S/V Sweet Liberty : In Port Washington

I tried to get a massive post done yesterday morning before leaving to go through NYC but wasn't quite able to get it done before we had to leave. Hey – the tide waits for no man! So I posted it this morning.

Our trip through New York harbor was to begin at about noon yesterday but we needed to take on fuel before leaving. We had anchored overnight in Atlantic Highlands which is the southern most part of “Sandy Hook”. It is a beautiful anchorage when the wind is not out of the NE as it was the last time we were there. We arrived Sept 22^nd and departed Sept 27^th waiting for more calm winds and seas to go down the NJ coast. But as you may recall, it never really calmed down so finally we decided that if we were going to get out of Sandy Hook we just had to go.

Yesterday was a beautiful day – sunny but a bit of a haze and a bit cooler. The wind was first out of the north which made it a bit lumpy going up into the harbor but then shifted to the east just as we were coming in to the East River. We had to be at the Battery (the start of the East River) at about 3pm to catch the current through to Long Island Sound. The current runs extremely strong on the East River (max of about 5kts) so you have to go with the current if you are a sailboat. Our over the bottom maximum speed yesterday was recorded at 11.2kts. For a boat doing about 6.3 kts on its own through the water that means we had current of about 4.9 kts literally “sucking” us into the Sound. The beginning of the East River is particularly rough because of all the traffic on the water – water taxis, police boats, other pleasure boats, and, of course, commercial traffic. We plowed through a number of waves from wakes, amplified by the current, that had us taking water over the bow. It was a wild ride! After about Roosevelt Island things calmed down and all we had to deal with was lots of current eddies in the “raging river”. We arrived in Port Washington, NY at about 5:30pm and have taken one of the free town moorings. And we quickly launched the dinghy to provide shore leave for Gracie and for Joan to hit the Stop and Shop for a few provisions.

We are staying here today because the wind is out of the east, right on the nose, but more importantly tomorrow we are expecting the possibility of thunderstorms that I would rather not be in in the middle of Long Island Sound. So tomorrow we will go on a much shorter day to Port Jefferson and then on to finish our adventure at our home base at Shennecossett Yacht Club in Groton, CT on Saturday June 4^th, 2016!

It was a bit cooler but there was a haze coming in to NYC harbor.

This is Joan's nav station. She has been working this all trip long. Note her helpers - Gracie and Roy! Necessary tools include Ipad linked in with GPS and navigational software, trusty binoculars, and pink sun shirt.