We have finally arrived at our destination that's been a goal for 5 months, Portsmouth VA. Just a little over 3,000 nautical miles since June by my count. We traveled through 13 states and spent 2 months in Canada in some places we'll never see again and damn glad we did. We spent a month in Quebec that speaks French as its first language. Travel pretty much everyday with reasonable stop overs to see where we were traveling through. When Pamela can't sleep she recounts each stop backwards from where we are. When challenged she begins to rattle them off and based upon her knowledge of the order of the US presidents I stopped questioning her memory long ago.

This type of travel has been hard work and at times very rewarding. I must say it beats working for someone else full and substantially more satisfying for me than any other job I've held. I was in your shoes for the last 8-10 years, reading other people's adventures and trying to imagine how I might do it. Until June when we set off. Then everyday became how I would do it. How we would do it. Travel with my wife and love of my life Pamela has been incredibly life altering for me. For us. I described it to a friend like sharpening a knife. Add a little abrasion in the correct angle and you'll sharpen your relationship to a razor's edge. Cutting through life's joys and adversities with ease. I couldn't do it alone yet we've seen many men soloing that are. We jumped into this dream together and it's been hard work to forge the journey we have embarked on. But this goal achieved is the first gate post in our success.

Let me tell you about our last week. We left Cape Cod MA a week ago and covered 500 miles to arrive in Portsmouth. May not seem like a lot but if you are traveling by boat at a speed of a slow jog and can only go when mother nature lets you go it's an amazing feat. We heard from Scott from SV Rose Lee one of our new friends from Halifax and the Dartmouth Yacht Club who is planning with his wife, Joyce the same type of journey congratulations on our arrival. We hear from all sorts of people that are essentially saying the same thing. I'm with you. You go for it. Keep writing about it. Here's just a snippet....

We left Cape Code in the best position we could. Huge push to get there through Nova Scotia and the Gulf of Maine. Our highest latitude was over 49 degrees North. Each degree is about 69 miles and so one minute of latitude is about a mile. We're just at 37 degrees north now so we've traveled 828 miles from our furthest north point in Quebec. 3,000 total. At a jog. You assume an attitude. Just keep moving. You plan every day on what the winds and waves let you do. In general when the wind is with you you go. Strength of wind is less important and usually impacts when you go. Go against the wind and it better be for a good reason like you'll be motoring in the protection of a lee shore. You take what you can get and you have go in in the direction you need to on the rhumb line or as close to it as possible. Maximum 'course made good' in navigation speak. For us that's meant a lot of motor sailing so we can get 50-75 miles in per day. This destination will make sail/motor decision easier with the 'deadline' of arriving in time for the ARC Caribbean 1500 now achieved. I'm not saying I won't motor sail anymore but I will say it will be for safety primarily and less for schedule.

Enter our trip from cape cod. We left late in the day Saturday with highish winds forecast on the nose in a bit of emotional ebb, already missing Barb and Peter's New England hospitality but move we must. We picked a 20 milish destination that's like a 3 hour trip. Many of the seasonal marinas were beginning to close and the New Bedford Yacht club was one of them, closing at the end of the weekend. This area has a huge boater population and so has many harbors like new Bedford with 150 moorings and maybe 50 slips, 10 of which may fit our boat. They run a 'taxi' service of sorts to transport boaters from their mooring to the shore and back again. Call them on the VHF and out they come to your boat to pick you up. Service runs sun up to sun down. Cool little open boats with cheery staff welcoming you and skillfully maneuvering their tender in the tight anchorage. With the dogs and our transient needs (water, dog walk, electricity) we've been getting dockage nightly. We prefer floating docks to deal with the tidal range but we've not always been able to secure such space. Like this night where we stayed on the back of the gas dock in a space so tight we didn't need to worry about the boat going sideways in the slip prior to tying off as it was just wide enough to point her in and as long as you were square to the slip you'd just need to arrest her speed prior to the end of the dock and boom, home for the night. This fixed dock required a contorted step over the life lines to a ladder on the dock high above you at low tide and about even with the decks at high tide. Imagine passing the dogs over to the dock in the pitch black of night after the evening dog walk. We've done it for 5 months with only one mishap in michigan city when honu went for an unscheduled swim at night. 20 miles. Keep moving.

Next day we have to pass by Narragansett bay in Rhode Island with the busy shipping destination Newport is. This was the home waters our our girl prior to our ownership and so felt like she she stood up a little taller and proudly romped through buzzards bay with us onboard. This night's destination was Stonington CT that we would have to brave the tidal driven separation zone between buzzards bay and long island sound. This is a place that the tide runs so fast at times you need to time you arrival to coincide with fair or at least slack tide in order to get through. The junction in the main shipping channel is called 'the race' and we were passing in an alternate location just to the North on the way into Stonington harbor. We made it just past slack and had a ¾ of a knot against but manageable. I had heard of the race like maybe a week before. Everyday comes with its planning challenges. Pamela researches the location for our marina and I plan the route to get us there. It usually happens over dinner the night before and then I plot the route first thing in the morning of departure. That was like a 60 mile motor sail and Dodson's kindly squeezed us in a the fixed fuel dock. They had a kick ass restaurant, Dog Watch which namesake is the split watch stand allowing sailors a dinner. This dock required an convoluted jump/dog toss from the gate at the side of our boat to the dock right next to the gas pump. The next morning we were under a freeze watch and so had frost on the docks I didn't discover until after tossing the dogs up to the dock and wondering why they skittered across the dock until I myself skittered to a halt on the dock after the jump.

We motor sailed another 50 nm plus to Milford CT and a sketchy river entrance that had more boats stuffed into a small river than I have seen including strange floating docks in the middle of the river that you had to dinghy in or use tender service from the yacht club. Port milford marina was nice enough to squeeze us in just in front of the travel lift well that was buzzing with activity as they took boats out for the season. The space was so tight they had to tow us out the next day as with no bow thruster we were unable to negotiate it alone.

This day had us leave with small craft warnings out but move we must and we did so until the 6' waves and 25 knot winds on the nose convinced us to take refuge in Stratford just 5 miles into our journey. We were able to catch our breath at this deep water river marina, Brewer Stratford that had a lady dockhand that re-proved the axiom as well as the night before at Dodsons that ladies at the dock are bad asses. Any woman that can survive the male dominated waterfront do so for a reason, they are bad asses around a dock/boat. They had a fantastic chandlery and I was able to pick up some yanmar oil and filter and some obtuse hex head set screws for our dodger that had just fallen out during our brief bash into the sound. We were able to catch up on some laundry, showers (heated bathroom!) and sleep and prep for the pass through the east river and New York City including Hell Gate. We lost a day to weather and every days matters. A large motor yacht stopped at the fuel dock next to us (sense a pattern for transient dock space?) and I intruded into a conversation to ask the skipper about east river passage as he was heading that way. Turns out they guy he was talking to, Parker was a tug captain who I drug into our cockpit to describe in detail using our charts the transit of hell gate. He kindly described it turn by turn and gave me the advise, if possible reach the gate at slack water. He also gave me some tips on the navigation for the rest of the east river pointing out the staten island ferry dock terminal at the juncture of the east river and the hudson and chuckled that area always 'had a lot going on". Pamela and I debriefed that night and our plan was to travel the next day to city island at the head of the east river and get up and leave by 0400 to catch the first ebb slack water at the gate at 0538. It was a shortish 35 miles but in order to stage for the east river we needed to start close enough for the ebb change from easterly flow to westward flow, the direction we were heading.

The next day dawned sunny and warm and as I was catching up on some emails trying to set-up our time in Portsmouth and the work we intended on having done on Big Frisky before departing for the caribbean pamela asked what time the second ebb tidal switch was at the gate. Turns out it was 1708 and we both did the quick math and figured we could make that if we left at 1030 and made an average of 7 knots. That also would make our trip past lady liberty a pretty good bet that we could make by sundown at 1830ish our other goal for the trip. We got underway with light and variable winds making our motor sail efficient. We discovered on our trip west that the day before in high wind and waves a 60' motor yacht stuck and sank a fishing boat with an octogenarian local onboard who was the harbor master for Stonington public dock. It put a pall on the day but also sharpened our focus on safe travel like the upcoming passage of hell gate. We arrived at the East river about 40 minutes ahead of the calculated start time to reach the gate at 1708. Our VHF radio was humming with traffic from the east and westbound traffic. We'd listen as the traffic would talk to a central traffic control that keeps tabs on all the boat traffic in the NYC area. All the boat traffic. Then as the barges with tugs, container ships, tankers and other assorted commercial traffic would arrive at the gate heading at each other they would negotiate the passage with each other. All on separate radio channels that we hear as they are transmitted over our VHF radio set to scan the commercial boat traffic, recreational and emergency channels. It hard to explain but think about trying to keep track of multiple conversations happening over the radio as it blares out in our cockpit. Many times it's from traffic immediately around you or in this case just ahead of us. In the short 6.5 nm between entry in the east river we went under la guardia airport and passed by rikers island, home of the NYC 'Big house' before arriving at the gate. The tension was broken when we heard a young cocky tug captain pleading his case with a seasoned tanker captain heading in the opposite direction that he had the "ponies" and were just waiting to use them. Sure enough just like parker told me we were able to cut through the channel between with brothers islands where they used to keep typhoid mary and was able to leap frog a tug and barge arrangement and poof we were in the hell gate channel. Less than a mile wide and relatively calm as we were there just ahead of slack water. Funnily there was a college soccer game going on a field just under the hell gate bridge as we passed. Things looked great until our AIS alarm went off and there was a barge coming into the S curve that is the Gate. By the time I was able to see the barge we were dead center in the channel passing directly through the gate. Normally I would ride the starboard channel markers and pass port to port with ongoing traffic as is the rule of the road. This time I looked up and the barge was shooting the apexs of the corners so was hard on the starboard side of the channel and heading straight for the middle then out to the apex of the outside corner so he would pass port to port with the barge we leap frogged at brothers, heading the same direction as us. I goosed the engine and steered straight for the side of the channel to get out of the middle and most of all to not get t-boned by the barge. At the last second before arriving at the wall I turned and felt the surge of water from the bow wake of the barge as it shot past us. I'd say we'd passed within 30' and maybe more like 25' from the front of the barge. I saw that bow in my dreams later that night and awoke with a start.

Then a sequence of bridges, the United nations building complex and then the empire state building. The east river ferries screamed back and forth and along the river making their appointed stops. We rounded a corner and under the brooklyn bridge and there she was, Lady Liberty gleaming in the sunlight of the setting sun. SV Cats Paw from BC Canada emailed us the day before they played neil diamond's coming to america as they passed her years before. Those who have seen her can attest a lump appears in your throat and your heart beats just a little faster. Such an iconic symbol of what america represents historically, the melting pot of the world that while not perfect offers an opportunity for all to pursue their dreams. Then like a club to the head I looked up and there was a ferry bearing down on us maybe a ¼ mile away and gaining speed after just leaving the ferry terminal, I instinctively turned hard to starboard and realized he was going the same direction to cut behind us but I had made our decision and stuck with it. In that briefest instants I saw the ferry change direction at full power to his starboard and through only the skill of the ferry captain did they pass to our port in the 5' chop in front of the ferry terminal and the confluence of the Hudson and the east river. Just then I noticed a police boat in the center of the insanity of ferries arriving and leaving the terminal along with a HELIPORT. I kid you not, as we passed the police boat with cherries and berries on as if to say "there's a lot going on here, be careful" a helicopter took off 100 meters to our starboard while another positioned itself to land where the one just took off from. I looked up just as the staten car ferry was both departing and the inbound ferry was arriving across our bow. I instinctively veered away from the ferry terminal when pamela yelled, NO!, Go behind the departing car ferry as you know the inbound ferry would not hit you there. I crossed in front of the inbound ferry and was able to squeeze past and then in front of the Hudson river ferry waiting for the car ferry to pass and poof was smack dab in front of the Lady Liberty as the sun set. My adrenalin was pumping and Pamela was crawling all over the boat getting pictures of everything. As we headed for the verrazano narrows we looked over our shoulder and saw One World Trade Center towering over the sea front as its lights flickered on illuminating the beacon of freedom after being rebuilt from our moment of terror not so long ago.

It was a quick trip over to Staten Island to Great Kills National park and we were at the dock by 2000 after negotiating the narrow, shallow channel in the dark under a full moon. It was as we arrived we were greeted by the NY hospitality when out of the dark a man came and helped with our lines. We were relieved to have had such a big day behind us still riding the high of the trip through NYC. 79 miles closer to VA. Our plan? An overnight passage to Delaware back at the tip of south New Jersey about 120 miles. Then the next step was to wait for a weather window to make another 150 nm overnight jump to Portsmouth.

When we got up the next day and the weather files looked to have strong Northeasterlies for about 12 hours then decreasing and shifting to the east for the next day and shifting gradually and lightly to the south. Waves forecast at 3' out of the northeast. It seemed like with some luck and speed we could bag the entire two jumps in one 34 hour trip. As we progressed down the coast the wind and waves cooperated as we motor sailed along at 8.5 plus knots racing down waves at 10 or more knots occasionally. We arrived at delaware bay around 0300 on saturday morning and reset the chartplotter for Portsmouth that forecast our arrival around 2200 on Saturday, an incredible run for us over 34 hours. The waves overnight were bigger than forecast but our girl loped along under full main and genoa. Wind ran 15-20 as forecasted so that helped us along. We passed Atlantic City overnight and eerily ghosted by vegas on the shore. We heard a coast guard rescue of a grounded sailboat over the VHF and passed through an area that had so much going on I'm not sure I understand it yet. Best we can tell there were two helicopters either pursuing or escorting a boat. There were at least 4 sailboats in the area including us, a dredging barge and a tug hauling a short load. In the middle of the night, in a 2 mile square radius. Two of the sailboats were talking to each other over the VHF and were trying to figure out what we all were seeing. It was intense.

After the sun came up the wind and waves decreased and slowed our progress but still we were able to make good time. I have to say that about 8-10 hours of that day was spent napping and generally trying not to be bored out of your gourd. Not a lot of traffic and the steady humm of the diesel pushing us along. We luckily arrived at the head of the Chesapeake bay with a fair tide and rode it all the way up the last 25 miles to our destination. We picked up a negative current in the elizabeth river but I was so busy staying out of the way of the commercial traffic that was humming even on a saturday night. There are hundreds of naval ships in the norfolk ship yards that are marina is located in and amongst. Its at the head of the ICW so gets lots of transient traffic heading south at this time of the year. The whole time I was thinking how in the world will it be to sail out in two Sundays next with 20 other boats in our rally down the narrow channel dodging the same commercial traffic that we passed on the way in.

This morning was celebratory for us as our first major achievement has been reached and we pause to get ourselves ready for the 1,400 mile trip to the Caribbean that we will undertake on the 8th of November. Step one complete. Step two just around the corner. Stay tuned.