It is Wednesday, November 12, 2008.
We are anchored in the beautiful community on Hampton, Virginia. It is across the bay from Norfolk (big, and I mean BIG military installations). But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Last entry was from Waterford, NY and it was snowing there!

We left Waterford Thursday, October 30 and proceeded down the Hudson River with quite a strong current. It had been raining hard for days, so the river was flowing fast. We had one more lock to conquer and then freedom - from locking that is.
We arrived at Castleton on Hudson and immediately began the time consuming and physically demanding task of raising two masts - the main mast is about 60 feet high and the mizzen mast is, I'm guessing, 40 feet high. The boat club has a manual crane that any boater may use for a nominal fee. They charge about $50 for both masts. Compare that to the over $500 we paid at Tonawanda, NY when we brought the boat home from North Carolina. I digress....
Still working on the final adjustments the next day - Friday, I pulled Michael away, because it was time to go trick-or-treating. Fortunately, we were in a nice community and we found a little residential area. Zoe was dressed as a 'Canadian' - large flag hanging on her front and a small one on her back. Maia was a gypsy girl and Liam was a boater, wearing Mom's accidentally inflated, inflatable life jacket, many sizes too big. We struggled with the costumes. The options were limited here on the boat and we had to work with what we had. But, the end result was the same; lots of yummy candy. The last house we stopped at, which was not in the residential area, but on the main steet was the bonanza house! The woman who answered the door was so thrilled to see us, her first trick or treaters, that she gave each of the kids two handsfuls of candies.
We left Castleton on Hudson at 11am Saturday morning, as the boat club work crews began their close down for the season and clean up. They were literally lifting the docks out behind us. They had cranes and crews detaching wiring, undoing water lines, lifting docks and taking down flags.
We motored all day and arrived in Kingston, NY, at dusk. It was a beautiful journey. A meandering river, warm sun and fall colours, yes fall colours once again. We were reliving autumn. It was regressing as we progressed south. In Waterford, Erie Canal, few leaves on the trees. Castleton, Hudson River, more leaves on the trees, some green. Kingston, 50 miles south still on the Hudson River, orange and red colour bursts among green trees.
Our second last day on the Hudson brought us into into a bay, Haverstraw, about 40 miles north of New York City. As it was getting dark we began looking for the ideal anchorage and we found it. We had just turned off the engine when a boat came out from the marina we were close to. He informed us that the 'bay police' would come and tell us to leave. Fortunately, for us, he had room in his marina. Generally speaking, marinas charge between $1.50 to $2.00 per foot dockage fees. We are 47 foot boat and with our davits(cantilevered metal arms which hold our dingy) extending 5 feet at the aft, marinas consider us a 52 foot boat. This translates into roughly anywhere from $75 to $120 per night. His rates, he said were $3.75 per night. This included hot showers, free internet, great shopping near by and a specialty food market with a selection 'to die for', his words. Needless to say, we declined! At that price, we were willing to take our chances with the 'bay police'. He insisted and told us he would let us stay for $2.00 per foot. We expained that we were on an extended journey, a tight budget and it was impossible to pay that much. Thanks, but no thanks. He then asked us how much we could pay. In the end, we agreed on $40.00. Let's see, is that about .75c per foot? To this day, we still don't know whether he was just feeding us a line about the 'police', but one thing is for sure, that hot shower sure was nice!!!! Maybe, from his perspective, a little money is better than none. I find the price for docking over the top. We bring our house with us and the marina gives us electricity and a shower. A hotel room gives that and more and we leave the house at home and all we have to bring is a bag!
Monday morning, we left marina and not five mintues out, our steering went. All of a sudden, there was no resistance. I couldn't turn the boat. What a scary feeling. We turned off the engine and put out the anchor. Michael, our all systems guy, went below to the engine room and found that master link on the chain, which drives to the steering, missing. As far as we can figure, one of the levers on the steering binnacle, hit the clip which holds the master link in place, and dislodged it. Lesson learned: have the clip on the opposite side of the chain, away from the levers. How fortuitous for us that this happened in a relatively shallow, protected bay on a calm day. The thought of something like that happening in New York harbour - one of the busiest in the world - where we would be in just three hours, with an outgoing tide, and our boat travelling 9 knots (20 km/hour), absolutely makes me shiver.

Yes, New York City. The Big Apple.
Our hope of anchoring on the south side beside the Statue of Liberty, was dashed when we were trying to find a place just out side of the channel which leads in on the south side. It was almost dark, we were taking things slowly, our depth sounder was giving us readings of between 12 and 15 feet, when suddently the boat lurched to port(left) and slowed momentarily making me think that we had grounded it. 'Gromit' righted himself moments later. Once I began breathing again and my heart regained control of itself, I mentioned to Michael that we didn't have a plan 'B', but we'd better come up with one because plan 'A' had just evaporated. The last place I wanted to be was in a busy place like New York Harbour, in the dark, relatively speaking, as there are bright lights all around, with no set plan as to where to anchor. I had read in one of our guide books about a bay south of the Verrazzano Bridge. Great, a place to go. Not great, we would have to make our way there by following channel markers which were now only visibile by their flashing red and green lights. The frequency of the channel markers' flashing lights(4 seconds or 2.5 seconds etc.) is noted on the chart. Oh, that's good! We'll just follow those. Sounds great. Sounds simple. I can't remember doing anything less simple and more stressful!!!!! There is more than one channel in the harbour. Add to that lots of lights along the shorelines and on incoming and outgoing freighters and various other boats and ferries. My best description of trying navigate through all of this is MAYHEM! I was so stressed out. Trying to find our way, looking at charts, counting seconds on flashing lights, watching for other boats and freighters and trying to figure out what direction they were all going, it just about put me over the edge. Thank goodness, Michael remained calm. It was like he wasn't phased at all. He is as steady as a rock. I'm so glad he is co-captain!
Ahhhhh, in the bay (named Gravesend- strange but maybe fitting!) and anchored. Stress slipping away, exhaustion taking over. By now it is around 8 pm. Dinner? Let's have cereal!!!
So far we've travelled from 43o latitude to 37o latitude, covering about 480 nautical miles.