We left our mooring ball in NYC this
morning. Against the flood tide current on the Hudson we made slow
progress south, only about 2-3knots. Fast moving ferries between NYC
and New Jersey are an important part of the public transportation
system. So much traffic it was like playing Frogger on a boat but
with following wakes bouncing us up & down. We finally reached NY Harbour, raised sails paid homage to Lady Liberty with an official
sail past, now dodging big tour boats and Staten Island Ferries. Next
it was on through the Narrows under the Varezanno bridge, huge cargo
ships and tugs towing barges with long cables were the challenges on
the this level of the video game Escape Manhattan.
Hello Ocean!! From here on it was all
ocean baby! With a reefed main and reefed genoa (hey we're being
cautious) we passed Coney Island and then skirted the southern shore
of Long Island. Ocean winds are often pretty constant in both
strength and direction which makes for great cursing sailing. Once in
the ocean we didn't tack even once, which is good because Cassandra
was getting pretty tired from all the tacking around shipping in NY
Harbour. To test ourselves we unreefed the genoa and then the
mainsail. We we're flying along at 6-7knots and heeling quite a bit.
I took my yet to be installed inclinometer and it read 20degrees
(we're more comfortable with 10-15degress). At some point, we didn't
even notice from the cockpit, the salon table ripped out of its
supports again (inadequate supports to start with in my opinion –
another thing to be fixed. Sigh). Apart form that we had an excellent
run all the way to Jones Inlet. We have never entered an ocean inlet
and our new chart plotter didn't offer much guidance (in fact is
actually said that due to frequent changes it didn't have reliable
depth or buoy information. Another sailboat had been behind for much
of the day. I hailed him on the radio and asked if he was also
entering the inlet and if he could guide us. He was, could and would.
Vinny, single handing his Hunter 34 Asisu, swiftly passed us
and we not only followed him in but also followed all his streaming
advice on surfing the following hurricane swells and avoiding nearby
sandbars (he had had first hand experience). We are very grateful for
his help, things could have turned out very differently without.
Once safely in we waited about 20mins
for a bascule bridge to open and then penetrated deep into the vast
network of canals to our destination dock at the Town & Country
Dental clinic in Freeport Long Island. I know... a dental clinic with
boat docks? That's how boat centric Long Island is!
We'll be spending about a week here
visiting with my sister, brother in law and baby niece. We'll also
obviously be spending a lot of time on boat repairs, installations
and other boat stuff.
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Can't get a checkered cab in NYZ! |
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The new Freedom Tower dominates NYC skyline |
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Armpit hair... she's French |
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Awful sail trim... I know, it was a lot to manage at once. |
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Table's anchored... floorboards not so much... |
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Our guiding light |
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Now this is a HOUSEBOAT! |
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