DESTINATION: THE OYSTER BAY OYSTER FESTIVAL; Part One

The reason for my Columbus Day voyage was to have one last cruise for the season and attend the 30th annual Oyster Bay Oyster festival. It was an event I wanted to attend for years but, for one reason or another never got to. So this year I made it a priority. I don't think I ever ate a raw Oyster though I have had it cooked in fried Oyster Po Boy sandwiches and in Oyster Stew. So I was gearing up to definitely try some as the Oysters for this event come fresh  right of the local Oyster Bay waters. To add to the adventure I downloaded the book The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky and started reading it a few weeks before heading to the event.

I arrived in Oyster Bay on the Monday before the weekend festival. Electro sailing past the markers that staked out the areas of  the Oyster beds worked by a commercial Oyster harvesting company:

 I also cruised  passed houses of some of the rich and famous on Centre Island like Billy Joel's:

 After I motored past  the moored boats in the harbor and anchored over on the other side of Centre Island in an area called West Harbor. I was alone in the anchorage and spent several days enjoying the beautiful autumn foliage around some of the houses on the shore:

The only other people I saw were the Bayman who were out early on their work boats scratching the bottom of the harbor with rakes digging for Mussels and Clams.

Some no doubt would be offered on the following weekend at the Oyster Festival. I had reserved a mooring at the Oyster Bay Marine Center for the weekend of the festival so I would have the convenience of a launch service and be closer to the festival. The weather called for some gusty winds starting late Thursday. So I decided to get on the mooring a few days earlier than planned  in order to not try be raising the anchor in the gusty winds by myself. Plus it would give me a chance to explore the town before the crowds of festival goers arrived.

 CLICK HERE FOR DESTINATION OYSTER BAY OYSTER FESTIVAL PART TWO

YOU CAN LEARN A LOT FROM BIRDS

I often anchor in waters where the bayman work. They head out in their workboats and skiffs with long aluminum clam rake poles. They spend hours scratching Davey Jones back for clams, mussels and oysters. I hear the jangle of the shellfish and rocks they pull up when they dump the rakes contents onto the sorting table as I have my morning coffee. It's a unique sound and one that you will only hear if you are on or near the water where the bayman are working. It looks like hard and lonely work. Except maybe for this bayman who seems to have a friend on board pointing out the way to the next mussel bed:

As those who fish on these waters know. You can learn a lot from birds.