The Atlantic

On Sunday, November 4th, we dropped Al off at the dock of the 79th Street Marina and pointed our bows towards the Atlantic Ocean. We had expected a fair bit of traffic on the water as we passed through the main New York harbour, but, because it was Sunday, there were only a few ferries, freighters and pleasure boats. The only excitement we had leaving the harbour was under the Narrows Bridge where we had a police escort while multiple helicopters flew overhead. Traffic also seemed to be stopped on the bridge; we assume this was all due to the New York Marathon which was on that day, but we're not sure.

As we passed through the Lower Bay towards Sandy Hook we encountered very choppy wavy water and even saw some breakers over a shallow shoal. Surprisingly, as we rounded Sandy Hook and were officially out in the Atlantic, the waves calmed down quite a bit and we had a comfortable trip down the shore to Manasquan Inlet. The shoreline consists of one long beach and only has a few inlets connecting into inland waters. We actually saw some surfers in wetsuits riding the cold Atlantic waves on the beach in Manasquan.

Manasquan is a small quaint town. We stayed there for three days waiting out yet another storm. We were awakened one night by a loud banging noise on deck only to discover in the morning that a sea gull had used our boat as a chopping board to dismantle a crab! There were bits of crab shell all over the deck. Another gull tried to do the same thing another day with a starfish.

We left Manasquan on Wednesday and motored to Atlantic City. We saw the glittering casinos from afar, but we wanted to get farther south so we left early the next morning (while we still had good weather) and made it to Cape May.


New York



Leaving New York behind


Some of the traffic we saw in New York Harbour



Our Police Escort under the Narrows Bridge



Ruth on our first beach at Manasquan Inlet



Atlantic City casinos at night (view from the boat)



It was a cold trip to Cape May!

Photos and Videos

It's been a while since we've posted... some posts are on their way, but in the meantime we have posted some photos over at Flickr and videos at Vimeo.

We are currently in New York City taking in the sights.

Halloween and Movie Stars

We spent six days in New York at the cheapest "hotel" New York had to offer (30$ a night), although it was a bit bouncy due to the boat wakes and current. It did include free showers and laundry if you didn't mind a wet dinghy ride in. It was a two-block walk to Broadway and the subway, which we took downtown several times during our stay.

We had intended to spend three days in New York, however the remnants of hurricane Noel kept us in town (not a bad place to wait out a hurricane). The effects we felt were strong winds and associated bigger waves, but no rain.

On our first day in New York we took a trip to the local West Marine store (on 37th Street) to pick up some of the items we have found we needed for the boat - although it was a fun trip, the store had very little of what we wanted due to the fact that New York is not really a sailing city. What made the trip more interesting was the sighting of Kim Cattrall (Samantha) from "Sex and the City" who was busy shooting a scene for "Sex and the City: The Movie" (Click here for a picture of the scene we saw).

Day two in New York was October 31, Halloween. The harbour master at the marina suggested that we might want to go to the Halloween parade in Greenwich Village. Everything in New York is big and the parade certainly followed this rule - we stood in a huge crowd for two and a half hours watching all manner of costume and floats go by. (see flikr for photos and Vimeo for videos).

After a day of resting and cleaning ourselves and the boat up a bit, we headed over to Liberty Landing by water taxi on day four to check out the marina there. It was the biggest marina any of us had ever seen - over 500 boats! On the way back from downtown we stopped by a grocery store not far from the marina. It was an amazing grocery store - jammed packed. It was a smaller store than a "superstore" in Ottawa and it had no big isles, but it had better selection and more variety than anything we've ever seen. The evening came with strong winds and yet more waves as hurricane Noel passed by New York.

On day five, Al was going to leave early in the morning, but it was still too wavy and windy to get him and his suitcases to shore safely with the dinghy, so we spent the morning hanging out on the boat. In the afternoon we walked quite a way up Broadway (it's a nice neighbourhood around Broadway around 79th - the upper West side).

We left New York on day six (Sunday, November 4th) - Al back to Ottawa, and us South. Thank you, Al, for your invaluable help in getting us this far.




79th Street Marina












Dinghy Ride back to the Boat














Dinghy Dock (and our boat)









Halloween in Greenwich Village













World Trade Center Site (now under major rebuilding)











Shopping with Al









New York Subway

New York New York

When we left Tarrytown on Monday, the river was finally wide enough to raise the sails and check everything out. This exercise generated a list of thing that we needed to replace - new reefing lines, jib sheets and furling line.
We were able to see the Manhattan skyline from Tarrytown and we travelled towards it for the afternoon, passing under the Tappan Zee and George Washington bridges. When we arrived at the 79th Street Marina in New York, we encountered the strong Hudson River currents, which we had heard about. It was impossible to make it into the small harbour as the current was pushing us sideways past the entrance, so we decided to pick up one of the marina's mooring balls out on the river instead.
Our first night in New York was rockin' - and not of the musical style. We were bouncing all over the place from the wakes of the tugs and freighters running up and down the river and the current rushing by the boat. (click here for a video)

Grumbly Grey Skys

Friday and Saturday turned out to be rainy grey days. Friday was a long day as we were not able to leave Catskill until 11 am because of heavy fog. Because we left later than planned, we were on the water until after sunset. We arrived in the dark and rain at White's marina with one of the tightest docking maneuvers yet - thanks to Al it all worked out very well... Much to our surprise, Le Temps de Vivre II showed up about an hour after we arrived and we guided them into the marina with flashlights and the VHF radio.
After a relaxing start to our Saturday with brunch at an outstanding cafe in New Hamburg, we headed back out on the river. We spent the afternoon fighting against the current, wind and rain on the Hudson around the aptly named Storm King Mountain (click here for a video). We pulled into the Tarrytown marina at suppertime.
We spent Sunday wandering around Tarrytown (it's a quaint town) picking up groceries for the next few days, including some indulgences at a gourmet grocery store. Al reprovisioned the wine cellar yet again.

Last Lock to the Ocean

We left Waterford on Wednesday and did the final lock on our journey to the ocean - the Troy lock - it was by far the largest lock we have seen so far. As we arrived at the lock, there was another Canadian boat (Le Temps de Vivre II) from Montreal.
We met up with them again on Wednesday afternoon at Castleton, which is the marina everyone seems to use to put up their masts. Our mast went up quite smoothly and we are a sailboat again !
On Thursday, we headed downriver to Catskill Creek where we tied up at a restaurant dock (free dock with a meal) and did some more work on the mast - Al went up the mast to install the wind instruments and the VHF antenna.

Restful Waterford

We arrived in Waterford yesterday finishing the Erie Canal - we can now see the Hudson River a few hundred yards away. We have spend our time here doing laundry and exploring the old Champlain Canal (really small!). We are also getting the mast ready to put up in a couple of days in Castleton, which is a little ways down the Hudson.

For those of you who are interested, we have posted some pictures on Flikr of our trip from Kingston to the end of the Erie. Also of note is that we are now updating our position more regularly (follow the where are we link on the top right of the main blog page).