Life On Long Island

How to get to Sailors Haeven

My favorite beach on Long Island is Sailors Haven. I have been going to this beach since I went on a trip there with my 3rd-grade class. This beach is my favorite because it’s the closest to my house. It’s about a ten-minute drive from my house to the Sayville Ferries. From there, it’s 20 dollars for a round-trip ferry ride, and the ferry ride is about half an hour. My favorite part about the ferry is that you can sit on top because it’s always so windy and sunny, and the bottom gets so hot and loud because of the motors.

A trip to Sailors Haven usually starts around 9 am for me. I wake up, get my beach bag together, and then maybe get some coffee before my long day ahead! After I’m all packed and ready, one of my friends comes and picks us up at around 9:15, to leave room for whoever is late, or someone is just taking forever to get ready. I have a friend group of 6, so it’s hard for everyone to be on time. By the time we are all picked up, it’s around 9:40 – 9:45, so we make our way to the ferries. We usually get to the ferry at 9:50, which is a close call because we would want to get on a 10 am ferry, get our tickets, and get on the ferry. Then 30 minutes later, we get to the beach. By the time we get there, the families are all there, so we go to the side with fewer people, which is usually right of the lifeguard stand. When at the perfect spot, we set up a towel circle and get on some sunscreen.

The day would consist of going in the ocean, sunbathing, sleeping, reading, getting food, going for walks, playing spike ball, and blasting music. The food there is so good but expensive. They have the best chicken tenders and fries I’ve ever had. They also have an ice cream shop with Hershey’s ice cream, my favorite (and best flavor) being cappuccino crunch.

Usually, the last ferry out of Sailors Haven is at 5 pm, which is way before sunset, which means it’s too early to leave the beach. This means we have to walk to the neighboring beach, Cherry Grove, to take a 9 pm or 11 pm ferry. To get to Cherry Grove, it’s a 20-minute walk on a wooden path, from Sailors Haven. So we would usually leave Sailors 35 minutes before the ferry we are trying to make. Then, when we would get to Cherry, we would go wait on the ferry line, go on the top of the ferry, and take another half-hour ferry ride back to the marina. Depending on what ferry we took, we would either all go home and sleep or go in someone’s pool, usually it would be mine. Then that would conclude our very long, very fun beach day! Then we would repeat that about 2-3 times per week throughout the summer.

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