Work on the boat is finally completed, and we are off for
several short hops in the Chesapeake.
First stop is in Galesville to visit with some friends who will be following us
north in a couple of weeks. We then
cross over the Bay to St. Michaels for the weekend. St. Michaels is a favorite stop along the Eastern shore, and this visit nicely coincides with the
Classic Boat Show sponsored by the maritime museum.
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| St. Michael's Maritime Museum |
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| One of the museum's classic boats under sail |
We take a day to walk the docks admiring all
the beautifully restored (almost entirely motor) boats, some accompanied by
matching trailers and cars of the same vintage.
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| Several boats on trailers with color matched vintage cars |
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| Beautifully restored boat on display |
It is always fun to come across a few restored Lymans which were built
in our home port of Sandusky, Ohio.
We depart St. Michaels to go a few miles further north to the Wye River,
home of the Wye River Conference
Center and Aspen
Institute. This is pretty exclusive
territory and rumors have it that Cheney and Rumsfeld own homes here. Much of the area is a national wildlife
refuge, and we have a peaceful night at anchor. It’s off to Annapolis to pick up some mail, visit some
friends, and purchase a few boat essentials.
We have the mooring field almost to ourselves as Annapolis seems unusually quiet.
Once all the mail arrives, we begin our passage to the
northeast. It’s a beautiful day on the
Bay, and we have a wonderful sail with positive currents all the way to the
C&D canal. Burt asks if we should
stop for the night before transiting the canal, but conditions are favorable so
we head over to Delaware Bay. There we have another potential anchorage for
the night, but it appears the currents down the Delaware will be positive if we continue
on. Besides, it is beastly hot and
transiting the Delaware
at night is likely to be more comfortable.
We make excellent time down this otherwise boring portion of water,
accompanied by the usual flock of biting flies (we’re getting mighty quick at
putting the screens up around the cockpit), and round Cape
May near midnight. We could
always pull into the harbor there, although we prefer not to make landfalls in
the dark. We decide to continue north
along the New Jersey coast, planning to arrive
at New York City
late the next afternoon. The concept
sounds good on paper, but we encounter a mammoth thunderstorm part way up the
coast. Our weather radar indicates we
are ten miles south of all the action, so we slow down for several hours to
allow the cell to pass out to sea. The
lightning show is spectacular and a bit un-nerving. After it is all over, our
new wind instruments are no longer working.
We assume they have fallen victim to a proximity lightning strike, but
after turning off all the electronic systems and firing them back up, the wind
instruments are once again functional – we have no explanation. We arrive at Sandy Hook, at the entrance to New York Harbor, and drop the hook for a well
deserved rest. The next morning we wait
until 10 am for positive currents and fly through the harbor and the notorious
Hell’s Gate, emerging into Long Island Sound.
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| Entering New York harbor under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge |
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| Always a thrill to pass by the Statue of Liberty |
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| New York Skyline with the new World Trade Center building |
We realize that we are making
fantastic time so we push ourselves to reach Northport Harbor
just around sunset.
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| A Volvo race boat coming down Long Island Sound - we saw this boat again in Newport |
We never thought we
would be so far, so fast, and the next day it is only a short sail to the Thimble Islands
on the Connecticut
shore where we pick up a friend’s mooring.
The Thimbles are a magical place; a section of shoreline
that resembles Maine or the North Channel of Lake Huron. We have time to dinghy around the many
islands, admiring the homes built on these rocky outcroppings.
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| One of the homes on the tiny rocky islands in the Thimbles |
That evening we
head into Stony Creek, the little community on the mainland from the Thimbles,
and another friend picks us up in his car to take us to Branford, CT
for the town’s annual fireworks display.
We lounge on the foredeck of Amici, our mooring owner’s boat, and watch
an amazing show. We may be tired, but it is all worth the effort.
The next morning we leave early for Essex, CT
where there is an SSCA Gam in progress.
We didn’t make reservations as we couldn’t imagine getting there in
time, but with a quick phone call we are welcomed to attend even though we are
a day late. The Gam is being hosted by
two adjacent yacht clubs. They have generously opened their facilities to us,
and we enjoy two days of seminars and social events. One evening, a fellow cruiser we met in the Bahamas and who resides in Essex
invites a group over to their lovely home for dinner. We are feeling very spoiled. But even without
a Gam, Essex is a charming stop. This small town on the Connecticut River
exudes a New England ambiance.
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| One of many restored homes in Essex |
We wander the streets admiring the restored
homes and linger at sidewalk cafes watching the world go by. We cruisers are an anomaly here, and locals
stop to chat and question our unusual lifestyle. Monday night in Essex is Sea Chantey night at the pre-Revolutionary War
Griswold Inn. There’s a lot of clapping
and foot stomping going on here – great fun for a bunch of cruisers. A little
further east is New London,
CT, and we stop here for a night
to meet up with our son Bryan and his wife Beth. Both work in the area, so we borrow a car for
the day and do grocery shopping and laundry. As paybacks, we take them to
dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Paul’s Pasta. From the outside, it is a place you could
easily pass by, but on the deck behind, overlooking the Thames River,
we enjoy some of the best and least expensive homemade pasta you can imagine.
We have decided to spend about a week exploring the Fish
Tail (eastern end) of Long Island. This is a new area for us, so we follow the
advice of the cruising guide and anchor at Orient Harbor
on the northern neck. Bicycles come out,
and we spend an interesting afternoon traveling along country roads bordered
with small truck farms and vintage houses.
The strawberries we pick up along the way are luscious.
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| Lighthouse at the entrance to Orient Harbor |
We haul anchor
the next morning and head over to Coecles
Harbor on the north east side of Shelter Island. Shelter
Island is an interesting place,
centered between the north and south forks of Long Island. It is definitely upscale and exclusive. There are only a few places where anchoring
is allowed and access to land is difficult to come by.
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| A placid morning at Coecles Harbor |
We finally find a hidden town dock, tie up
our dinghy, and take the bikes ashore. Roads
wander up and down hills, through forests (about 1/3 of the island is conservancy
land), and along mansion lined shoreline.
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| Beautiful home along the shores of Dering Harbor |
The only town, Dering
Harbor, is on the other
side of the island. It consists of a gas
station, a small deli/gourmet grocery, a hardware store, a gift shop, and
several pricy restaurants. Nearby is a lovely and very active yacht club with
over 30 Herreshoff designed gaff rigged sloops bobbing at moorings.
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| Fleet of classic sloops at Shelter Island Yacht Club |
Just to
indicate the flavor of the place, we see a flier at the deli advertising a
concert and fireworks display on the lawn at Itzak Perlman’s nearby home to
raise funds for his music academy. After two days of exploring, we sail over to
Sag Harbor on the south fork. Sag Harbor is the boating entrance to the Hamptons, and the wealth
is immediately apparent. We see more
exotic cars here than anywhere else – Porsches and Mercedes are commonplace;
it’s the Maseratis and Lamborghinis that catch the eye. Out in the harbor, mega
yachts and huge sailing yachts are docked and anchored. We’ll see these same yachts in such places as
Newport, Nantucket, and Bar
Harbor. We are definitely the small fry here. We bike through the town to see restored
homes that reflect the community’s whaling heritage and numerous boutiques and
gourmet restaurants. While every bit as exclusive as Shelter Island,
it is definitely friendlier to boaters such as us. We complete our
circumnavigation of Shelter Island, arriving at Dering Harbor,
this time by boat instead of bicycle. We
want to check out the town of Greenport, just
across the water from Shelter
Island, so we take a
mooring at Dering. And it is here that
we discover that pirates still exist in the area. Our mooring will cost us $77 for one night,
and all that includes is access to a dinghy dock and the use of minimal showers
and restrooms that are currently closed for maintenance. You even have to pay to dispose of garbage! And
we thought Nantucket had the corner on piracy
– these are the most expensive moorings we have encountered anywhere. After all that, we find Greenport to be a bit
of a disappointment. It is very touristy. We visit the historic Preston Yacht
Chandlery and discover it is severely under stocked – we thought at least we
could pick up a hat. The only salvation is a novelty store that carries at
least 100 varieties of small rubber duckies, something that would only be of
interest to someone with a relative named “Duck”.
It’s time to head over to Newport, one of our favorite
destinations. The new mariners’ center
gives us easy access to town along with coin operated showers, laundry, and
free wifi. The bikes go ashore for a
ride along the spectacular Ocean
Drive, past rocky shorelines and the famous
mansions. We stock up on groceries and
take a dinghy ride through the harbor to admire all the amazing yachts that
come here. Our stay is brief, though. Hurricane Arthur is headed our way. We feel Newport harbor is too
close to the open ocean and doesn’t give sufficient protection for the
predicted northerly winds. We go an additional 15 miles up Narragansett Sound
and pull into a small bay off of Mt.
Hope Bay. Here we can anchor close to the north
shore. There are no other boats nearby,
so we will not be at risk of another boat dragging down on us. Waves shouldn’t
be a significant problem, and our heavy anchoring tackle will hopefully be up
to the task. The forecast has the
hurricane passing 50 miles southeast of Nantucket
so we will be more than 100 miles from the eye.
And now we wait – wait to experience our closest encounter yet with a
hurricane.
