Go West Not So Young Man

So there I was...motoring into the dock with my dingy in Mattituck Harbor on the north shore of Long Island.  Getting into their dingy to go back out to their sailboat was a couple a few years older than me and we struck up a conversation about the old 1953 3hp Johnson outboard engine that I used on my dingy.  As the conversation progressed we got to talking about how the woman, who was in great shape, had just been kiteboarding all afternoon on the bay.  Kiteboarding is where you hold on to a large kite to propel you across the the top of the water, often at great speeds, on what looks like a small surfboard.  It is an intense sport and I was impressed that this "not so young" woman was proficient in it.  The conversation eventually turned to living a minimalist lifestyle on our boats. Being an advocate of the minimalist philosophy I was explaining how my wife and I had sought to downsize making our life simpler, cheaper and more fullfiling.  Always wanting more is endless and requires all your time maintaining more and working too much to afford it all.  Wanting less creates a feeling of accomplishment as you give things up, while financially and emotionally simplifying your life giving you more time to invest in the things that really matter.  I read once a quote that said, "The quickest way to make a man rich is to decrease his wants".  The couple proceeded to tell me of their home in the woods on 7 acres of land with no electricity and a pipe from a nearby stream leading into the house for water.  For many years they had lived and loved this simple life allowing them to work and live in their very modest home in the winter and travel the east coast in the summer living on their boat.  Her job for the day was to go kiteboarding.  His job was to carry it to the beach and back.  I decided they won the minimalist challenge.
Yesterday I raised anchor and did an 8 hour cruise going west toward New York City going by the harbors of Port Jefferson and Oyster Bay.  As I passed Oyster Bay the water in Long Island Sound became deep red, almost like blood.  Thoughts of God telling Moses to turn the water in the Nile River to blood came to mind.  In this case it is what's called Red Tide, an algal bloom that has been a problem in New England waters.  It's very disconcerting.  I motored into Manhasset Harbor and got one of their free moorings for a couple nights.  From here I will make my run through Hell's Gate, up the Harlem River and into the Hudson River.  Going west as simply as I can.