The SYC cruising program includes several weekend cruises to nearby ports, and many of our boats take longer, informal summer cruises to more distant harbors such as Newport, Nantucket, and Cape Cod. The Club Cruise Leaders provide course information, docking, and mooring guidelines, and one or more planned social events for participating members. Setauket Yacht Club, Inc., maintains reciprocal privileges with many area yacht clubs offering docking, launch service, showers, and dining facilities at reasonable prices.

The Club generally launches four planned cruises each season, with three on or near the "big weekends" and our now traditional Cruise to Nowhere. Each cruise is planned and led by an experienced cruiser, with bar-b-ques, picnics, and restaurants selected by the leaders. The leader gets to pick the destination and plan the fun.

Our Memorial Day cruise keeps the distances short since this is usually a shakedown for most of the just launched boats. We sail to hospitable yacht clubs, explore local New York or Connecticut ports, and gather for social meals and cocktail parties and compare lists of all the items we forgot on this early cruise. This year the Babits have selected Centerport Yacht Club as the destination.

A rather unusual cruise is the SYC Cruise to Nowhere, held on a Saturday selected by the Cruise Leader. For this cruise, we pretend we don't live here, sail the local waters and gather in the best cruising harbor in the east--Port Jefferson! We dink in for a picnic on the beach, with some boats overnighting in the Harbor, while others take the short motor home. Sunday can include a lazy morning or an early sail, or a daysail in local waters.

In recent years, our July 4th cruise has actually been on the week before the holiday. We have been visiting Branford, Connecticut to watch their spectacular pre-July 4th fireworks. We anchor at Branford on Saturday and relax, visit by dink, or swim while we wait for the fireworks show. Some boats use this as a jumping-off point for their summer cruises while most sail home on Sunday. The Fortgangs are the Fireworks Fiesta leaders.

Summer cruises find our boats heading for points East on one, two, or three week vacations. SYC boats often meet in our favorite ports like Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket.

In between the Club cruises, SYC boats can be found criss-crossing the sound on most weekends, searching for the perfect sail, the best harbor, the finest restaurant, and ICE CREAM! Any experienced cruiser can tell you the location of the ice cream parlors in each port and will provide ratings of each one.

Labor Day weekend ends the Summer, with a three day mini-vacation to one or two local ports. Past destinations have been to yacht clubs in Oyster Bay, Stamford, Northport, and Milford. The Vegas are planning this years cruise, and will post the destination as soon as it is selected.

Club members are always available to discuss cruise plans, give advice, and coordinate cruise schedules. Call a cruiser, or come down to the Club on Thursday evenings when an intrepid group of eaters (bring your own dinner) and talkers (bring a pair of ears and a mouth) gather most Thursdays. Any of us will be happy to talk sailing, cruising, social, and racing activities. In the absence of any of these interesting subjects, the discussions may have to turn to more mundane topics like politics, religion, or grandchildren.