Sunday to Wednesday Nov 2-5

Rough marina entrance

From the summit of Ossining

Beautiful lady

It's a building of glass one of several new waterfront

Abandoned factory in Yonkers

Coney Island amusement park

Wrecks from Irene and Sandy in Coney Island Creek

leaving New York - blue building is Tower ONE

New bldg on Twin Towers site - still tallest bldg in New York

Beautiful ocean- check that colour

New Jersey shoreline- all sand beach

Crazy stupid fishers - choppy water is all the wake from boats

Approach to Atlantic city

At night...

Sunday, Nov 2

I was going to say that that is a misnomer...Sunday is not always sun-day, but today the sky cleared up and it’s mid-afternoon. The winds however, are still blowing up at 30 mph[65-70 km]

We walked into town...it’s UPHILL. The guy at the marina said it was “a hefty walk”. His wife said “it’s a cab ride.”  We walked about 6 blocks uphill and then back down.  The downtown area is not really open on Sunday, but there was a pharmacy open that was like Shopper’s so I got socks!! I couldn’t find the Sin Sing display so I couldn’t find anything made by the inmates.

However, the train is CHEAP. It’s like the Toronto subway. From here to New York City is $4.00. If I had known that we could have taken it for a ride today!

The forecast is for diminishing winds by midnight and calmer seas tomorrow, but if not we’ll wait another day.

Monday Nov 3

We had a terrible trying to get off the dock.  We were parallel parked on a narrow channel with no room to turn so I had to back out, and the tide and winds were pushing me sideways back onto the docks. Finally I gave up and let Rick try it. He gunned it and got us out. He tends to overdrive and I hate to force the new engine but it needed to be done that way.

Once we got out of the marina with its huge corrugated steel break walls (also not very forgiving) we cruised down river at 7 knots [2 knots of tide water helped!] We went all the way through New York City and anchored in the Coney Island Creek.

Coming through New York City was a trip! There were ferries and taxis, cargos ships, dredges and barges, cruise ships and cop boats all over the harbour and no traffic signals!!!

We saw the new Tower on the Twin Tower site. In fact, this was the first day it was open and the lights turned on at night. It is stunning in the daytime. (see pic) The harbour front is being re-developed and some of the buildings are just plain weird, but most are, to me, amazing examples of what having an opposable thumb can do!

Rick put the motor on the dinghy and we went to the gas station, where we left the dinghy. The guy in charge of the dock said no one would bother the boats and he was right. He told us where the stores were and we walked to a grocery store, looking for grapefruit and a Verizon internet card. No luck with the card even though we walked past the technical shop where all the Verizon tech trucks are parked, but...I went to the pharmacy to see if I could get strips for my blood glucose reader. For those of you not familiar with diabetic items, I used to pay $75-95 for 100 strips to check my blood. I could get the strips for about $68.00 but she sold me a different monitor including 50 strips for $15.99. The strips sell for $4.99 for 50!

After it got dark, we watched the lights on the bridge and the Coney Island amusement lights. We were too tired to walk the 6 blocks to see for ourselves.

The forecast is for 2 good days of weather and we are considering doing an overnight trek all the way to Cape May.

Tuesday Nov 4

We got up early and amazingly it wasn’t cold in the boat. I still sleep in socks, however.  We started up and got out of the creek into the harbour entrance. Even that short distance was hairy! Water taxis and ferries that early; dredges moving and cargo ships coming in and out; a cruise ship entered, and of course, the local water police.  So far we have not been challenged or hassled on the phone. Everyone we’ve talked to says they are rude, but I think it’s because of the attitude you start with. God knows, I am the queen of attitude [except for Natasha who will one day take over the role!] But when I call I say, “I am a Canadian sailboat heading south and I’m checking in.” If they want to tell me we’re fools for being so late, go ahead. We are! We’re not the only ones.

One guy wanted to talk about the attack in Ottawa, how was I feeling about that? We chatted a bit and then he signed off.

So, as soon as we cleared the sea buoys, the water colour and the smell of the air changed!  The water went blue...not the muddy colour of the Hudson, and the air smelled like...clean laundry on a cold morning. It is awesome to be back out here!

We started off running well with the outgoing tide, but as soon as we head south we had head winds and ocean swells against us. We sailed for a while but the head winds just beat the sails so we gave up. But at noon I had stripped down to a t-shirt and light pants!!! Of course, by 4pm the sweatshirt was back on, but it wasn’t really cold. The salt spray is making everything a bit sticky but it tastes great!

We also hauled out our log book from the trip up and realized it was two nights and three days from Cape May to New York. We don’t have the stamina for that yet so we headed into Barnegat Bay around 7 pm.  It was tricky, but we heard a big sail cat go in ahead of us three hours earlier and eavesdropped on his radio conversation with someone in the bay so we knew where we were going. We crashed as soon as we had dinner.

Wednesday Nov 5

We awoke to the sound of fishing boats roaring past us. We had anchored in the channel and they were not amused! We moved, got breakfast and headed out. This was either a fishing derby or a fleet. There must have been 30 boats pass us on the way out of the channel and they all stopped at the end of the break wall The chop was really annoying especially in 5-8 feet of water and an outgoing tide!

There is still a south wind and the swell is running 3-5 feet. But it’s gorgeous out here. Not too cold, and a hazy sky. Being on the ocean is like being in a rocking chair...every once in a while someone kicks it and you wake up.

The water was relatively smooth and the swells were even. There were hundreds of water birds flying around and every once in a while some smart-ass seagull would fly through the rigging. There are many different kinds of seagulls down here. My favourite is the one with the black wings and the deep voice.

There is a cold front moving down from you-know-where so we were going to go into Little Egg Inlet and head inside down to Atlantic City.  We watched the rollers crashing into the inlet and decided that we would stay outside!!  Good decision... the winds died and our speed picked up and we were in Atlantic City by 4:00.  

This place is awesome... East Coast Las Vegas! We docked amongst the mega-yachts. At 35 feet, we are the smallest boat here! They make the boats in Owen Sound and Wiarton look like runabouts! The Marina is in the Golden Nugget Casino. We got free passes to the pool and the workout room at the Casino along with our WiFi and showers and laundry... all for only $2.00/ ft.

So we went to dinner at the Charter House, without coats! It is still quite pleasant...not shorts and t-shirts yet but we’re getting close. We could have gone into the Golden Nugget Casino and picked from several restaurants/ bars/ diners but they were noisy.

We decided that since we are on permanent vacation and there is no rush to get down, we are going to take our time from now on and enjoy the places we stop That’s the whole point! We can do a rainy day here and there but we don’t have to.  SO tomorrow we are staying here all day and taking advantage of the amenities... we might even throw some quarters into the slot machines!!