Shell and I just walked around the facility here by River Street. The cold snap ended, so it is very pleasant at this hour (9:30pm).

The “Pumpkin Muffin”

The new dinghy’s name is finally revealed!

The sun is just about to cross the equator into the southern hemisphere for another six months.

Here’s a first for Ray… an eye splice of 8-Plait line. Making a “Snubber” to take the strain off the electric windlass.

It’s only 61F outside. But under our canvas its like 80F! Very nice extended season… 2-1/2 more days till the Fall Equinox on Tuesday morning.

Sweet crabmeat harvested right next to our boat! Tnx Capt Mike Winter for the crab trap!!!

Seizing wire secures the shackle and teflon tape make for a first class job.

New anchor beside old.

Anchored at Cedar Beach cove for the night.

It works!

Vulcan 25 by Rocna (55lbs) will be deployed tomorrow morning.

Yellow paint marks 0, 50, 100, 150, and 200.

Red paint marks 25, 75, 125, and 175.

This way we know how much rode we have let out. Normally 5X one’s depth is a common rule of thumb. More if needed due to breezy conditions and bottom conditions.

We bought a new dinghy tonight from a fellow in Bayville NY. A very sweet area of Long Island! Enjoyed the drive to find him. He delivers it here tomorrow!

Photo by Dez!!!

The weather turned out to be a whole lot better than predicted. Shelly even went in for another test of her swim ladder!

Latest pic.

Lots of dirt from tunneling project.

Here’s what it looked like in May 2020:

https://shellerina.com/2020/05/17/big-clean-water-infrastructure-project-happening-near-our-hangout-cedar-beach-cove/

What a great day aboard Shellerina, nice weather too. We are looking forward to having Nick, Dez, Nancy, and Kirk aboard tomorrow!!!

4 telescoping steps, and ALL of them are in the water. This goes down much further than most boat ladders!

We will test drive this afternoon…

Test Results:

Notice also the new grab bar above the transom!

Easy up and easy down!

Great enhancement.

Final assessment:

Best GD boat ladder we have ever tried!!! It is only 304 Stainless Steel (not 316) so we expect to clean up some rust stains periodically. Still worth it.

Sunrise – Leaving our slip beside Precious Cargo.

Up with the sun – Absolutely the best time of day on the ocean!

Leaving Great Peconic Bay at the north entrance to Shinecock Canal.

Once we were outside of Shinecock Inlet, we saw huge “fields” of Bunker fish, I tried to capture in this vid

We love the fuel efficiency of our single screw diesel! Hardly a dent after nearly 150 miles.

The Sirois, Elbaums, and Romanos hung out at TreasurevCove Marina today taking advantage of all the amenities including the pool.

Great evening dockside with the Elbaums of Precious Cargo.

We cruise between 1800 and 1900 RPM, which is about 10 mph. Slower than many boats; but ours is a very fuel efficient craft. After 9 hours underway, our fuel gauge still shows FULL!

On long legs like this one, the new Auto Pilot really becomes an appreciated member of the crew!

One of my favorite prayers!

Nice night!

Two nights away from the Full Moon Sept 2.

There will be two full moons in the same calendar month, October, this year… so rare Blue Moon is October 31, 2020!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=UEByMIRojbU

Mark Stover is a great friend of mine. This is a great place to visit by boat!

One of the ‘challenges’ we have is finding better food dishes when we go out compared to what Shelly comes up with here on the boat or at home. Tonight, Chicken Tika Marsala. Love the extra cillantro! Too good to describe!

It was the quest for Indian spices that motivated sailors from Europe to sail West in the 1400’s and 1500’s. We have those same spices right here aboard Shellerina! How fortunate we are!

We had a great time as we always do with Steve and Tina.

It was a great day. Disaster was averted as some kids were caught in the current leaving Sore Thumb. Some quick action by a couple of boats smaller than ours saved the day!

For more info about Sore Thumb see the video links here: https://shellerina.com › sore-thu…

We had a great time with Jane today. She brought lunch and a bottle of wine, and Shelly trained and demonstrated all the deckhand duties. Jane was also patient as I had a couple chores to do… she and Shelly let me get them done. One was testing a new fuel gauge, which tested great. The other was removing the last of the old boat name off the port bow.

We are anchored out here at Cedar Beach Cove and another boat came out of its way to give us that complement this hour. Nice.

Very pleasant evening… not too hot, not too much wind. Good night to gain some more hours and experience… and just enjoy ourselves!

After hours we could clearly see Saturn and Jupiter! From our dock looking up towards our upper deck SSW. With all the ground light here in NY we miss out on a lot. So we celebrate anything we can get!

Pluto, well we’ll have to look for you from a different locale!

We are anchored in our usual spot enjoying some crabs that Tom harvested for us last night.

We are secure inside the boat!

About an hour before the bad weather arrived, our newest dock mates next door came in under one engine. “Five K” captain Bobby did a commendable job at the helm making the slip landing with only one screw. I fended off the bow. So Matt assisted. Wife Amy nervously watched from the dock.

In any event, it was a good first intro for the next door neighbors.

My brother Russ was crew aboard Brian Saulter’s boat out of Boothbay Harbor Maine. They caught this 82″ Bluefin Tuna!

These recent drone pics are taken by friend Don Lockhart, and are in the vicinity of Shellerina’s Rock in Harrison Maine. We spent countless hours and nights tied up there for years before moving to Long Island in 2015. Don and Beth rent from Gateway Marina on Long Lake, and this day they had Robby and Wayne Oliver aboard for the outing!

Andre (Shelly’s brother) and his step daughter Katie in Rockland Maine this week.

First priority upgrade for us was Auto Pilot. A boat that we plan to cruise in … which only goes 10 mph requires Auto Pilot! Its almost like having a third crew member aboard, saves fuel and time, as a computer can steer way more accurately over long distances than a human.

Today was my very first experience using Auto Pilot. At first, I was not impressed. “It must need calibration or tweaking.” But, then after I read the manual, it started to work. I wasn’t doing anything different <wink>. But remarkably, the thing started working much better. <grin>

There are two of these control units, one at the lower helm (shown here), and another at the upper helm.

I’m looking forward to an orientation and sea trial with SeaCurity Systems of Lindenhurst NY who did the install for us in a timely manner this past week.

Donna and Shelly were patient with me this morning while I was “playing” with this navigational aid for the first time.

Sea Trial / owner instructions with the installers happens tomorrow night after work.

Addendum [Tuesday Aug 11] Frank Regan of SeaCurity Systems came aboard and did all the commissioning and calibrating of this new system, and it is 100% now!

Happy Customer now!

Thank you Frank & Co.!

It was gr8 to have Steve Romano aboard for the testing too!

Donna with a surprised Shelly!

The Elbaums and the Romanos scored two surprise birthday gifts today for the birthday girl, PLUS cousin Donna Lambert (from Salem MA) showed up for a two-day outing aboard MV Shellerina! Shelly likes being surprised, and today we all scored for her.

Then! Nick and Desiree came through with their surprise too!

Day after birthday: Shelly in her “nest” at our apartment on the phone with Linda back in Maine… flowers are in the background.

All the dock lights are on and working, no wind, beautiful night!

S-Dock is a very protected spot to ride out storms like this one.

I doubled each line and put out some extra fenders this evening after work. It was sunny and clear… but not for long. Two hours later we now hear wind, and thunder overhead, 9:30pm.

I’m also glad to see signs of headway by the professional Auto-Pilot installation crew today.

Same hour moonrise and sunset.

Just got off a great call with Russ, my bro from Edgecomb Maine. So many boat things and life things going on!

Cellphone pic of Shelly after a productive day getting lots of projects done!

We had a great evening and sunset cruise with Nick and girlfriend, Desiree.

We even dropped the hook in Cedar Beach Cove and went for a swim!

The champagne for this event was provided by Rick and Jane Hergt, the previous owners. We really regret that we did not get any pictures of them when they were visiting us Saturday July 18 as we prepared for our first voyage aboard their former boat! We wish them many days of happy cruising aboard their beautiful ‘new’ Grand Banks trawler!

This boat affords Shelly the ability to walk the whole perimeter of the boat. Here she has gone forward to clean the anchor rode as it comes up out of the mud and sand.

The electronics are very cool!

On my iPhone, I can even view/monitor what is showing up on the chart plotter at any given time while I am away from it at the lower helm or wherever. Amazing!

This shows my iPhone displaying what is currently on screen upstairs on the upper bridge. “Two helms, one chart plotter, no problem!”

New stainless steel boarding handle enables Shelly to come and go without assistance!

Shelly and I took a “get organized” day today. Starting to get things set up the way we want.

After dinner, we went upstairs to have a cocktail on the flybridge while the sun set.

Very cool perspective on the world! Back to work in the morning! 8:00 ET call with the UK. I’m going back to the apartment during the business day.

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Maiden voyage today 6:00am.

Steve has his coffee! And there is no fog!

Just arrived at the dock!

Mike was finishing up his fiberglass work when we arrived. Lower helm seen above.

Upper helm seen below.

View of the bow from the upper helm / fly bridge.

Master stateroom below.

Huge thanks to dock mate Steve Ramano for these pics and for accompanying us on this maiden voyage of 150 miles home to the South Shore of Long Island, a two day trip. Tomorrow we make Greenport NY on the North Fork of eastern Long Island.

Supper time!

Shelly and Steve at dinner … take out from nearby McKinley’s Irish Pub.

We plan to push off at 6:00am.

Perfect timing to coordinate the sale of our Chaparral the day after closing on the Mainship 390!

They say the two happiest days of a person’s life is the day one buys a boat, and when one sells a boat!

So these two days are pretty special for us!

Congratulations to Tony DeLuka, new owner of the Chaparral Signature 27!

Took the boat name and hailing port off the transom this evening. The boat is all ready for its new owner!

Spring 2012 was our first season aboard this boat. So 2020 is our 9th season.

Two boat transfers of ownership are likely in the next 48 hours.

Next log entry will likely be with new owner aboard. Then its off to E. Greewich RI to bring the next Shellerina home to her new landing.

We are anchored in position to watch to the North all along the south shore of Long Island for private and municipal fireworks displays. Plenty of social distance out here on the anchor!

It isn’t dark yet.

It isn’t 9:00pm yet.

Yet hundreds or thousands of people are launching their loads of fireworks this evening. Lots of pent up need to celebrate things, I think. Happy Birthday America!

I wish I could capture what we are seeing from this vantage point. 7.5 M people on Long Island needing to vent on the 4th of July!

160 degrees of panoramic fireworks! Going for over an hour.

Can’t wait any longer for supper! We brought the stove up in the cockpit so Shelly would not miss any of the fireworks!

It is impossible to capture the wide panoramic display of fireworks that we’ve been seeing for the past couple hours. This vid does not even come close!

Of course, it got better after dark, but the camera becomes less capable to capture what we are seeing tonight.

10:30pm. Fireworks are still going strong on Great South Bay. Remarkable.

Almost two weeks after her successful cataract surgery, Shelly now sports some new sunglasses.

I never knew that the replacement lens that they implant in the eye for this procedure is prescription, so corrective lenses are no longer needed for driving etc.

So, these are non-prescription glasses except for “reading”. She loves them and they look great. Also, they are “Clic”s. Meaning a magnetic bridge can be separated for taking them off temporarily, and a cord going in back around the neck keeps them secured. Perfect for boating.