We left NYC on one of the hottest days of our trip. At one point it was 33C outside, and just a few degrees less than that inside the boat! The haze was thick over the NYC skyline.
Given the distance to Haverstraw and the tides/currents, we
Those are people all over
this it is huge.
calculated that a midday departure would get us to Haverstraw by 5ish and also give us time to do boat chores, fuel and pump-out before we left. We were a little delayed in this process due an influx of Coast Guard and NYPD boats arriving at the fuel dock to top up. A 100' motor boat also got to the dock before we did. Regardless, we did manage to add a whopping 13 gallons of fuel, and remove about the same amount of waste! Pretty small potatoes compared to the boat beside us who would have added thousands in fuel.
General Grant Memorial
Finnish Line followed suit, and after a little while we were on our way. As was our arrival in the East River, our exit up the Hudson was lumpy and bumpy because of all the ferry, barge and other traffic. It took a few hours before the water began to calm down .
Our passage to our anchorage at Haverstraw was straight forward. There were a few barges we had to keep clear of, but the river is wide and navigation is easy. We passed mile after mile of housing on the north-west side of Manhattan, and similar, but more modern-looking equivalents on the NJ side.
New Tapanzee bridge with the old
bridge piers being removed
We passed the George Washington bridge and then the Tapanzee bridge. They are still removing the vestiges of the old Tapanzee bridge. There are just a few piers left, which are cleared down to almost water level.
Between the two bridges are The Palisades. The impressive cliffs on the west side of the Hudson.
Rail tracks follow the east side of the Hudson shore here, and passenger trains pass here regularly. Tarja surely passed over these tracks on her way into the city. Not a bad view for the train traveler.
Our anchorage for the night is a small, nicely enclosed bay right near the town of Haverstraw. There is no depth information on my Garmin chart, but Navionics has some detail and the sonar option shows things quite well. Good thing too, because there are Active Captian reviews that report that the "obstruction extends well further into the harbour than charted". Bob had some track information from "Pokeepsie Bob" that helped ensure an event free entrance and anchoring.
We set anchor with a few other boats in the bay, most of which left by sundown. The anchorage was peaceful all night until my anchor alarm went off. Luckily this was only due to floating in sort of random directions due to lack of wind.
Not long after, a series of very loud horns at 7am woke everyone up anyway.
Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse
Not sure exactly what it was and it seemed to come from the shore. In the morning, a few anchored barges in the channel had swapped about and perhaps the horns were from a tug signaling as it re-entered the shipping channel.
Anchorage near Kingston (Sep 23)
Firmly aground on the brick pile
Our caution and care about entering/leaving this anchorage turned out to be well advised. A 45' trawler headed out just before us, but didn't make it all of the way out of the harbour. They found themselves solidly aground on the "Brick pile" that was noted to be further out into the channel than charted. Not that we could be much help, we did offer. The owner thanked us, but said Tow Boat US was on their way. The poor fellow admitted he "cut it too close". And unfortunately, he ran aground just after high tide, leaving him more and more stuck by the minute.
Today we continue up river. We may push for a 40 nm day, but depending on current and weather (some rain and thunder storms predicted), we may stop short.
At this point the river is about 0.5 nm wide, sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less so the navigation is easy. For many stretches, there is good water from edge to edge. At other times, when the river takes a bend, you have to be a little more careful. But it is well marked and straight forward. The traffic is less here, although there is regular barge traffic. We also passed a handful of Canadian boats heading south to enjoy a winter (or more) in warmer climates.
Bannerman Castle
While mostly tree lined and high shores, at times with cliffs, there were still some interesting structures to watch as you go by:
West Point Academy, the Newburg-Beacon bridge, an enormous gravel plant (no doubt the source of many of the barges we've seen), the Culinary Institute of America (a huge fancy building), Bannerman Castle (on it's own island), various other large estates and mansions, and lots and lots of trains. The tracks go down both sides of the river around here, and passenger trains rumble passed quite regularly.
Good old American engineering ...
Concrete piers to hold the mountain up!
We tucked in to an anchorage just south of Kingston NY, and rafted together for another pizza-on-the-BBQ dinner. We had been keeping an eye on the weather this afternoon as thunderstorms were predicted Most of the initial bands of storms dissipated before getting to us, but we expected to get something at night. While we barely received any rain, nor had any electrical activity, we did get some strong winds. At 11:30pm, the winds came up quickly, similar to a line squall. Once on deck, we quickly realized that our anchor had started dragging. The four of us hustled to separate the two boats. With the cloud cover, it was a dark night. Combined with a knot and a half of current perpendicular to the wind, it took a moment to get our bearings before we set our own anchor.
Tracks run down both side of the Hudson
Anchor, drag, separate, re-anchor
all equals a bad night's sleep
Once re-anchored, the wind settled down (of course!) and most of the night was relatively calm. That is until the the wind picked up just a little. It was just enough to create some small wavelets. Not normally a concern, but at this point in the wee hours of the morning the current was flowing south, putting our stern into the wind causing the annoying transom slapping which is very hard to sleep through. Liken it to sleeping in a timpani drum!
Culinary Institute of America
Within a hour or so, the current changed and the anchor alarm went off (as it should have, as we were now pulling 180 deg. from where we had been a few minutes before. Yet with the change in direction came relief from the slapping and a few more hours of sleep were had.
This is where all the gravel
barges come from!!!
It is always interesting to watch boats at anchor, or on a mooring ball, in areas of current. Boats find all sorts of funny ways to sit that are quite surprising. Sometimes you will see boats, bow into the current, stern into the wind, with the anchor line down the side from bow to stern! Water currents, even gentle ones, tend to win out over wind when pushing boats around.
Catskill (Hop-O-Nose) Sep 24
Houses with "lights" all along
the Hudson River
We continued our journey up the Hudson with the destination for today being Hop-O-Nose Marina in the town of Catskill. This will be where we take our masts down for our transit of the NY Canal system, so that we can pass under the many bridges that do not offer enough clearance for our masts.
The day was pleasant with a mix of sun and cloud. I continued to tackle small de-rigging tasks while the auto-pilot did the hard work! (not so much). The wind was up a bit, then gone and then blasted us from a valley in the hills.
We again passed under some major bridges, passed lovely lighthouses in the river, and regularly saw the Amtrack trains pass by just at the waters edge. We passed a number of old brick smoke stacks along the shore. Some without any other structure, and some with accompanying buildings or other structures. At one point there were over a 130 such factories along the shores of the Hudson River. Now there are none. Only a handful of tell-tale smoke stacks remain to hint at the industry that once filled the shorelines here.
The marina is located down one of the smaller "creeks" we've seen. Finnish Line lead the way as they have been here before. We took our sweet time getting to the marina because we had to wait for two boats to clear the docks at the mast crane. Most of the eight or so Canadian sailboats going south that we passed, likely were here and had their masts put up yesterday, were now working their way south.
Remnants of old
Brick Factories
Awaiting mast lowering
Once at our docks we continued de-rigging as the marina guy indicated that they might want to get underway first thing tomorrow morning. This process involved: removing sails, the boom, all the rigging from the mast to the deck; removing the dodger and bimini (to be re-installed once the mast is down); disconnecting the furling gear; installing the on-deck mast supports (Linda and Bob brought these to the marina in the spring before we left); disconnecting mast wiring; loosening shrouds; and many other things. The staff here take charge of the mast lowering, something I've never had happen, so I'm a little worried even though these guys must do a couple hundred masts every season.
R.J. and his team
Once we had most of our prep under control, we headed to the small restaurant at the marina for a well deserved rib fest. Large portions of fall-off-the-bone ribs meant we will probably have rib sandwiches tomorrow!
Sep 25
Weird feelings today--some sadness as the mast coming down makes the end of the trip seem real, yet also looking forward to getting back home. It already feels like fall with a morning chill in the air and the leaves are starting to drop from the trees.
The mast crew arrived early. R.J. and his crew of 4 other guys showed up ready for business. Finnish Line was in the "mast slip" so he went first, We'll then swap slips and our mast will come down. R.J. and his crew are on top of the process. While highly questionable in the "workplace safety" department, they were efficient and knew what to do.
First, one guy goes up on the crane hoist with one foot in a loop of line. When he gets to the first set of spreaders, he proceeds to tie off the lifting line. Coming back down, he just slides down the mast freehand. The rest of the crew then secure the lower end of the lifting line to the mast just under the gooseneck.
R.J. operates the crane, and he uses a combination of the electric motor and hand spinning one of the gears (when he needed fine-grained control) to manage things. He applies a little bit of hoist tension and the rest of the crew releases the turnbuckles and keeps things steady. Then a final lift to bring the mast off the deck. I check the wiring to be sure it's all free, and then they lower the mast into the supports we installed yesterday. All was done very quickly and with low stress. Quite a relief to have it all done.
Masting crane of unknown age!!
We spent much of the rest of the day securing things, and tidying up the deck, stowing sails, securing the boom, so that we would be able to get around the boat to handle lines without tripping over things.
We treated ourselves to dinner at the New York restaurant. This place has been in operation for about 100 years. It has interesting decor including an original tile floor. Out front on the sidewalk there is a small observation window down to the basement. You can look down to see the old hand- cranked lift used to raise and lower things into the basement. It looks sturdy and would have been used to lower ice blocks, used for refrigeration, into the basement. The current owner found this by accident when knocking down a wall in the basement.
Our plan is to leave early tomorrow morning because we have go 40 nm, which includes a fuel stop and our first lock!
Next Stop .... Erie Canal
Tomorrow we head to Waterford. We'll stop for the night on the wall just before the first flight of locks (5 locks in about 1.5 nm). The locks open at 7am, and we'll try to get into the first set as soon as they open.
Departing Boston we had little traffic except the jet planes from above and a few fast ferries. We exited mostly the way we entered except this time we wandered through a different set of islands to take a shorter, more southerly route past islands with fortifications, and lighthouses, until we were outside the islands that surround Boston.
Remnant of fortification dug into shore
Our path arced around the coast to an almost due south direction toward Sandwich MA. Much of the coastline was sand/beach and the majority of that was lined with expensive houses all the way from Boston.
We were able to sail for much of the day, until our estimated arrival time started to slip past 5pm. So as not to arrive too late, we fired up the motor to assist our beam-reach sailing. The passage was mostly sunny, but definitely the coolest day in a while. We enjoyed a steady 8 kts of wind for most of the trip.
Minot's Ledge Lighthouse
There were enough crab/lobster pots to keep us on our toes, but not too much other traffic. We saw a couple of ocean sunfish and with the sun high in the sky, we were able to see these things clearly as we passed them.
Just inside the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal is the location of the Sandwich Marina. It is protected by a large breakwall. We were arriving against a strong current that was exiting the canal and we could see the current rips against the wind for a long way out of the canal.
Once we entered the current at the canal entrance, we felt as though we were in a washing machine. The waves were going in every direction and the currents pushed us from side to side. After about 0.5nm, the water settled down and in another 0.5 nm we hooked left into the well protected harbour/marine entrance. We were greeted by the dock hand who helped us get landed and secured and gave us the information needed to make use of the facilities. Not unlike most marinas, there was quite a hike to the washrooms and showers from the boats.
In the evening we enjoyed a meal at Fishermen's View Seafood Market & Restaurant. It's a very popular spot! It was quite busy the night we went. The parking lot was full. It was the first night they were no longer taking reservations (the summer season had come to an end), and our timing was perfect. We only had to wait a couple of minutes to be seated. Those coming after us had to wait much longer. If I remember correctly, all of us were very pleased with our meals.
Martha's Vineyard
Fancy enclosure to
hide lift bridge workings
The Cape Cod Canal is a "short cut" to Martha's Vineyard and the sounds leading to NYC. But it's narrow, which amplifies the tidal currents. Boaters are encouraged to traverse with favourable currents to ensure they exit the canal within the 2.5 hour time limit.
We left Sandwich early'ish to catch favourable currents going through the canal. We left our dock at 8am to head to the fuel dock to top up on fuel and then into the canal to head west. We saw a barge/tug combo pass by a little earlier, but our transit ultimately had no other traffic than a few recreational boats.
We passed under two identical iron arch/suspension bridges and then finally a rail bridge that was the style you see in the St. Lawrence seaway. But this one had decorative "hats" on the tops of each tower as well as decorative finials on the tops of various other things. The canal had walking/biking paths down each side, but we really only saw people on the sunny side (too early in the morning). The east portion of the canal had some houses lining the canal road, but not too many. At the West end, it was built up a little more at the town of Buzzards Bay. Like in Castine ME, there was a Maritime Academy here, and similarly, a large 200'+ vessel, tugs, and other such things that mariners need to learn the ropes.
Leaving the canal, and entering Buzzards Bay, we found little wind until we were far enough to cut through the Elizabeth Islands separating Buzzards Bay from Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket (all owned by the Forbes'). Eventually, there was enough wind to sail or motor sail, but as we had a long way to go, we had to keep the speed. Peter and Bob decided to take the passage through Robinsons Hole and we went a little further and cut through at Quicks Hole. Both of us face 2-3 knots of currents through these cuts. We had chosen Quicks because it was wider, but they didn't have a problem with the narrower cut.
We did a U-tern into Vineyard Sound, and we found a 2 knot head current most of the way to Vineyard Haven. The breeze was back up for this and we continued to sail to give us a speed boost and take the load off the engine. We were soon caught up and we proceeded together until our turn down into Vineyard Haven harbour.
Once we got into the harbour, we saw a large race boat, perhaps 80+ feet long and decided to motor over to take a look. A sad looking boat that had seen better days, but at one time would have been quite the machine. After that we headed toward the breakwall and radioed the harbour master to find our mooring assignments. After a little confusion about which mooring field we were in, we both found our moorings (in a VERY tight mooring field) and got ourselves secured.
We took a dinghy tour of the harbour to look at the many nice wooden boats moored there. Little cat boat, sloops, and all sorts of pretty boats. The harbour has it's compliment of tall ships too. A square rigged "Black Dog", a schooner "Juno" and a handful of other.s A bit later a custom mahogany sloop "Sophie" came in and anchored. A fantastically finished boat that was about 90' long and 14' deep. Aside from these beautiful boats, a few different kinds of ferries came and went regularly, each one announced by a extra long horn blast that would send you out of your seat each time!
We ended the evening with a splendid steak dinner on board with all sort of nice vegetables.
Tomorrow we will perhaps explore the island or poke around the town, or both.
Day 2:
The plan for today is too get a bus pass and explore the island and then later do some provisioning.
It was sunny and warm to start and we took the local bus to Edgartown and then back up to Oak Bluffs. (Vineyard haven harbour is in Tisbury).
Once we got to Oak Bluffs we got off the bus to explore the town. We wandered the the town to see what we could find. While this town is setup for tourists (ferries dock here as regularly they do in Vinyard haven). It has a large park/green where we hopped off the bus. We found a unique carousel, apparently the "oldest operating platform carousel in America" that has been going since 1884. It was housed inside a building and we went in to look but didn't take a ride. We also found another Black Dog store, of which there are a few of on the island.
Once back in Vineyard Haven, we headed to the local Stop & Shop provisioning and to get some beer and wine. The ferries come in and out of the harbour in Vineyard Haven all day long and into the evening. The operators are truly impressive. Unlike our familiar Wolfe Islander, these ferries are typically only able to load/unload from one end. Thus, they usually do a U-turn either upon entering or exiting the ferry terminal.
They perform this maneuver within 100' of the mooring field and with precision are able to spin these 230' boats 180 degrees and enter the ferry terminal. We saw the SanKaty, Gouvenor, and Nantucket come and go numerous times every day. Usually accompanied by 3 loud blasts on the horn.
The mooring field we were in was chock full of nice wooden day sailors. There are a number of very common wooden cat boats to be see here, and the Vineyard Haven had a handful of of these boats. Always immaculately maintained and regularly used ... we saw people day sailing most days.
Day 3:
Planned to leave for Cuttyhunk, but wind, rain, rain and more rain convinced us to stay put for an extra day. Wind was up all morning and it's suppose to be up all day so we've decided not to put ourselves through such unpleasantness and stay put. This is of course after we called the pump out boat ( named ... "P. U.") to come and pump us out thinking that we would be leaving in the morning. Pump out boats are quite a common thing in New England with so many mooring fields and, unlike the Canadian maritimes where pump-outs are few and far between, Massachusetts is a strict no discharge zone.
So today we will hang out on the boat, head in for showers in a gap in the rain, nap, snack, drink, and whatever and then head our for our next destination tomorrow morning. We've changed out mind, and instead of going to Cuttyhunk (on the western end of the Elizabeth Islands), we would push on to an anchorage on the mainland to help make up some time for the extra lay day we took.
Point Judith
Point Judith Lighthouse
One of our planned destinations from Martha's Vineyard was to end up at Cuttyhunk which is at the western end of the Elizabeth Islands. Since we had used an extra lay day in Vineyard Haven, we decided we needed to put in some extra miles so we would still be able to make NYC on schedule for our next crew exchange.
We ended up sailing almost 50 nm, and we did sail!!! We have some great winds and made very good time. The seas were getting a little rolly by the end of the day, and we hoped that the "Harbour of Refuge" would provide an anchorage with protection from the swells.
While it could certainly be argued that it was a "Refuge", it turned out not to be a harbour of peaceful anchoring. The outer stone pile breakwall was broken up and the swells were breaking right through the gaps. We chose to anchor in a spot that was somewhat in the lee of the shore, but after an hour or so, the swell started curling into the harbour entrance approximately perpendicular to the wind (and the way we were facing). This is a bad combination for rafted boats and we had to eat dinner quickly because rafting was VERY uncomfortable and the lines were tugging hard and the motion of two boats together that are fighting each other is no good at all. Once we were done dinner, we separated and Ramble On anchored a short distance away.
This reduced the harsh "tugging" that goes on between rafted boats, but as the boats sailed back and forth at anchor, we would spend one tack nose into the swell that was getting into the harbour and the motion was pretty good, and then we'd tack the other way and we'd be almost broadside to the swell and the boat would roll significantly and stuff in the cupboards would clank around, the bulkheads would creak, and there were other noises of stuff in the boat shifting. Add to the that the wind, which would sometimes howl through the rigging. It would make the rig whistle, shake and shudder, the latter can be felt through the whole boat. Needless to say we were all a little under-slept the next morning.
Buzzards Bay Light Town
Upon entering the anchorage, we (again) noticed a funny sound from the engine and some steam coming from the exhaust. Again with the weeds!!!
The sound is a hollow "thrumming" coming from an empty muffler. Earlier in the trip I had replaced the muffler, and this new one has a different sound. Both Linda and I were getting better at identifying the sounds and the problem This time, the problem was more than just a plugged strainer. If I suspect that the engine has run without water for any significant period of time, then I check the pump impeller. Sure enough, 2 blades were missing. Thoughts of disassembling the heat exchanger and other minor surgery spin in my head. I did find one impeller fin in the pump body, but the other wasn't there. Peter suggested to check the output hose from the pump. Sure enough, when I blew out the connecting hose, out popped vane #2!!! Phewf! Major relief. Thank you Peter!
Postscript: The US and Canadian maritimes are weedy waters and we've spent more time clearing weeds from strainers than we ever do in the Lake Ontario area. I'm confident that we probably picked up these weeds when running the engine at anchor in Vineyard Haven in order to charge the batteries. It seems much less often that we pick up such quantities of weeds when we are moving at speed.
Mystic CN
Latimer Reef Light
Everyone was tired from last night's anchorage, but we were all a little psyched to be heading to the famous Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. There is a expansive maritime museum and the town is apparently quite pretty. Only 28 nm to get there, so it wouldn't be a long day of sailing.
I thought I had all the "seaweed in the cooling system" problems dealt with last night, but again this morning, the engine started producing steam fairly quickly and there was that "thrumming" sound of an empty muffler.
Because of this we put up sail just after hauling anchor and got clear of the harbour so we could evaluate the situation later in the morning.
After we had been sailing along under jib only (lots of wind and doing 7+ kts at times) I went down to see what I could figure out. I knew the strainer was clear and the impeller was new. What was left was to check the hose from the thruhull to the strainer and the thruhull itself.
I Removed the hose and opening the through hull and instead of a fountain of water, I got only a dribble. Not good. A plugged thruhull was the remaining issue. I used a stainless dinghy shroud wire to poke things and I couldn't dislodge the blockage. I went back to the spare wiring collection and found a piece of ~1/4" wire and used that. After some serious poking I broke through and in came the fountain of water--a good thing in this case. As well as most of the seaweed blockage that was causing my problem (this wire now lives beside that thruhull!)
Interesting mechanism for
bascule bridge
In the end, I had three issues, 1) plugged thruhull, 2) full strainer, and 3) the first two issue cause the pump impeller to run dry, overheat, and come apart. This is not uncommon as they do not like to be run dry for any period of time.
Staff climb the rigging to
furl the sails.
After clearing the thruhull, and re-assembling things, everything behaved normally, and there was no steam from the exhaust and no funny sounds from an empty muffler. Moral of this story is that if you find a blockage in the cooling system anywhere try to check it from end to end to make sure you get it all.
This thing is about
4' tall!
I did some temperature checking and things were running cool again. I always worry about what other damage I may have done to the engine during the overheating, but at the same time, I cross my fingers that it's all ok 'cause there not too much I can do about it at this point.
Different kind of fishing boat!
We had some good entertainment when entering the Mystic Harbour area in behind Fishers Island. We saw a 80' fishing boat for recreational fishermen who want to spend a day on the water fishing .... with 100 other people! Not my kind of recreation, but we saw this a few time in the Long Island Sound area.
Not long after that we overhear one of the funniest exchanges on the VHF that we have ever heard. A pleasant sounding guy came on channel 16 and said some like: " I'm gonna get in trouble for calling this on 16, but ... I found a black pug .... did someone lose a black pug?" Very quickly, another boater responded with: "I thought he was in my cabin ... I swear he was there ....."
Large scale rope work.
Like a large soft shackle
They both went back and forth and confirmed that the dog, who the owner didn't even know was lost, was now found again, and eventually re-united.
Capitan's Wife's bed
has gimbals
After that we continued to enter the harbour to find our marina. This is a very weird harbour to enter. We had to wind our wpast 4 nm of mooring fields, fishing boats and the channel was rarely more than 50' wide. When we got to the marina we found a small finger dock and among pilings. We hadn't seen these on the trip before (though Bob has done lots of these on his trip to the Bahamas). It took us a little extra effort to get securely tied up, but all was fine in the end.
We still had enough time in the day to catch an Uber into town to do some preliminary exploring. We found an old map shop, and liquor store with a great bourbon and whisky selection as well as other nice shops and stores. We ended the evening with a dinner at an interesting restaurant that was located in a very old house that had recently been restored. This was the Captain Daniel Packer Inne. Captain Packer was a ship captain who build the house in 1756.
Rope Factory on site
Day 2:
We had a slightly slow start to the morning, but it was soooo worth it! We had coffee (fortified), cappuccinos (by Muuka Express) and Linda made some blueberry pancakes!!!! A great start to the day.
The main activity today is to head to the Mystic Seaport Museum. It's hard to fully describe the scale and scope of this place. The closest would be a maritime version of Upper Canada Village. It's been in operation since the late 1960's, and includes a full boatyard and unique boat lift capable of building or repairing wooden boats of almost any size.
They have a number of "in-water" boats including fishing schooners (similar to the Bluenose), a whaling ship that is fully functional (from a sailing point of view) and in superb condition, a rope loft where they can make or reproduce just about anything. They have also re-created a maritime village by rescuing buildings from all around the east coast, and fully transplanting the building and their equipment, in tact, to this site. Some are just for display purposes, some are still actively doing what they were originally intended (cooperage, black smith, etc.). Combine this with many displays of boats, rope work and everything else maritime you can imagine. In 2020 they'll have completed restoring the Mayflower II!
Mayflower reproduction after complete refit
Mattituck
Ever observant
Departure at 7:30am, rush to grab some showers, coffee and breakfast before Peter helps Bob off the dock. We depart a few minutes later and start wandering out the narrow channel to the outer harbour/bay.
Setup route to Mattituck .... almost a straight line except for a few small left turns to avoid a few points on Long Island.
Shoreline and river entrance behind dune system
Motor sailed with a beneficial current for most of the crossing. Interestingly, quite variable with patches being slower then faster then slower, etc. sometimes by more 0.5-0.75 of a knot. Weather is dull with light rain at times.
The northern shoreline of Long Island appears to be one long sand dune. There is development and houses along here, but it is not highly developed. From a distance, it sometimes looks completely natural. There are few natural harbours along this side of the island. Mattituck, our destination for the night is located down a 2 nm very narrow river who's inlet would be easy to miss when passing by except for a couple of marks and some modest stone entrance breakwalls.
The river is dotted with modest houses and a good number docks. There are recreational boats, fishing boats, and once we got down further, there was a full yacht marina sporting a couple of 60-80' super yachts, a travel lift and a marine yard. We we finally found ourselves at the end of the river, there was another good sized, high-end marina right beside the town dinghy dock.
The anchorage had room for a handful of boats, and we were the 3rd of an eventual 5 boats. Not crowded, but not much more room for anyone else.
Once anchored and rafted, we dropped the dinghies and organized ourselves to head into the town of Mattituck. The town is located at a constriction in the island caused by the river and the river on the other side of the island that don't quite join. Consequently the main highway and train track run right through the town. Apparently there was local discussion about whether to join the two rivers, but the decision was made to not do that based on economics. The river traffic might have passed through the town instead of stopping at the town.
The town was quite small, with really only a block of shops and stores. Regardless, there were some very nice chocolate/food shops, an upscale market. We found ourselves a nice loaf of bread and some chocolates for desert!
Port Jefferson
Earlier forecasts had suggested that yesterday and today might be motoring days with winds approaching zero. Both days surprised us with nice sailing in 12-16kts of wind coming from a very manageable direction. In fact, leaving the Mattituck river, we found ourselves bashing through the swell built up from the fetch of the width of the sound. In no time, we were under full sail and at times doing 8.5kts with a almost straight shot to our destination of Port Jefferson 25 nm away.
Not uncommon on this shore
the inlets pass through dunes
Of note, we are only 50 nm away from the Big Apple which will marks the southerly most part of our trip and really only a modest 350nm from home.
The "P. T. Barnum"
Our great sailing winds faded as the afternoon came. We ended up furling and getting the motor going, but still enjoyed the sunny and warm afternoon. The harbour entrance, like Mattituck, is disguised by a sandy entrance that would otherwise be hard to detect except for the various smoke stacks further in the harbour that belong to a power plant.
Gravel in, gravel out
all day long
The harbour is large, with the town and its ferry dock being located at the head, a mooring field on the left and power plants and other industry on the right. We poked our way deep into the head of the harbour to find the "self serve" pump out facilities. Our instructions from the harbourmaster were to go past the "baages" to find the pumpout! Gotta love that accent! After some sleuthing, we did find it in a tight corner of the harbour. We did a quick dock, pump out and headed back to the mooring field to grab a mooring ball.
Mooring field tucked deep into bay
Finnish Line was already secured.We found our ball, got ourselves settled and arranged for the launch service to come pick some of the crew up so they could explore the town.
This harbour was also serviced by a large ferry. One of the ferries was called P.T. Barnum ... the same Barnum who co-founded the circus named after him (he is attributes to the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute"). The ferry service was intended to allow the circus to over-winter it's animals on the island. But the locals objected (so no elephants ever resided on Long Island), but the town ended up with a ferry service regardless.
We finished our evening in "Port Jeff" (as the locals call their town) with another pizza night. We had some excellent pizza's and we put our new (slightly thicker) pizza pan to the test and it worked great.
Oyster Bay
Power stations everywhere
We had a leisurely departure with most people taking the tender to shore for showers after coffee and breakfast. The wind looked to be from behind, at least in the harbour so it it looked to be a good sailing day. This would make 3 great sails in 3 days ... some sort of a record for this trip! We've had more no-wind days than we deserve.
Leaving the harbour we had little traffic and we unfurled the jib shortly after clearing the entrance channel marks. A little while later we headed to wind to get the mainsail involved to keep us moving. The wind was up and down, but the swell had the whole of long island sound to build up, so it was a little rolly and keeping our speed up helped the situation.
Our sail was a straight line until we reached the Lloyds point where we turned south to head into Oyster Bay. Lloyds point was the location of a very significant amount of wreck icons on our charts prompting a radio call between boats to inquire what might have been the cause of such a wreck field in deep water! My speculation was that this must have been a place where old ships were towed and sunk. Some more internet research is needed to figure out what's up with this.
During our transit we were passed by the oil barge (or "baage") that had snuck into Port Jefferson overnight. Presumably it had emptied it's cargo at the wharf beside the power plant, and was headed west for it's next load. Not too much other traffic at this end of the sound. A handful of sailboats and power boats and one other freighter or barge following along behind.
Now that's "pre-bend"
The south shore of Long Island (the side we've been coming down) started to show more and more signs of development in the form of large mansions and multi-multi-millions homes. Oyster Bay, which is just 25 miles from NYC, has many such large mansions and compounds. Once further into Oyster Bay and away from the exposure to the sound, we found mooring fields of boats, yacht clubs, and more mansions.
We passed one field that was filled with Hinkley boats, traditional wooden boats from 25-45 feet long and beautifully maintained. Being this close to NYC, the money here is hard to fathom. We continued motoring deeper in the bay to a large fully protected area that was about a mile in diameter and protected from all directions. We set anchor in front of a house where we surely brought down the property values!
Oyster fishing, but we don't
quite understand what the're doing
Linda prepared some tasty polenta snacks and we had afternoon cocktails as rowing shells of 1's to 8's practiced around us. Otherwise, we were pretty much alone in the bay (except for the lone seagull who has been hanging around in hopes of being tossed another potato chip).
We are getting close!!!
Dinner tonight will be sausages in buns with a salad as we celebrate 90% of the miles for the whole trip. We will be in New York City tomorrow where will be spend a few days enjoying the big city before heading up the Hudson River towards home.
New York City!
Unique milti-tone/bell gong
We left Oyster Bay with a light breeze to start and sunny skies. This stretch of days has been the best sailing we've had on the whole trip. Wind in the mid to high teens, sunny and not from on the nose! The earlier forecasts were for wind strength approaching zero for all of these days, so we had anticipated lots of motoring. In the end, the wind faded out and our attempts to sail were foiled. This attempt may be our last sail until we get back in lake Ontario. We drop the mast only a few days after we leave NYC and the Hudson River probably wont provide any sailing.
Stepping stones
lighthouse
Leaving Oyster Bay, we passed by the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, an old club established in 1871, and again passed by the many nicely maintained wooden sloops. We think we heard the club fire their nightly cannon last night at sunset. We also passed a number of small fishing boats with tarps arranged in a square sail fashion and another with a 30' + long pole. We're not quite sure of the details or purposes of these arrangements, but we're pretty sure they were related to the "Oyster" in Oyster Bay where we passed them.
HUGE Prison barge in the East River
Soon after we exited the bay, the NYC skyline again came into view. In a short time we could make out the Manhattan skyline and identify the Empire State building. While we put the jib up for a while, but we ended up motoring the whole day, and given that we were going to be entering one of the busiest harbours on the east coast, operating under motor allowed better control and visibility.
Rips in the East River past
Throg's Neck
Our departure had been planned so we'd be at Throgs Neck Bridge at slack tide to avoid strong currents and tide rips. Our timing worked out well as we passed under within a few minutes of the planned timing. Our trip to the city via the east river was a feast for the eyes (and ears), but it was relatively free of marine traffic. The currents were strong in places with a couple of knots with us. There were certainly places where we were buffeted about, particularly where two rivers joined.
"South-most" of our trip
I kept a close eye on AIS to try to anticipate the traffic I couldn't see coming around corners. I monitored VHF 13 to keep an ear on vessel traffic, but that was almost too overwhelming. It was informative though. Lots of captains chatting with each other and with bridge operators, slowing or speeding to help others pass. We passed a few barges with oil or gravel in them, pushed by big tugs, a coast guard work boat, a NYPD patrol boat, more and more ferries as we got closer to Manhattan. The river was a churning cauldron of water. All the boat activity and the sheet pile and stone shoreline makes for very rough water. We took water over the bow at one point from nothing but ferry wash. This is not a place I would enjoy keep a sailboat nor sailing one either, though there are a handful of sailboats out everyday.
Aside from the boat traffic, the city was almost overwhelming. UN buildings, Old Navy Yard, Airport, Rikers Island prison, the prison barge, 8 bridges including the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge. As we exited the east river, the Statue of Liberty came into view as did the Ellis Island buildings, and the full view of downtown Manhattan.
Ellis Island, right beside our marina
Our destination was Liberty Landing Marine. This is located, not surprisingly, at Liberty Landing, the location in New Jersey where the train lines terminated at the stations to pick up the immigrants who were arriving on Ellis Island. Getting to the marina required cutting across the tip of lower Manhattan and then heading directly at the NJ shore. After a small error in following the marina attendants instructions and having to back out of the narrowest of narrow fairways we both found our slips and got ourselves settled. This was a nice marina (at a commensurate NYC price!)
View of Manhattan from our marina in New Jersey
Since it was late in the afternoon, we planned for for dinner at a nearby restaurant and Linda took the ferry across the channel (500') to go and get a pretty new hair cut. We had a nice dinner with a spectacular view of New York. Beside out table was a curtained off area where a private event was being held. Men only .... we speculated it was the mafia, and we volunteered Bob to go in there and ask them who they were, but he declined.
Day 2:
Today, we divided up to go and explore the city to suit each of our interests. Linda an I took the ferry to Manhattan to start our day and from the landing dock we wandered a handful of city blocks to the World Trade Center Plaza and memorial reflecting pools. The new World Trade center building is massive and imposing. The reflecting pools are big (as big as the foundations of the buildings that were once there), but they are sort of understated. Simple and somewhat stark in their design.
As we continued our wanderings around lower Manhattan, we found ourselves in the middle of the climate change strike. Thousands of students filled the streets. Intersections and streets where shutdown, police were everywhere trying to manage people and traffic. The kids were carrying placards and shouting slogans and trying to get themselves organized to do their march. We worked our way to Chinatown and had dim sum at a restaurant called Downtown Yummy.
After lunch, Linda went north via Little Italy. I had to work myself back through the crowd a second time when I went to explore the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge is a worthwhile walk if you're ever there. There is a walking/biking path that goes along above the vehicle level. You get a great view of the city and a unique way to see the incredible ironwork and stonework involved in this bridge.
Linda did some exploring of the Soho district and we later joined up again in Greenwich Village for an afternoon drink on a patio. Once we had finished our trio of unique salsa's and chips we got back on our feet again and headed to battery park to rest and relax a little after so much walking. One we got there (after bumping into Peter on his way back from Ellis Island), we found it a little tricky to get into the park because there were lots of barricades and fences to control the crowds for some event.
We eventually made it through the fence and found some nice cool grass to lie down and have a nap (at least that's what I did!). We could now hear the event going on nearby. There was a stage setup and we could hear the students take to the microphone. Each taking a turn rallying the crowds of students. I sort of dozed away until I heard a voice speaking to the crowd with a unique accent. After paying a little more attentions, Linda and I were convinced this was Gretta Thunburg. We got up and worked our way to the stage and sure enough Gretta was speaking to the crowd and eliciting lots of cheers! We caught the last of her speech before the event wrapped up and the crowds dissipated.
Peter, Wilma, Bob, Tarja, Linda and I rejoined for dinner in Manhattan before heading back to the boats to crash for the evening. We chose a restaurant was not far from the ferry that goes straight across to our marina making it easy to get back and forth to the Big Apple.
Even the security fences
have interesting designs
Day 3:
Today Peter and Wilma depart for Kingston, and we had a combination of boat cleaning as well as one final trip into the city to catch a show. We were hoping to see Come from Away, but we couldn't get any half price tickets for that so we went to see Phantom of the Opera. I took the ferry over early to get in line for tickets, and Linda came over a little while later and, via subway, we made it to the theater with just a few minutes to spare. The show was great, and dramatic as it should be!
Manhattan skyline with
the new Freedom Tower
Of local interest, there was a boat we had noticed was flying a Canadian flag just across the fairway from us and it turned out to be a boat from Kingston. It was David & Cathy DePlanche, and they came over and introduced themselves and their "new to them" boat Catch 22. They're now retired and taking their boat to the Caribbean. They were also taking some time to enjoy the Big Apple. KYC'ers may know David and his previous boat "Lei Line" (Aloha 30) that has participated in various Club events.
Tomorrow we start our journey north up the Hudson while will steadily bring us closer to home!
Rail tracks follow the east side of the Hudson shore here, and passenger trains pass here regularly. Tarja surely passed over these tracks on her way into the city. Not a bad view for the train traveler.
West Point Academy, the Newburg-Beacon bridge, an enormous gravel plant (no doubt the source of many of the barges we've seen), the Culinary Institute of America (a huge fancy building), Bannerman Castle (on it's own island), various other large estates and mansions, and lots and lots of trains. The tracks go down both sides of the river around here, and passenger trains rumble passed quite regularly.
The day was pleasant with a mix of sun and cloud. I continued to tackle small de-rigging tasks while the auto-pilot did the hard work! (not so much). The wind was up a bit, then gone and then blasted us from a valley in the hills.
The marina is located down one of the smaller "creeks" we've seen. Finnish Line lead the way as they have been here before. We took our sweet time getting to the marina because we had to wait for two boats to clear the docks at the mast crane. Most of the eight or so Canadian sailboats going south that we passed, likely were here and had their masts put up yesterday, were now working their way south.
First, one guy goes up on the crane hoist with one foot in a loop of line. When he gets to the first set of spreaders, he proceeds to tie off the lifting line. Coming back down, he just slides down the mast freehand. The rest of the crew then secure the lower end of the lifting line to the mast just under the gooseneck.
