Sag Harbor, NY

The 191′ Intuition and 160′ ShadowL silhouetted against the evening sky.

Saturday, 23 August

The sky this evening over Intuition, thick clouds battling the blue beyond, is remarkable. It’s the same in the sky over Shadow L. But then, Shadow L, Intuition, Indiscretion, Blind Date and the dozen or more other so-called “super yachts” here are remarkable in their own right.

Here is Sag Harbor, New York, just a harpoon’s throw away from the hoity-toity Hamptons of Long Island.

You just never know who you’ll meet in Sag.

Yes, the Sag Harbor of Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, John Steinbeck and so many others of the famed and fortunate is another port founded on whaling. Go figga.

Steadfast arrived yesterday after a lovely sail from Greenport, ‘round the south side of Shelter Island. Ten knots out of the east-nor’east allowed for a broad reach, then a reach to a beat into Noyack Bay before Little Red sprung to life to bring her to Sag. It’s hard to imagine whalers tied off five across on Long Wharf but they say that’s how it was in the 1840s when whaling made this town. As with New Bedford, Bristol, Salem and others, evidence remains in the walls of incredible homes that have survived the ravages of time and the economy.

The much-beloved Cap’n Hand may have been the model for Natty Bumpo.

No question, Sag’s had her ups and downs. But like those other harbors and towns and people, she has survived. Downtown today is an interesting mix, for sure. The chi-chi boutiques and eateries line Main Street, spread among stores that serve the working man. Emporium True-Value offers one of the most complete hardware inventories imaginable over three floors, right there on Main. A few doors away, there’s a Laundromat and in between, Schiavoni’s Market, a complete grocer with all a sailor could ask. And this just a couple of blocks off the dinghy dock at Long Wharf. That’s great for visiting crews, sure, but one gets the sense that Sag is here for four seasons, not just the summer.

What once was home to a successful merchant now houses Sag’s Whaling Museum.

That was the case, for sure, with Capt. David Hand whose simple home on Sage Street was built, they say, in the late 1700s. The good cap’n is thought to have been the inspiration for James Fennimore Cooper’s character Natty Bumpo of The Last of the Mohicans and his other “Leatherstocking Tales.” (Cooper’s another of Sag’s many sons of letters.)  And with the temple to whale oil built by Benjamin Hunting II, the front door framed by bones of whale jaws, blubber spade decoration along the roof line, this Greek-revival mansion is something to behold.

To save on rentals, Indiscretion comes complete with wheels.  Can you find the Mini?

In this harbor, Steadfast is in company with a number of her size and temperament; modest yachts whose owners are just tickled to take a boat under sail for the day, an afternoon, an hour even. They are attractive, well cared-for ladies, each with character born of experience. They’ve seen a cloud or two and taken home their crews—if not always in comfort—with confidence. These gals’ll get you there.

Not that Intuition II would not. At 191 feet, she has the look of a ship that could handle most anything the sea might send at her. Likewise Shadow L and the others of their ilk. They’re solid for sure, as their paid crews are aware. But what of those who sleep in the owners’ staterooms? Would their wonder at the wind and wave and battle above be any deeper, more profound than those several decks below?

Hmmm.

Steadfast out.