Long Island Sound

Karen left you with our considering heading up into Long Island Sound primarily to keep our distance from hurricane Irma (and developing Jose) and secondly to visit an area renowned for both its affluence and sailing!

We had planned to leave Sunday September 3 and travel to Port Washington, N.Y. but when we contacted the harbour master he advised that it would be unlikely that we would find a mooring ball free, it being the middle of the Labour Day weekend.  The weather didn't look very nice either so we decided to stay put and explore more of Manhattan.

Friday, Karen and I went into town. First we went to Macy's and bought me some deeply discounted shorts and T's and then rode the subway onto Roosevelt Island which sits in the middle of the East River. What an incredibly quiet oasis, so close to the madness of Manhattan! We then took the Roosevelt Tramway (featured in a Spiderman movie) back over the East River for wonderful views of the four bridges crossing the river. 

Roosevelt Tramway

We then went to a third show "The Play that Goes Wrong" described as a cross between Downton Abbey and Monty Python. Hilarious!

Saturday we walked around the Battery at the south end of Manhattan and Sunday we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the afternoon, although it would take weeks to cover it all!  After the MET we negotiated the weekend subway and NJ Path schedules and met Bob and Sheila at a pub in Jersey City for dinner.

Monday dawned bright and sunny for our trip up the East River into Long Island Sound. The Waterway Guide suggests starting up the East River one hour after low tide in slow vessels so as to pass through Hell Gate with a favourable, but not too swift current, and to arrive in Long Island Sound as the tide there begins to ebb.  That advice seemed to jive with the currents indicated on my tides app so we left at 1430 to motor up the East River.  Initially we seemed a little early, bucking a 0.7 knot current, so Bob suggested we slow down a bit, and sure enough a few minutes later we had a favourable current of a knot. We breezed through Hell Gate where the East River makes a right angle bend and the Harlem River meets it with barely an eddy in sight!  On the way we saw the Brooklyn Bridge and the United Nations (sadly over shadowed by a couple of new towers). 

Brooklyn Bridge 

Her Diamond passing United Nations

We also saw a couple of crazy towers, one of which seems to have kinked in the middle being supported by the other. 

Architect out of control

We also passed Rikers Island where the bad boys are sent. 

Once in Long Island Sound we had a nice breeze and were able to sail under jib alone to Port Washington ogling the huge mansions on the north shore of Long Island.

Port Washington welcomed us with free mooring balls that have rope penants that need to be picked up and cleated. We are very proud to say that we picked up and secured one on the first try!  What a pleasure it was not to be at a dock for the night!

Tuesday 5 September we walked along Port Washington's waterfront and came across a "historical art park".  Through art and explanatory plaques we learned that frostbiting (racing year-round) began on Manhassett Bay, on which Port Washington sits. I also discovered that the Star class sailboat originated in Port Washington in 1911.  For those interested in yacht design, at the time yacht designers were drawing boats with long keels with their rudders attached to the keel while the Star had a fin keel with the rudder attached to a small skeg, a configuration that proved to be much more efficient but wasn't widely adopted by naval architects until the 1960s.

Wednesday, was a grey day during which I took the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) into Penn Station, rode the subway up to Times Square and the Port Authority bus station and NJ Transit to Secaucus NJ where Sea Safety International is located. The reason for my trip was that we had been encouraged by my brothers to have an EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon) which we bought in Jersey City and then discovered that it was preprogrammed to be registered in the U.S. Since we are a Canadian flagged vessel it needed to be registered with the Canadian Beacon Registry, and needed a different unique identification code. Sea Safety is authorized to reprogram our brand of EPIRB. So after a half hour at Sea Safety I reversed my track and was back at the boat at 1400.  In the meantime Karen made muffins, Apple crisp, worked on a blog, read and knitted, I gather fully enjoying a brief respite from my company.  In the evening Bob and Sheila came over to share Karen's pressure cooker beef ragu and the Apple crisp and we again split two Euchre between the boys and girls. I'm amazed that we are still even!

Thursday was a beautiful day with a light breeze during which we actually sailed (no motor) all the way from Port Washington to Huntington. 

On the way I had a nice chat with my oldest brother Adrian who is a licensed captain and had a career driving large motor yachts up to 155' long. He has kindly offered to be our "phone a friend".  He related some of his experience on Long Island Sound and that he set out from Huntington on a leg to Bermuda on a trans Atlantic crossing.

Huntington Harbor is filled with thousands of boats on mooring balls and in slips. We picked up a mooring at the Huntington Yacht Club (first try, and I will let you know when we miss).

Huntington Harbor 

Patrick, who runs the HYC water taxi, gave us a tour of the harbour and told us that nearly all the waterfront is owned by two families!

Friday, Bob's sister-in-law Monica who lives in Huntington, picked Sheila, Karen and I up and gave us a tour of Huntington and left Karen and I to discover it on foot. We had a nice lunch at Coq au Vin Bistro, bought some books at a big independent bookstore and had a coffee. Then Monica picked us up and took us to her beautiful home for dinner. Bob's brother Loren made us margaritas, chicken, burgers and corn in the smoker and together with Loren and Monica's friends Gordy and Charlene we had a wonderful evening.

(L-R) Gordy, Monica, Bob, Sheila, Loren and Charlene

Today we are moving into slips at the yacht club to top up batteries and water tanks. We'll huddle with Bob and Sheila to decide where to go next!

We've been touched by how many people have contacted us to inquire about our location in relation to hurricane Irma and Jose.  We are keeping a close eye on them and don't intend to move south until it looks like they won't impact the Chesapeake. Thanks to all for your concern. 

Stay tuned!