What a way to celebrate a birthday!

Fast forward from the Memorial Day debacle to July 4th weekend.  Mind you, we've been enjoying For Us without incident since that day.  I can now tie the clove hitch in record time (though still need the book for the bowline), know about how deep the water is in our travels and know how much chain length (called rode) we have.  Tom and I absolutely love this boat!  She is supremely comfortable - like a floating condo - and handles like a dream.  Rarely does anything move around during our rides.  Granted we haven't ventured into the ocean yet, but Long Island Sound is not a swimming pool either.

Somehow, we convinced my daughter and son-in-law to spend the July 4th weekend with us, not only aboard, but traveling to Port Jefferson for the weekend.  After man-handling enough food and wine to feed the navy aboard, it was time to go.  This time we made it out of the harbor and into the Sound like true pros.  The boat handled the way a boat should when there's a steady supply of fuel to the engine.  What a revelation!  We had a wonderful cruise on glassy water under sunny skies doing all of 7 knots.  The captain docked us in our slip at Pt. Jeff with the help of 2 bored dockhands and we were there! 
It was a fun weekend spent exploring the town, visiting quaint gift shops and enjoying cocktails and dinner both on the boat and in the restaurants.

The highlight of the trip was the fireworks.  Now we've seen firework displays before, but never from the back porch of our beloved boat, complete with cocktails in hand and comfortable chairs.  Now, that my fellow boaters is THE only way to watch fireworks.  It gives an entire new dimension to the beauty of a dark summer sky come alive with multi-colored lights in amazing patterns.  Before going to bed that night, I patted her capstrip and thanked her for bringing us this new look at life.