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Published: August 20th 2011
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Verrazano Bridge in the haze
On the way from Atlantic Highlands to the East River the great bridsge guides you into the Big Apple. When last we wrote it was about “Plan B”—altering course to sail with a changed destination. That brought us to Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey which has always been for us a good stop. Easy to as anchor, a dinghy dock for transients near town and easy to reach services: a Laundromat, post office, and grocery store within an easy walking distance. This time we scooted into town to do laundry only to find that the place, clearly marked “open 7 days a week” was closed. Folks in the area assured us it would open automatically at 5 am the next day. After checking the tides we saw that we could make a favorable current in the East River by leaving in the mid to late morning so a 5 am laundry run worked for us. It gets daylight earlier as you move north and east so this was not an O’Dark 30 event.
Imagine our surprise to find the deli ALSO open at 0530 so once the machines were running we ambled up the street for a fresh toasted bagel and “schmear”. This is not New York City by name but the bagels were perfect. Then Christian noticed a round
The Stature of Liberty.
It is a thrill to pass by Lady Libery on the Staten Island Ferry or on a cruise liner leaving on an Atlantic Crossing-- but that is NOTHING like the thrill of sailing past her on your own boat. weathered cheese in the cooler for sale. It was labeled in Italian as Pecorino and the price was $12 for an 8” wheel. It weighed between 4 and 5 pounds and was worth the risk. We later found that it was very dry and hard, but WONDERFUL in flavor. We have been shaving it and grating it with pleasure ever since and plan a return stop if we go that way in the fall.
Laundry done and treasure stowed we headed for the City and traversed the sky scrapers and Hells Gate without incident. It is always a marvel to pass under the Verrazano Bridge and near the Statue of Liberty in your own boat! We took a mooring in Port Washington and were very glad the water temperature had dropped by 30 degrees as the air temperatures exceeded 100 degrees. The cats were sprawled on the floor in the lowest part of the boat where the water keeps things cool.
After one night in Port Washington we moved to the Thimble Islands of CT where we have stopped many times starting in 1993. There has always been room to anchor between the islands and since bad weather was
Stepping stone Light house
The fist time I saw this light in 1993 I was thrilled. Truly a Light HOUSE. This marks the transition from the East River into Long Island Sound. coming we wanted a snug spot. We were anchored early and were surprised when a crew came out to drop two moorings in right around our boat! There won’t be much room to anchor here any more. After three days in the Thimbles we sailed past the Race and left Long Island Sound behind. The weather was cool and we were GLAD after the heat of the Mid Atlantic states. We stopped for a night in Dutch Harbor and walked around the nice neighborhoods of Jamestown, RI. A tree that looked a lot like a dogwood was covered with pink blooms and caught my eye.
The weather forecast was changing and we were soon pressed to make it quickly to the Cape Cod Canal. If you have strong head winds in Buzzard’s Bay it is quite miserable especially when the currents are factored in. We often like to make stops in at Newport, Cuttyhunk and Hadley Harbor but this time we needed to press on. We waited out more weather in Onset and were pleased to find Mon Amie in port with Star. In no time we made plans to get together and catch up on the news. Onset
Carter and the handbag
Both Carter and Bisous think Mary's suymmer purse makes a great scratching post. Carter says it's a good napping spot, too. is protected from all directions and has a few facilities of interest to cruisers. As soon as the weather was favorable we headed out through the canal and sailed up towards Boston, leaving it to Port as our destination was the Jubilee Yacht Club in Beverly, Massachusetts. We have met a number of cruisers from this club over the years and always love making the stop. Both Cygnet and Rhumb Runner were in port and Eleanor M made a side trip to see us too so we had a number of fun get togethers. We thought this would be our last stop before heading to Maine but weather once more decided that we would head out first for Gloucester so we could get around Cape Ann in the calm early morning hours. You need enough daylight to see the lobster traps, but it seems to take a while for the wind to pipe up.
Everything started well, but as the day progressed we noticed a distinct slowing of our speed under power and worried that our transmission might be slipping. We were anchored off Monjoy Hill in Portland by evening.
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