Saturday Sept 26 - We are sitting on the hook down in the south east end of Sandy Hook (Atlantic Highlands) behind the breakwater waiting for high winds that have been plaguing the coast to abate. We have been here since we arrived last Wednesday! It looks like it will not be until Monday morning before we can make our way down the NJ coast - hopefully making it to Atlantic City that day.  This is the winds expected for 5pm this evening!!

We left Port Washington, NY last Wednesday morning (Sept 23^rd) early to catch the current running in our direction through the East River. It could not have been a more perfect day or a more perfect timing for the run. Our SOG (speed over ground) averaged about 7kts but we saw, at times, 10kts where the current was running particularly strong - such as at Hell Gate! We entered the East River along with a tug/barge (Mr. T) that we were able to pass just after we passed the Throgs Neck bridge.

           Port Washington on Tuesday evening.

   

Mr T pulled to the north and we powered up to pass so we didn't have to follow the whole East River.

As we then passed the UN building we were “surrounded” by nine Coast Guard boats, two NYPD boats, and one Navy boat all armed with guns! The Pope and President Obama were expected at any time so the East River was being protected and then eventually closed down for their arrival – expected at separate times over the course of the next 5 days. This is why we chose to get through the East River, while the getting was good! 

  Protection on the East River!

      The new One World Trade Center!

                        Busy NYC 

New York Harbor was beautiful and busy as usual. We arrived in Sandy Hook at about 1 pm and got Gracie to shore in Atlantic Highlands for our first excursion to town. We walked the beautiful little town with the Botulas and discovered the amenities the town has to offer. It was sunny and hot.

   

       Atlantic Highlands anchorage  (Sandy Hook, NJ)

       Our map:

 

Monday Sept 21 - We are in Oyster Bay, NY.  Arrived here yesterday and are spending an extra day here because of weather (it is blowing like crazy!) and we will most likely have to wait somewhere because of the upcoming weather down the New Jersey coast.  It looks like it is going to blow about 20 knots or more from the north constantly for the next week perhaps.  A north wind is good but not that much and when it blows constantly, that hard, for that long, you have to contend with big following seas - not our idea of fun!!  So we are waiting to see how things shape up.  We also have to contend with, at the current time, a very, very early morning transit on the East River.  We would have to be moving in the dark for that transit at the moment from here.  Lots of factors to take into consideration!!!
     Staying put at the north end of West Harbor in Oyster Bay

Yesterday, we sailed from New Haven, CT to Oyster Bay, NY in a fairly stiff, but manageable, north wind that gave us almost a beam reach down the Long Island Sound to here.  We sailed the whole way doing about 6.5 - 7.5 knots for most of the trip.  (For those of you not familiar with sailing, that is a pretty good clip!) .
             North end of West Harbor, Oyster Bay, NY
               

Our first day's journey - Saturday - from Groton, CT to Morris Cove in New Haven, CT was pretty wonderful.  We finally got under way at about 10am after departing from our slip (having to remove all our lines from the pilings) and fueling up at the dock.  We spent the first 45 minutes or so in some very dense fog just off the shore in the New London area - so we had to get the radar going and pay attention to all the commercial traffic in the area.  It was pretty wild!!  But the fog burned off not far off shore and we spend the day motoring with no wind but sunny and hot conditions.
       New Haven, CT - Morris Cove

  

      Everything in the V-berth had to come out for the final organization and loading!!

Our map:

Sept 16th.   Arrived yesterday evening after having driven down in the rental car with the Botula's.  We dropped them off in Barrington, RI - helped them do their final provisioning and then arrived at SYC late - ~ 10pm!   Unloading, provisioning, and using the car to get the last things we need.  Will be a busy day!  Note: how appropriate - a Dodge Journey to begin our Bahamas journey. 

September 11th, 2015.  Where were you on 9/11/2001?  I was working at IBM and I vividly remember that day.  It is now 14yrs later and we are making our final preparations for our long awaited / anticipated trip down south on the ICW to Florida and beyond.  Right now we are in Maine for a wedding for Joan's cousin's daughter.  We came back from Groton (SYC) last Saturday after having hauled the boat (and unstepping the mast) for work.  Some of the important stuff we did while on the hard all week:

1.  Finished stripping off the last of the old varnish - that was peeling - on the cap rail trim.  We have finished converting our boat to Semco.  No more peeling varnish or stripping for us - ever!
2.  Painted bottom paint on all the leading edges, waterline and places where it had chipped off.
3.  Cleaned and waxed the hull where needed.
4.  Installed new transducers for depth and speed on hull. We now have all new instruments for the boat. So now we have, at the helm, a whole new array of instruments that should all talk to each other and to the A75 chart plotter!!!

5.  Had repaired and installed the port side life line stanchion that was bad.

6.  Cleaned dinghy and put 303 on it as well as having installed our new numbers on it.

7.  Had replaced the aft holding tank macerator thru-hull and valve which was leaking!   Now we have a brand new Apollo ball valve!!!

8.  Tried my hand for the first time at a bunch of gel coat repair - matched pretty well but I had some nasty gouges in a few places and some old gel coat repair (from before we bought the boat) that needed fixing.

9. Re-caulked some of under the cap rail where it had lost a bunch of the teak tone caulking.

(We must have gone to Defender on a daily basis!)

So, after this weekend in Maine, we return to Vermont to collect the last of the stuff we need, close up the house, and head down to the boat to depart.  Alan and Janet Botula are going along with us in their Cabo Rico 38, so we will rent a car to leave Vermont together next week and drop them off after having helped with their final provisioning in Barrington, RI.   Then, we continue down to Groton, CT (Shennecossett Yacht Club) where we will do our final provisioning and wait for the Botula's to catch up with us (probably Friday) to make our departure.  We expect to start our trip on Saturday, Sept. 19th - which, by the way, is International Talk Like A Pirate Day!!

    Where's our mast?!!!

Here it is!!! Along side of our boat while we were on the hard doing all the work on in Aug 31 to Sept 4th.