Port Washington – Atlantic Highlands

It was bitter sweet to leave Port Jefferson and our family, but its time to go towards home. On Tuesday morning we left Port Jefferson. There was some fog in the morning, buy it was an easy motor to Port Washington with calm winds and flat seas. We decided to go to Capri Marina for a week to wait for weather to continue towards Atlantic Highlands. Hurricane Florence was on her way to North Carolina, which made the offshore portion of our trip harder. It was only the second time we had been in a marina since we left our house almost 2 months ago. The marina gave us a great weekly rate. Being at a dock has definite advantages. Real showers and bathrooms, easy access to land and walking. We took advantage of all of these resources. We had a very busy 6 days. Jim and Bonnie Cleary, cruising friends of ours, drove over on Thursday night and we all went out to a very nice Italian restaurant for dinner. It was so great to catch up with them. As we have mentioned several times, there is always something happening on a boat. About a half hour before Jim and Bonnie arrived, we smelled something. It’s important to pay attention to your senses. It turned out to be our electric cord connected to our boat. It was hot to touch, so of course we turned off the power from the pedestal and from the boat. The fitting was melted onto the receptacle. Thankfully we were around when it happened or it could have been an entirely different event! Jim and Bonnie arrived and as luck would have it Jim is a Master electrician! He came over on Saturday morning and he and Bob did some boat surgery so that we could have shore power for the rest of our stay. Once we get home we will do a more complete repair. One of the highlights of our stay was that we took a train into NYC and spent the day visiting the 9-11 Memorial and Museum. Its an amazing exhibit and very well done. We had visited the memorial soon after it was opened but at the time the museum was not quite ready. We were also able to meet some dear friends, Joy and Ignatio, for an early dinner and then took the train back to Port Washington. Great Day. Saturday afternoon, after Bob and Jim worked on the outlets we got together with some of our oldest and dearest friends, Jeff and Terry. They drove down from their home in Massachusetts just to see us. We spent Saturday together, made dinner for them on Chanticleer, what a wonderful day. Their daughter and family live in Port Washington and they invited us to Sunday brunch at their house. Jessica and Ed and their 5 year old daughter Maddie hosted a beautiful spread. The added bonus was that I could get a grandchild fix, we played with play dough, and soccer. Fun.
Monday was a good clear day, we left Port Washington early to go through the city and on to Atlantic Highlands. We were anchored and settled by noon! We believed that we had a weather window to go offshore for two nights, arriving at Cape Charles on early Friday morning and then scoot up the bay to homeport. For some reason Neptune had other plans.