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Sandwich to New York City Current Location: New York City Date: September 9 to September 19 Mile: 2349-2588 Locate: Ramble On Locate: Finnish Line 2.0 Google Photo Albums: Sandwich (MS) Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard (MS) Judith Point Anchorage (RI) Mystic (CN) Mattituck (NY) Port Jefferson (NY)' Oyster Bay (NY) New York City (NY) |
Sandwich
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 |
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.
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| Minot's Ledge Lighthouse |
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
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| Fancy enclosure to hide lift bridge workings |
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
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| 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.
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| Buzzards Bay Light Town |
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
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| Latimer Reef Light |
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 |
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| Staff climb the rigging to furl the sails. |
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| This thing is about 4' tall! |
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| Different kind of fishing boat! |
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 ....."
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| Large scale rope work. Like a large soft shackle |
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Capitan's Wife's bed
has gimbals
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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.
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| Rope Factory on site |
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!
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| Mayflower reproduction after complete refit |
Mattituck
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| Ever observant |
Setup route to Mattituck .... almost a straight line except for a few small left turns to avoid a few points on Long Island.
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| Shoreline and river entrance behind dune system |
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 |
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| The "P. T. Barnum" |
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| Gravel in, gravel out all day long |
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| 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
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| Power stations everywhere |
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.
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| Now that's "pre-bend" |
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!
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| Oyster fishing, but we don't quite understand what the're doing |
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| 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!
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| Unique milti-tone/bell gong |
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| Stepping stones lighthouse |
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| HUGE Prison barge in the East River |
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| 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 |
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 |
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| View of Manhattan from our marina in New Jersey |
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.
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| Even the security fences have interesting designs |
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!
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| Manhattan skyline with the new Freedom Tower |
Tomorrow we start our journey north up the Hudson while will steadily bring us closer to home!
