Let me start by saying that sailboats are distinctly in the minority at Montauk. The reason for this is simple: It's shallow! Nothing makes sailboaters feel more welcome than water under the keel and well-marked channels. Montauk has neither, though a channel into the "lake" has been recently dredged and marked. It's about time. For years we have cruised Long Island Sound and the bays between the forks of eastern Long Island, but our very first visit to Montauk was over the past 4th of July weekend. And on this busy, busy boating weekend, we spent the night in an anchorage with four other boats. Four! Montauk has lots of marinas, mostly located around the harbor entrance. They looked pretty crowded as we passed them on the way in. But the anchorage was deserted. This might be because the harbor has a reputation for bad holding, at least that's what it says in the Maptech cruising guide. We had no problems with our Delta, successfully anchoring twice having decided our first choice was too shallow. We didn't notice anyone else having problems, though our sample size is certainly too small to be significant. There is a marked anchorage in the harbor, though it isn't on the most recent Maptech charts. It's right alongside the channel just south of Star Island. I suppose it's worth mentioning that Lake Montauk isn't really a lake, and Star Island isn't really an island, but who cares? The designated anchorage is well marked with bouys, is superbly sheltered from the prevailing southwest winds, and is close to a public beach where you can drag up the dink. The only caviat is that it might be too shallow for some boats. It's marked 5 feet MLW. We never read less than 6 feet, and sounding with our boat hook we found that most of the anchorage is about 8 feet at low tide. The bottom is soft, but you might have to time your arrival and departure with a higher tide. If that's too shallow, most of the harbor is charted at 8-10' MLW, and we never saw anything less than 8' in the channel at low tide. You can anchor anywhere, and if you want, you can anchor 1000 yards from the nearest boat. I am not kidding. People water ski in the harbor, and one of the marinas rents seadoos and runabouts, but we saw very little of this. It's mostly just quiet. We couldn't locate a dinghy dock, but it was windy during our visit so we didn't feel like tooling around and getting wet. We just went to the nearby public beach and dragged our inflatable ashore. We also couldn't locate a harbormaster. When we arrived, we found that our paper charts and our much newer GPS card were both out of date, neither showing the new channel. The Maptech Guide mentioned a harbormaster, but gave no hailing channel. We tried the usual harbormaster channels, but no one answered our hails. Fortunately, a big sloop came motoring through our intended route and dismissed our concerns. Montauk is, well, Montauk. Lots of car tourists, some really bad restaurants, and sportfishing charter operations lined shoulder-to-shoulder along the main drag. We didn't stay long enough to get a good feel for what's happening ashore, though the town area -- called "the Plaza" since Montauk isn't really a town -- was nice and fun to walk around. We rented bikes there and took the obligatory trip out to the lighthouse. $6pp to walk up to the light, geez. The main roads are very bike friendly, with large, ample shoulders. We never felt unsafe riding, and the people are very used to bikes. It was almost like Block Island in that regard. There are lots of taxis in Montauk. You can't walk around for any time without being passed by a dozen cabs, all with their phone numbers on the side of the newer yellow vans. A welcome change from the rest of the Hamptons, where taxi operations come and go with the season, the cars old heaps. I'd say this is an undiscovered sailing destination for sure. If you have the opportunity, get out there and visit before everyone else catches on. Paul sv Escape Artist h336