Weather Waylaid Adventurer

    When Norris Acosta tied up his sailboat at the Harbor Marina in Three Mile Harbor over the weekend he was not out on a run-of-the-mill afternoon cruise. The adventurer was en route from Massachusetts to Brooklyn, which might not seem at all out of the ordinary except for one fact: His yacht is a 13-foot-long Sunfish more commonly used for short day trips.

    Mr. Acosta left Massachusetts on Aug. 9, sailed down Buzzards Bay and through the Cape Cod Canal. His itinerary went according to plan until he was stranded on the west side of Gardiner’s Island when fog and the prevailing wind kept him from rounding Montauk Point.

    The Harbor Marina’s Peter Mendelman said the sailor had stopped onshore along the way, camping. Instead of reaching the ocean at Montauk, he decided to go through the Shinnecock Canal after spending a night either at Cedar Point in East Hampton or Mashomack Point on Shelter Island. He said he then would continue off the South Shore to Brooklyn.

    “When he came into the store, he was dressed in a wetsuit top, shorts, and wetsuit booties. His hands were like prunes from being out on the water. He admitted that his stomach muscles were getting a workout from heeling out in the Sunfish,” Mr. Mendelman said.     Mr. Acosta is no stranger to adventure; he said he tries to do something exciting every year. Last year, he bicycled from Paris to Crete, although he didn’t elaborate on the Mediterranean passage, Mr. Mendelman said.

    The yachtsman sails with a compass around his neck and a navigation app on his cellphone, which he keeps in a plastic bag, also secured around his neck. He was gone from East Hampton yesterday and was perhaps out of cellphone range when a reporter called.