Picture shows the Statue of Liberty
(Liberty Enlightening the World) - a gift from the French people to the people of the United States in 1886 - the pic was taken as we entered NY Harbour. Quite a moment for Quilcene and her crew!!

On Monday 8th - Kit's birthday - we left Annapolis and had a long day sail up to the top of Chesapeake Bay and through the Chesapeake and Delaware canal. There was a bitingly cold wind and we were wrapped up like mummies under our oilies! As if to cheer us up we saw a sea eagle swoop down and catch a wriggling fish in its talons - incredible!

Also to cheer us even more we cut Kits birthday cake en route!

We anchored at the east end of the canal overnight along with Phil and Monica on 'Miss Molly' who we'd met in the Caribbean,and seen in Deltaville. We set off down the Delaware River for Port Henlopen, opposite Cape May next morning. Halfway down we got a weather forecast giving strong northerly winds for later in the week so we decided to carry on overnight Tuesday and all day Wednesday to get to New York ahead of it.

Cape May was a bit tricky as we took the inside passage close to shore to save time. Here we encountered rip tides just as the tide was turning. It was a relief to get through the disturbed seas. Again we were rewarded by sighting a whale quite close to the boat! So close we could see barnacles on its fin!

It was quite a good passage up the coast; Atlantic city was well lit up when we passed during in the night, with whole sides of buildings showing moving adverts! We could see them through the binoculars! We sailed a bit and motorsailed a bit and saw a fantastic sunrise next morning - just like a Rothko painting! (see google pics)

Coming into NY was quite daunting; as we sailed past the famous statue I managed to click a few pics but it was really busy with sirens blaring, traffic jams on all visible roads, lots of fast ferries and Coastguard boats racing around throwing us all over the place, and police helicopters overhead - not to mention incredibly fast currents and tides! The coastguard called us up on VHF to ask us to pass north of Governers Island to enter the East River instead of the recommended channel inside it as they had an 'ongoing incident' - we never found out what it was tho'.

It was a hectic couple of hours; thank goodness we'd heard of quiet moorings up the East River and into Manhassett Bay, Long Island Sound!

It's lovely and peaceful here - it's a shame we have to go back through NY to get to the Hudson River when we leave! That will be in around 8-10 days because the Erie and Oswego canals don't open until 19th May - must be because of the possibility of ice!

It's actually quite cold here at present - we had to wear thermals and several layers of clothes under our oilies to sail overnight! The forecast gives heavy rain for the weekend but promises warmer weather next week - hurrah!

We can go into NY city by train (only around 30 mins we're told) to have a look around so will probably go a couple of times. We may even take in a show on Broadway!!