From
Trip South Fall 2011
Just a quick update here since with any luck we'll be offshore tomorrow night with no internet! The past two days have been really nice- yesterday we left Montauk and motored all day 65 miles, enjoying the calm and the sun. We made great time and pulled in to Northport on the inside of Long Island. It was a really calm, pretty anchorage with sandy beaches. Unfortunately our dinghy is up on deck and so we didn't go ashore. That is the hardest part of cruising for me- that I can't get any exercise at times when we're pushing to get somewhere. I've got to dig out my weights and get going on at least that. Once we get to clear water we spend a lot of time swimming so that takes care of our exercise but that feels like a long way off at this point.
This morning we slept in as we're still catching up from the lack of sleep during the storm and then left around 1030 for the 25 miles or so to the head of Long Island Sound. We anchored just outside NYC with plans to go through Hell's Gate and the East River in the morning with a fair current, past the tip of Manhattan, the statue of Liberty and on down the harbor. If the weather holds we'll continue and hope we can get down to Norfolk or at least Cape May.
It was a leisurely downwind sail today, another relaxing day on the water for a change and we enjoyed it very much. There are several sailboats headed the same way. Like a train, we are all hoping for decent weather to get us safely to warmer temps. I will never forget leaving Bermuda a few years ago after sitting out a storm with about 50 other sailboats- all of us trying to get down to the Caribbean islands. That first night out the sky was polka dotted with sailboat mast lights bobbing along. By the second night we were all spread out, but that first night was really neat to see.
It is once again very calm this evening and we're anchored in a cove right in front of some really fancy houses. There are 3 swans hanging around our boat and Slick is anchored next to us framed by the NYC bridges. We're roasting a big chicken so we'll have any easy dinner for tomorrow night's passage in case we can keep going. It is quiet, we're warm and all is well.