A Great Summer Comes to a Close- Time to Turn South

It's a cold(52 deg) and rainy day here in Annapolis, MD.  Bella and I are snuggled under the covers in the state room, with the generator running to charge the batteries and allowing for the heater to knock the damp chill off the cabin.  We've had a busy week, working on projects that have been building up for the past year.  Carryn is in Athens to help her sister Megan with baby #5.  Well, really, Carryn is managing kids 1-4 while Megan handles the new one.  Baby Mia Brynlin came into the world on Wednesday at a healthy 7lbs4oz and Mom and baby are already home.  Carryn is doing well to keep the other monkeys from taking over the zoo.  Bella and I sure miss her and look forward to her return this Friday.  We hope to have our worklist complete so we can enjoy a few days milling around the Annapolis Sailboat Show this weekend.  We will then pull the hook(actually both anchors are set right now due to the extremely crowded conditions in Back Creek) and will set off for Deltaville, VA where we will haul the boat and do some work on the bottom(more on that later).  But I am getting ahead of myself as usual.  We have a lot of catching up to do.  It has been over 2 months since we last blogged and I have been catching heck for the dry spell.  We've put many miles under the keel since we left the Chesapeake to head north, so I'll fill you in on our adventures.

As you may recall, we arrived in Annapolis back in mid July, traveling all the way up from Florida with our buddies on Las Sirenas.  It was great to be cruising with thme again, and we enjoyed the trip up the ICW, through the Dismal Swamp Canal and into the Chesapeake Bay.  It was bitter sweet, though, as this was the end of the line for Las Sirenas.  They are returning to life on land in California, so would be working to clean her up and get her on the market.  We hung around with them, taking a few side trips across the bay.  We visited the popular St Michaels and had a wonderful time there, anchoring in wone of the most beautiful creeks, surrounded by lush woods and incredible homes.

  St Michaels is a must visit place, with many shops and a laid back attitude.  We took the bikes and trailer in so we could fully explore the town and I think we got the most of it.  We dropped in on the local micro-brewery for some tasty suds AND found the local winery where we sampled a dozen or so varieties.  We stumbled over to the local waterfront cafe and I indulged in a mess of Maryland Blue Crabs. 

 It was a great day and quiet night in the anchorage.  From there, we checked out Cambridge, MD and found it to be a cute little town but suffering badly from the depressed economy.  The downtown was just off the water and appeared to be midway through a revitalization project, but was mostly vacant and seemed ot be slipping back into disrepair.  It was really sad, as we saw many small towns along the coast(Georgetown, Elizabeth City, Oriental) in the same situation.  We headed back across the bay to Annapolis and after a few final days with Scott(Esme and the girls went back to CA so Haley could play water polo in the Junior Olympics), we knew we had to get moving north if we were going to make it to Maine.
We set off on August 3rd and headed up the Chesapeake Bay to the C&D Canal, a man made canal that connects the North end of the Chesapeake to the Delaware Bay.  It is a major shipping route allowing large ships to enter the Chesapeake bay from Philadelphia or New Jersey without having to make offshore passage to round the southern end of Delaware/Virginia.  We were in Cape May after 2 days and Atlantic City on the 3rd day.  We made the stop in AC so Scott could make one last visit with us, bringing some late arriving mail and returning some of the tools he had borrowed to get Las Sirenas cleaned up.  We really enjoyed his company, as after only 3 days, we missed having him around.  We went out for a little Atlantic City flavor and found a cool spot where a local DJ was spinning some heavy Latin music. 

We danced(well, Carryn and Scott did), and watched the locals.  It was a fun night.  Scott left the next morning and Carryn and I started preparing the boat for an overnight passage that would take us well offshore, bypassing the Jersey coast and all of Long Island, NY, arriving in Block Island in about 32 hours.

We left Atlantic City on Saturday Aug 7th and had a fairly good run, to Block Island.  We started out motor-sailing, but then were able to run under sail that night, making good time.  The last 10 miles of the 130 mile passage were the toughest, as the swell and current made for a slow, miserable ride to get past Montauk Point and into Great Salt Pond on BI.  We took the rest of that Sunday to recover and rest.  We took the bikes ashore on Moday and explored the island, finding it to be one of the coolest places we have been.  Amazingly beautiful and very tastefully done, you can certainly tell that there is alot of old money there and clearly many of the estates have been passed through many generations.  We rode our bikes, with Bella in her trailer, out to the light house on the Northern spit and walked the rocky shore. 

Bella had a grand time.  We of course hit the island grocery store and picked up a few fresh things.  It was a great day and we could have stayed a week, but knew we had a lot of water to cover to get to Maine, so we left Tuesday morning and headed across Narragansettt Bay and up into Buzzards Bay, approaching the Cape Cod Canal.  The CCC is another man made canal that cuts right across the Cape, creating a short cut into Cape Cod Bay.  We had a long day to get to Onset, MA, just short of the entrance to the canal so we dropped the hook in a well protected anchorage there.  Passage through the canal has to be timed just right, as the tidal current can runn at over 5 knots. We would have to weigh anchor early (6am) to get into the canal as the current turns to run north. 
We got up and got the anchor up and headed out into the canal.  What we weren't expecting was a brisk north wind on the nose.  normally, this would only be a nuissance by slowing us up a bit, but with the north bound current being opposed by a south bound wind, the passage can be treacherous with large, standing waves.  Shortly into the canal, we found ourselves bustling along at almost 10 knots, but encountering some very tall and steep rollers.  Unfortunately, I had lowered my guard and had failed to dog all the hatches(fully tightening the latches).  We barrelled into several of the almost square shaped waves, the bow dropping off into the trough, and the crest of the wave breaking over the bow and deck of the boat.  End result: huge ingress of seawater into the 2 big hatches above the V-berth and salon.  I estimate we took about 20 gallons of sea water into the V-berth, soaking the bedding, mattress and everything that was stored there.  Water found its way down the TV and now we have a permanent reminder of the event in the form of 2 big screen distortions.  It was a little scary and very disheartening.  Salt water is very destructive to anything (except maybe plastic trash), and once in bedding or clothing, they will always feel damp and foster mildew.  It bothered me all day, knowing the task to clean up the mess  It was another long day, motoring across the Cape Cod Bay in crappy weather, but we made it to Marblehead, MA that evening and immediately set out to find a laundry mat to wash all the salt soaked bedding and clothes.   Marblehead is a busy little town with a large harbor packed with boats.  It is also one of the places that I had visited while travelling and walking stores for Home Depot that built my desire to go cruising.  I recall a trip that Joe C. and I made up to Boston several years back where we found ourselves up as far as Marblehead.  After walking the store, we found the locals favorite spot for Lobster Rolls and enjoyed a view of the harbor over lunch.  I remember saying to myself, that I would someday be anchored in this very place on our own boat.  And it came to be.  It was very satisfying....well, except that we spent most of our time doing laundry and cleaning up the mess inside the boat!  But that's part of cruising that the glossy mags seldom mention.
With another 150 miles ahead of us, we decided to limit our stay, so we took off the next morning to complete the final leg of the trip to Maine.  Of course, not without a little drama though.  Shortly out of Marblehead, we suddenly heard a loud shrieking coming from the engine room.  I jumped down to see what it was, and found our high-amp alternator had decided to burn up it's bearings.  We shut down and I was able to pull the belts off, effectively disabling it. Fortunately it was our "auxilliary' alternator and is on its own set of belts, allowing the engine to function fine without it.  While we would no longer be charging the house bank while the engine was running, we can still charge using the generator, so we were fine with pressing on.  We got underway for the final leg, another overnight, offshore passage that would take us into Rockland, Maine.  The passage went well, and we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise over glass smooth waters as we approached Pemobscot bay.  We motored the last 20 miles, dodging lobster pots and arriving into Rockland Harbor by lunch.

We were finally here!  Maine!  And we had a whole month to explore. 
After getting the hook down, we called our friends David and Marge on Windfield Lash to see what was on the agneda.  We had met David and Marge on the passage from Florida to the Bahamas.  As we were rounding the North Riding Rocks above Bimini, we could see in the distance a beautiful wooden schooner.  If you recall, our first night in the Bahamas was out at anchor in the middle of the banks(in 12 feet of crystal clear water but no land in sight).  David and Marge had left out of No Name Harbor that morning, took a more northerly arc but arrived onto the banks shortly after we did.  They anchored just behind us, and Scott and I dingied over to meet them.  We travelled together for the next few days, and kept in contact with them throughout the Bahamas(we hung out with them in  Cambridge Cay, taking them snorkeling their first time). 
They had encouraged us to visit Maine back then, but in more recent phone chats, they really put the press on us to come up and hang with them in their cruising grounds.  They were a driving force in us making it up to Maine, and they were wonderful hosts the entire month.  We cant thank them enough for their effort to guide us to experience some of the best that Maine has to offer. 
First on our agenda was Rockland and the Maine Boats, Homes and Harbors Show, where we walked the tents and booths that showcased the Maine lifestyle and boarded some of the beautiful Maine-built boats.  It was a great weekend, topped off by a great dinner at Conte's- a real treat where I had my first of many lobster.
But a rolling stone gathers no moss, so after only 2 short days in Rockland, we would start heading "Down East". (It is known as Down East even though you are travelling basically north because it is one of the only places on the coast that due to the prevailing SW winds, you can sail East, and be headin Down wind).
So we set sail for one of my most anticipated visits of the trip- WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, ME.
We had a beautiful run up the eastern way of the Penobscot and then down the Eggemoggin Reach.  It was only about a 30 mile day, so we did most under sail, supplementing with the motor only when the winds calmed completely.  It was a beautiful day, temps in the 70's, not a cloud in the sky.  Now this is cruising!
We arrived and picked up a WoodenBoat School complimentary mooring(I felt a little out of place, being one of the only "plasitc" boats in the harbor).  We were sourrounded by beautiful, classic, hand made wooden boats of all sizes and shapes.  It was inspiring.

We toured the grounds and explored the boat building shops.  It was the weekend, so no classes were in session, but students were starting to arrive.  It is a very cool experience, and I look forward to returning, either by boat or car, to attend one of their week long courses.

While cruising the Bahamas, we were blessed to have met two other boats from Maine and one of the primary reasons to come up this far was to take all of them up on their invitation to come up to see them.  We first met Jim and Heather(and Scarlett & River) on StarBound when we were in Las Olas, Fort Lauderdale.  StarBound is a beautiful wooden ketch built in the 40's, with a rich history and several circumnavigations to its claim.  Jim and Heather pursued her until the former owners finally parted with her and they spent a couple of years getting her back into shape to do some long term cruising(during which time, Jim took courses at WBS and as locals, kind of became a fixture around there).  WE had a brief encounter with them as they blew through Fort Lauderdale, made a few provisioning runs with Las Sirenas and caught a great weather window to skitter across to the Bahamas, making it over about 2 weeks before we did.  We met them again in the Exumas, where we shared an epic day in Bitter Buana Cay with several other boats.  But it was the gathering in Emerald Bay a week or so later, when Scott and I had each caught a big Mahi and so kicked off a big party and dinner with all the boats on the dock(including Windfiled Lash!).  Here we really had time to get to know Jim and Heather.  And what cool people- we had a great time that night, and hoped we would get to hang with them in the future.

Well, here was our chance- in their neck of the woods.  I had emailed Jim a week or so earlier, but had no response, so I was figuring they were either out cruising, or were out of town and we wouldn't get to see them.   Unbelievably, I get a call the afternoon we rolled into WBS, and it's Jim- wondering where WE are!  When I told him, he nearly dropped the phone.  He and Heather were at home(only a few miles away) and would come right down to see us.  In a few minutes, we were high-fiving, hugging and recounting the good old days.  They insisted we all come over for dinner  and offered to take us on some errands(wine shop, grocery store, etc).  As cruisers themselves, they also insisted we bring over any laundry and we could do that as well.  We had a fantastic time with them that night, Heather rolled out home-made pizza with the most amazing toppings, every 10 minutes pulling another one out of the oven for us all to devour.  We ate, drank lots of wine and caught up on where we had been and where we were going.  It was a great night.

We decided to stay at WBS for a third day, due to heavy rain, so we stayed in below, read and stayed warm and dry.  The next morning, we awoke to thick fog, but had a fiarly straightforward passage to Some Sound on Mount Desert Island.  It was our first time in such thick fog,(sometimes reducing visibility to less than 100 feet), but we did fine.  We used the radar and chartplotter to find our way through the mist, listening for the many lobster boats working their traps nearby.  The lobster boats are probably the spookiest part of the experience.  You hear the deep rumble of their engine and they sound like they are right next to you, but you can't see them.  I figured they've been doing this their whole life, so I just kept sounding my fog horn (a 5 second blast every 2 minutes) and hoped for the best.

We made it to Somes Sound and the fog cleared as we entered the fjord.  It was spectacular, with sheer granite walls that rise from the water several hundred feet upward.  The interesting thing is how deep the water is right up to the wall.  We were less than a boat length from the wall and were in 120' of water!

We picked up a mooring in Somesville and went exploring.  Mt Desert Island is home to Acadia National Park and is a mecca for hikers, bikers, paddlers and campers. 

 LL Bean provides a very efficient bus service all over the island for FREE!  Daddy like FREE!  So we were able to spend the next couple of days exploring the island on the bus (even Bella gets to ride the bus).  It was very cool. 

After a couple nights in Somes Sound, we made the short run to Northeast Harbor(also on MDI).  Another heavy blanket of fog made for an interesting passage and this time the fog did not clear as we entered the very tightly packed harbor.  Imagine rolling into the harbor, boats on mooring balls so tightly packed you could barely sqeeze through, and only being able to see about 50 feet in front of you.  It was tricky, but we made it in a tied up to a floating dock.  These are moorings(out in the harbor, but instead of tying directly to the ball, they have a 40' long by 8' wide floating dock attached, so you can tie up 2 boats, one on each side, and have a little common are in between.  This worked perfect as it gave us a sitting area and made it easy to share dinner and drinks.  We had flagged down a local lobster boat and bought 3 large lobster for $15, so we boiled them that night.

  Wow, they were delicious!  We stayed in NorthEast Harbor for 2 nights, exploring the town and doing some hiking.  We took the LL Bean bus back to Bar Harbor to do some shopping and sightseeing.  Twice, we shared a bottle of wine, a block of cheese, fresh salami and crackers on the park lawn.  It was a great way to spend a beautiful day.

From NorthEast Harbor, we headed out and around to anchor in a small cove on Bartlett Island.  Bartlett is still owned and operated by the Rockefeller family and has a small working plantation.  They have their own grass airstrip to fly in  and we saw several small planes come and go. 

They allow landing by boat on their shors and respectful exploration of the island.  It is one of the few places that allow open fires on the shore (below the high water mark), so we dingied in that evening and built a fire to roast hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner.  It was another epic evening, and as dusk settled in the tide came up, crowding us up the shore and finally encouraging us to head back to the boat.  We watched the tide eventually overcome the fire we had built, extinguishing it with hiss and smoke, and we were in bed by 9 or so.

We had an easy 8 mile sail to Blue Hill the next day, where we took up a mooring at the Kollegwidgewock Yacht Club.  There was a forecast for high winds and rough seas, so we wanted to be well planted.  While it was rainy and cool, we never got any bad weather.  We went in to Blue Hill, and walked the town.  We had been invited to a gathering at the yacht club, and with the offer of wine and hors doerves, we couldn't decline.  We met some nice people, had a few glasses of wine and some snacks.  Actually, Carryn got really irritated with how I attacked the snack table.  But they were good!!
We meandered around town the next day, We made a big walk to the grocery store- turned out to be about 4 miles each way, so we were exhausted by the time we got back to the boat.  My arms were killing me from the weight of the beer and wine.  We had a quick dinner and retired early.
The next morning, we headed out of Blue Hill, bound for Tom Cod Cove.  This took us back up the Eggemoggin Reach and a little further north up the Penobscot River.  It was another beautiful anchorage and that evening several big schooners ghosted in and dropped anchor deep in the cove.  David and I dingied over to chat with one of the boats that he knew.
From there, we took a few days to split off from Windfield Lash and head back to Rockland.  While I didn't think it would be an issue not having the alternator functioning, it turned out to be a bigger nuissance than expected.  It required us to run the genset, even after motoring all day.  We knew we could repair it or find/order a new unit in Rockland.  Marge loaned us her car, so we could get around.  It was a good couple of days and we got alot of things done.  We did laundry and re-provisioned as well.  It always feels good to pull away from a dock fully fueled and watered up, with clean laundry, a clean boat and a full reefer.  We hooked back up with them in Belfast to continue our amazing tour of Maine.  Belfast is a neat little watertown with a rich history.  I won't bore you with all that history.  Partly because I can't remember much of it and partly because if your interested, you can google or wiki it.  We would have stayed longer, but wanted to see more. 
We headed to Castine, home of the Maine Maritime Acadamy, one of only 5 public maritime colleges in the country.  The town was neat, but a tour of the campus was the highlight for me.  We "snuck" into some of the labs where they teach all subjects related to marine engineering, and ship systems.  If I had it all to do over again, I think that is the path I would have taken in life.

With Hurricane Earl heading up the coast, we decided it best to pull into a secure harbor and get settled in  for "the big blow". We headed for Pulpit Harbor on North Haven Island.  This is a very secure storm anchorage and we found a sturdy looking mooring to tie up to.  Many locals were having their boats hauled early due to the storm, so we figured it would be unlikely that we would get kicked off the mooring ball, but we kept our fingers crossed.  The anchorage filled up, but we were fortunate that Earl passed by with barely a blow.  We got a ton of rain out of it that night, but the next day, we had a beautiful day for sailing over to Camden for the Windjammer festival and our final weekend in Maine.

We arrived that afternoon, and David had arranged for us to have a mooring ball.  Thanks, Rick on Appledore.  We dingied into the harbor and found Windfield Lash  docked front and center.  It is a real eye catcher and David loves to show it off.  He spent 18 years building her and has sailed her since 2000.  He made the cover of WoodenBoat Magazine in 2002.  She is an amazing schooner.  Labor Day weekend in Camden is all about wooden boats and Wind Jammers.  All the big wooden schooners come in for an "open house" of sorts, welcoming people aboard to admire these great ships. 

We had a great time hanging out with David and Marge, with the pleasure of meeting their long time friends Dick and Carolyn Sweeney.  WE sat around, gabbed drank adn listened to good music. with a good fireworks show to wrap up the weekend.
It was a great way to end a three week cruise in Maine, and we must again thank David and Marge for hosting us.  We hope to see them again soon.

Although Monday was Labor Day, we decided to get moving south, so we slipped the mooring lines and headed down the Penobscot Bay.  We would make about 40 miles, ending up in Tenants Harbor.  This left us about 50 miles to Falmouth where we would connect with our friends Jack and Gerta on Sadie A.  We had met Jack and Gerta in Dinner Key, Miami and they made the crossing over to the Bahamas with us.  We ran into them several times in the Bahamas and we always enjoyed sharing an anchorage with them.  If we could hook up with them, we would be 3 for 3(yep, we only had 3 friends in Maine, but now we have many more). 

We were thrilled to learn that Jack and Gerta were able to break away to come see us.  They even arranged for us to take a mooring at the Portland Yacht Club, where they have been members for many years.  It was so great to get to spend the day with them, and they showed us around to some cool places.  First on the priority list was a visit to the LL Bean store.  Now I love to shop, and this was my kind of place and  I actually found some shorts I liked.  Then we went to Harriseeket for an unbelievable lunch.  This place is the real deal, they even have their own lobster boats to bing in the catch.  You can get just about any kind of local seafood, but I had to go for the Lobstah Roll.  Man, they are tasty.  Jack and Gerta took us sight seeing in Portland and we ended up back at the yacht club for dinner- with a special guest.  Their daughter Joanne was able to join us(we had met Jo and her husband Mark in Long Island and Conception. when they were down visiting Jack and Gerta).  We had a great dinner and really enjoyed catching up.  We just couldn't thank them enough for taking the time to entertain us for a whole day, as well as picking up dinner and our morring.  It is always hard to say good bye, but we do so with the sincere expectation that we will meet up again somewhere down the waterway.  All good things come to an end, and this would be our last night in Maine. 

The next morning we got up and started preparing the boat for another overnight offshore passage.  We had about 100 miles to go to get to the Cape Cod Canal, and we wanted to arrive at about 11am to catch the tide falling.  We left around 1pm and motorsailed south.  That night the winds really picked up on the stern and we found ourselves really moving fast.  I had planned for an average speed of 5 knots to put us in at 11am, but much of the night we were doing 6.5 to 7.  This put us arriving at the canal entrance around 9am.   At daybreak, we reefed the sail and tried to slow down, but to no avail.  We would have to either bounce around in the bay and wait or press on into the canal, heading into the strong adverse current.  We approached the mouth of the canal and found about 3 knots of current against us, and about a quarter mile stretch of standing waves.  They didn't look to daunting and we knew that within an hour or so, the current would be reversing to be in our favor, so we pressed on.  I was bushed from the overnight of sailing, so Carryn took the helm and got us through the canal and we pulled into Onset, MA.  Another successfull passage, and now we were in the New England waters that we had looked forward to exploring.  We spent the rest of the day resting and recovering in Onset and would move on the next morning to sail the 15 miles down Buzards Bay to Woods Hole, MA.

It was an enjoyable downwind run to Woods Hole, MA.  The name may sound familiar as this is the epicenter for marine studies.  It is home to the Scripps Oceanographinc institue, the Us Marine fisheries and several other very prominent research and higher education facilities.  We planned only to stop for a day, on the way to Martha's Vineyard, but found a good(free) mooring and after taking the bikes to shore to explore, we found that you can catch a ferry to Martha's Vineyard so we chose to leave the boat on the mooring in Woods Hole and spring for the ferry over for the day.  So we spent a day riding bikes and exploring Woods Hole and nearby Falmouth, Then caught the ferry the next day(with the bikes and trailer) to MV.  WE really like MV and the bikes really let you cover alot of ground.  We biked to nearby Oak Bluffs where we found the most interesting little village of small victorian styled "gingerbread" houses all packed into a little neighborhood.  It was called the Marthas Vineyard Camp Meeting Association and was a religious retreat area that developed from a "tent city" into a little community.  It was fascinating.  We liked MV alot, but again, it takes some money to "belong".

We left Woods Hole, bound for Mystic, CT where we wanted to visit the Mystic Seaport Museum.  It was a londg day of sailing and we pulled into an anchorage to find a vacant moooring ball or drop the hook(honestly, I was getting lazy about anchoring when there were all these convenient moorings out there).  AS we were easing through the mooring field, we had the misfortune of hitting something pretty solid.  We were coasting along in about 8 feet of water when we hit it, kind of bounced up on it, and then grinded across it and were back afloat.  It was a really sick feeling- worse than getting in a car accident if you can imagine.  So we found a close mooring and got the boat tied up.  I immediately grabbed mask and fins to dive and survey the damage.  Fortunately, our boat has a pretty solid keel, but their was some damage done.  It wouldn't require an immediate haulout, but will need to be addressed soon.  While that put a damper on our mood, we didn't let it stop us from going in to Mystic and exploring the town. 

We dingied in to the Seaport Museum, which is actually a preseved/resoted part of the old working waterfront that dominated this town in the 18th and 19th centuries.  It was very cool and they had many exhibits that explained or demonstrated many of the marine/nautical trades of the period.  We had to catch dinner at Mystic Pizza, the cafe that inspired the movie of the same name back in the 80's.  The pizza was actually pretty good.  But it was back to the boat and early to bed, as we (I) would be getting up very early to get out of the anchorage head west for the long day up Long Island Sound to New York City.

We had a great sail up the sound but the weather started falling apart as we neared our destination, City Island off Queens, NY.  We began to hear strong weather warnings on the VHF, with sever thunderstorms, lightning and 50 knot winds coming across NY into NY Harbor and Long Island Sound.  We began preparing the boat for the squalls and made a decision divert to a small harbor in New Rochelle.  It tucked up to along the northern shore, so we would be somewhat protected from the gusty north winds in the squalls.  WE were within a hlf mile of the little harbor when the bottom dropped out and the conditions got ugly.  We were able to stay the course and navigate into the harbor with the chartplotter and radar to guide us.   We pulled in and were lucky to find a vacant mooring ball and we tied up quickly and weathered out the rest of the short but violent storm .  An hour later, things were back to normal, but the boat was clean and salt-free, and we were on a secure mooring.  WE decided to just stay there for the night.  The next morning we motored the last few miles to City Island and found another vacant ball(but this one was being watched by the marina and the launch driver came out shortly thereafter and let us know it would be $35 per night to stay there.  We said we would probably only be her a few hours to go into town, so he didn't ask for payment.  Thank goodness, because once we dingied in we found City Island was not where you want to hang out.  WE renamed it something that rhymes with City.  We couldn't get back to the boat fast enough and we slipped the lines a nd left.  We headed the couple miles south to Port Washington, Manhasset Bay on Long Island.  WE needed fuel and it was about the only place around, but we paid a premium.  $4 per gallon for diesel- we haven't paid that much since the Bahamas.  It was a Brewer Marina and I guess the felt they could gouge since they were one of the few marinas pumping fuel.  But we were rewarded with a hot tip by the dock attendant, who informed us there were some free moorings provided by the town for transients.  We called the Water taxi guy on VHF and he led us to one of the big yellow moorings. FREEE!! Daddy like!!

We dingied in to Port Washing ton and found a very cool little suburb.  We walked the streets lined wiht delis, cleaners, meat markets, etc.  Looking at the people and cars, it was clear that this place had it going on.  We spent the afternoon milling around and playing frisbee with Bella.  It was good to relax and stretch our legs.  Then next day we would be making the much anticipated approach and passage down the East River, through Hells Gate, and around Manhattan, the battery and into New York Harbor. 

This is another passage that you have to time with the tides or you can get hammered.  Fortunately, the optimum time to approach and pass under the Throgs Neck Bridge was 9am.  So we slipped the ball around 830 and headed out of Manhasset Bay.  We turned in and were in the East River and already feeling the current wisk us along.  We approached and passed LaGuardia Airport and Rikers Island and made the turn approaching Hell Gate, a treacherous stretch of water where the Harlem River joins the East River and currents accelarate to over 5 knots and the water shurns and rolls violently.  It was such a beautiful day with benign  conditions, we almost forgot to dog the hatches again!  Carryn ran below just in time to close and dog the main hatch, but fortunately, we just avoided taking a wave over the bow. 

We continued down river moving at 9-10 knots in turbulent waters.  The next exciting event is passing the United Nations Building.  IT is patrolled 24/7 by US Coast Guard SAFE boats and they mean business!  They approach your boat at full speed, spin around and then cruise alongside to ensure you don't turn towards the UN.  All went well as we hugged the shoreline to port and passed by the well guarded sensitive area. 

We continued running with the current, with the forest of skyscrapers off the starboard side and once we made the last dogleg to starboard, and passed under the Williamsburg and Brooklyn bridges, we were greeted with Lady Liberty in the distance. 

What a site, despite the distraction of avoiding getting run down by one of the hundreds of ferries and sighseeing boats that operate in this heavily congested waterway intersection.  I made it through and we approached Liberty Island and Ellis Island for some great pics.  It was pretty amazing.  This was one of those huge milestones that we had set out to achieve from the very beginning.  And we were here, doing it. 

We made several passes, gawking at the beautiful Statue and the sight of Ellis Island from the harbor.  looking back toward the city, the Battery stood prominently with the beautiful skyline behind it.  But then the thought of finding a place to stay started bothering me.  We knew of several marinas on the NY side and the NJ side of the Hudson, but all would be prohibitively expensive.  I started making calls and confirmed this.  $3/ foot or about $150 a night was the norm.  WE had one last hope- the 79th Street Boat Basin, operated by the City.  We called and they had not mooring balls available and no space int ehe marina.  Now I was starting to worry a bit.  We had talked to several cruisers who had anchored near the 79 St marina, but we weren't that comfortable with the idea.  Additionally, the wind and current in the Hudson is not to be taken lightly.  We motored up the Hudson to the marina and called again, hoping to score a cancellation.  No dice, but we were encouraged to see a boat anchored at the south end of the moorings.  It didn't look too bad, so we poked around and sounded for depths.  It appeared we could find good spot in about 20 feet of water(any closer and it got shallow quick, adn further out it dropped to 30 feet quick.  So we circled around a few times and found a sweet spot to drop the hook and spent the next 30 minutes ensureing we had good scope(about 120' of chain) and the anchor was well set.  Due to the reversing currents, we decided to set out a second anchor, about 300' upriver from our first anchor.  This would allow the boat to turn and pull on the second anchor when the current reversed.  It's called a Bahamian Moor configuration and reduces our swing room and reduces the possibility of anchor drag because the boat always pulls the same direction on each of the anchors.  After all that, we felt pretty good about it, and after the first tide change we had a good idea of how SolMate was going to ride the anchor.  We were now set to explore NEW YORK CITY,  and we had a front row seat.  100 yards off the banks of the Hudson River, in the very cool Upper West Side.  Sweeeeet!

We had a great time in NYC, and we'll share all the details and some pics in the next blog.  For now, I want to get this posted so folks can get started reading.

Please let us know if you enjoyed theis blog, ether by leaving a comment, post a comment on FaceBook or give us a shout on the phone.  We'd love to hear from you. 
Take care.
Brandon, Carryn and Bella