The next day, just before sunrise, Lisa and I were up at the helm motoring away from that broken dock into a sea of glass.  So peaceful… Noah and Gabriel, curled into an nest of pillows sleeping bags and blankets, slept for hours as our Perkins diesel motor purred flawlessly.  It is hard to describe how the same exact place where your life flashes past you in moments of desperation, can suddenly be so incredibly peaceful.

Lisa and I cuddled with a cup of coffee watching the most beautiful sunrise as the autopilot steered Aleph Tav towards Long Island.  The only waves in the sound came from our hull as we glided through the water at a gentle 4.5 knots.

At mid afternoon it became clear we would not be reaching Port Jefferson any time before evening.  Lisa and I decided the night before that we would not be docking or anchoring in the evening from this time forth, so we decided to anchor at Orient Point where we enjoyed a very peaceful evening.

“Get up! Get up! Get up!…” I shouted as I shook a very groggy Gabriel, who has ONE speed regardless of what is happening around him.  By the way, this is not a criticism, just an observation… Gabriel doesn’t move slow, or fast; whether he is waking up or wide awake, whether the world is coming to an end or just beginning, Gabriel moves at one very reliable pace.  Of course this does not help when your anchor drags, placing your boat in the path of an oncoming ferry… It was time for action AGAIN!!!

We pulled up anchor and quickly sailed out into the Long Island Sound heading to Port Jefferson.  We had very strong head winds, and a fast current against us.  After some five hours of going nowhere, we decided to sail across the sound to Connecticut, with very favorable winds.

We entered Old Saybrook Connecticut with the proud elegance of a highly experience crew.  We passed a fancy yacht club and headed toward Old Lyme bridge.

“This is the Captain of Aleph Tav, requesting clearance from the bridge operator to pass… over?…”

“This is the Captain of Aleph Tav, attempting to communicate with the bridge operator, please respond… Over?…”

My debonair  sounding broadcast had no effect… The bridge remained close and the radio was silent.

We circled in front of the closed bridge several times, until I decided to head back to the fancy yatch club we had passed earlier.  Some fifteen minutes later we looked back and the bridge was opened.

So as to have the last word, I got on the radio;  “This is the Captain of Aleph Tav.  I had requested passage under the bridge, but there was no communication so we decided to turn back… Over!…”

“Captain of the ‘Out of Time’,  Will you be returning back this way?”  Came an annoyed response over the radio.

“Aleph Tav!!!” I corrected, “…this is the Captain of ALEPH TAV!!! and NO, we will not be turning back, but thank you just the same.”  I clarified.

“Captain, what’s the name of your vessel???” Asked the bridge operator.

“Aaaa-leph – Taaaav!!!” I pronounced slowly…

“…Captain of the ‘Out of Time’, I did respond to your request, but your radio did not receive the transmission!…” He replied

“Aleph Tav!!!  A-L-E-P-H  T-A-V” I spelled out slowly as Lisa mouthed the letters for me…

“Well Captain, the bridge is now closing… There’s a train coming… over and out…”

I approached the dock of the yacht club perfectly, but a strong wind on our starboard quickly pushed us away from the dock, so I had to motor forward and come back around.  Once again, I approached the dock against the wind.  Gabriel stood on the bow waiting to throw a rope.  I quickly jumped onto the dock and asked Gabriel to throw me the rope.  It was a perfect throw… Well, that is, if I were three feet closer and a little to the left.  The end of the rope landed in the water as Aleph Tav moved away from the dock too far for me to jump back on.  Lisa’s eyes opened very wide.  I began making up air traffic control hand signals from the dock as Lisa circled Aleph Tav back around.  Gabriel performed a perfect rope toss… The rope landed on my head, then slid past my shoulder, and finally through my fingertips as I grabbed hand fists of air.  I reached out to grab the boat railing, as I held  onto a handrail of a boarding ramp next to me.  The boarding ramp flipped over, and it was either go for a swim, or leap like a cat and hang by my armpits onto the boat railing as the ramp went flying off the dock landing on my head.  Once again we circled back, and docked perfectly. A sweet peace came in the evening as we fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, I was startled out of my sleep by a very strange sound;  it was as if hundreds of people were running and scraping their ski boots on the deck.  I peeked out and saw a sea of glass…  The sound grew louder.  I got dressed and went above deck with a spotlight… Something large and strange was moving past us on an outgoing tide…  I looked closer; very large sheets of ice were flowing past us, some crashing and breaking as they scraped Aleph Tav’s side…  “We are so out of time” I thought.

A few hours later we were off.  Once again the ocean looked like glass and we had a wonderful sail right into Port Jefferson were we planed to visit Rabbi Rich and Diane for no longer than an hour… Two at the most… Or so we thought.
To be continued