It was tough deciding if the title of this post should be the one that you see or if it should be “Stuck in Montauk,” but that sounded a little too negative. However, it would be an accurate description . . . we stayed there a few days longer than intended due to being fogged in! Anyway, what we saw of Montauk was very pleasant. We were anchored in the middle of Lake Montauk and had a couple of breaks in the weather that were just long enough to be able to take the dinghy to shore and explore a little. They were wet, windy, sloppy dinghy rides, but that’s what foul weather jackets are for.  So we were sending emails to our family saying, “We’re in Montauk . . . still.” “Today we’re staying in Montauk.” Haven’t left Montauk yet. ” Don’t get me wrong, we like the place, but six days anchored 0n Lake Montauk is about four days more than one needs. But we made the best of it!

Our impression of Montauk is that it is a mix of being a little funky, a little nice, some people extremely friendly, and some people very standoffish. There appear to be some “world’s colliding” aspects to it; there is a big commercial fishing industry here, so you have that culture very prevalent. (If you’ve ever watched any of the fishing reality shows like “Deadliest Catch” or “Wicked Tuna” then you have an idea of what that means . . . it can be a bit of a rough crowd (as my dad used to say).  One restaurant seemed to cater to the fisherman that just jumped off their boats – pretty interesting clientele and very funky and eclectic decor.  But just around the corner, you have a very high end seafood/specialty food market and a little upscale shopping area. Montauk is a big destination for recreational charter fishing as well. But then you also watch a handful of mega-yachts come in. Like I said, a mix.  We kind of enjoyed the funkier aspect of it! Taking a little longer walk up one of the roads around the area, we saw multiple little motels and hotels that looked almost like summer camps from the 40s or 50s in age and style (but small) . . . and yet they were right on or close to the water so certainly not cheap real estate. There is definitely an aspect of stepping back in time here.

One evening when it was just comfortable enough to sit outside (by Ems standards – Frank was likely huddled under a blanket down below), we watched a mega yacht loop through the channel markers and head right towards us. I called down below that I thought we were getting company. We flipped on the VHF radio, and sure enough, heard a call hailing, “Eleanor Q, come in please!” We answered back and they declared that they were unfamiliar with the lake, inquired about it’s depth (pretty shallow and you do have to watch where you’re going), and then asked if we would mind if they anchored right up behind us. It was pretty funny looking because we were smack dab in the middle of the lake and NO ONE else was anchored out there! But there’s a feeling of safety in numbers sometimes and we welcomed the company. The yacht was quite large and the hailing port was the Marshall Islands. That was the last we heard from our new mega neighbor who then slipped off into the fog before 8am the next morning. But overnight, our boats watched over each other.

We chose not to slip off into the fog. Fog is no fun, and we had nowhere we had to be, so why put yourself through that if you don’t have to. So we sat, in a fog, in Montauk. Here are some pictures of what we could see during that week.

Day One: A Beach Walk in Montauk (Hey, that rhymes!)

Some of the sites around the inlet and lake

Beautiful Vessel! This is a wood “commuter boat” built in the 30s. Absolutely stunning condition!

The little shopping square. Found a great market for specialty food treats.

Commercial Fishing is prevalent in the area

A bird surveys the local yacht club as we pass.

This was the funky fisherman’s restaurant. Look carefully: decor includes punching bag, antique wheel chair and bird feeders. ????

We walked here. It was a long way . . . (If you look at the larger version of this picture, you MIGHT find that comment funny . . . or not. First set of bonus points for musical reference #1)

Dinghy captain taking us to town. (Dinghy is the vessel, not a description of the captain.)

The view from our boat, Day 3 in Montauk

Ems practicing her dinghy driving . . . looking very serious while pulling away. Probably thinking something like, “Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.” This is serious business, though, because independence is essential and being able to take the dinghy ashore alone is a big part of that!

Feeling a little more confident . . . “Onward!” By the way, the fog set in during this practice run, but fortunately, being on a lake, it was pretty easy to do a little dead reckoning and figure out how to head in the right direction until Eleanor Q became visible again! Still, kind of an odd feeling.

Soggy setup . . . ya think? The weather pattern for many days in a row . . . anyone east of the Mississippi was feeling it just like we were. Stuck in a system . . .

The view the next day . . . again. Fog. But look! A little company! “Don’t worry ’bout a thing; ’cause every little thing’s gonna be alright!” (Bonus points for getting musical reference #2.)

So you might wonder what kinds of things we do to entertain ourselves when we’re stuck on the boat for days at at time:

Play the guitar . . .

Play gin rummy (we have quarterly tournaments. Frank just won last quarter, but July is a new start!)

About the same thing he’d do on any Sunday afternoon . . . remote control, snacks, iPad . . . some things never change . . .

. . .watch the Nascar race . . . we do have TV, but we have guidelines for watching it: only for major news, weather or sporting events . . . or in this case, stretches of bad weather when we’re stuck!

Later that afternoon . . .

And then there’s always cooking to pass the time (which is easy to do when it’s a little chilly!) Frank made us this delicious sea bass dinner! (No, he didn’t catch it . . . )

And the view the next day . . .

So more cooking . . .

There’s always chatting on the Single Side Band radio! That HAM license comes in handy.

Busting out of Lake Montauk at last! The lake is in the rear view mirror (if we had a rear view mirror.)

Going out the inlet from the lake. When you’re going out of it, shouldn’t it be called an “outlet”???? Just wondering.

Finally, on Tuesday, July 2nd, we broke out of Montauk and headed for the top part of the “fishtail” of Long Island. I never looked closely at the map before to realize that Long Island really does look like a fish tail. Tuesday afternoon we landed in the waters next to Shelter Island, NY where we are still hanging out today. But we’re not stuck here due to fog . . . we’re stuck here because it’s too nice to leave just yet! But we’ll tell you about that on the next post.