New England (Part 2)

So we weathered the winds generated by hurricane Jose in the safe harbour of Port Jefferson, NY and put Vata back together, and sailed off to Oyster Bay, still on Long Island, New York.  Oyster Bay is home to America’s oldest yacht club.  It was also a pretty safe harbour, and we anchored well, so we went into town for a look around.  We found a nice little Italian-American grocery store, where we found some tasty lunchmeats and cheeses.

Oyster Bay Had a very historic downtown.

Also home of President Theodore Roosevelt...

The next day, we set off with high hopes of getting to College Point near LaGuardia Airport, but the timing to go further through the infamous “Hells Gate” on New York City’s East River was perfect with favourable tides and currents, so we went for it! 

Entering New York City from Long Island Sound, on the East River

As we approached the Hells Gate we were doing 10.6 knots! But all can’t be good: as we rounded the corner, Police and Coast Guard had installed a “Safety and Security Zone” on the west branch of the East River, the side with no bridges, but also the side with the UN Headquarters, and a meeting was in progress, and no one was allowed in the vicinity.  We called for a lift bridge to open, but the operator’s radio wasn’t working, so after two hours of calling on the radio, we managed to find the operator through the New York City’s 311 telephone service and the bridge opened. By then, 4 boats rushed to downtown Manhattan.

Roosevelt Island Lift Bridge is finally up!

The traffic was, well, busy! Between the police presence passing the UN Headquarters, there were ferries, ships, and many other boats, and everyone created such a chop on the water that we were racing through 4’ waves. We passed Battery Point, and made a bee line to the Statue of Liberty, dodging Staten Island Ferries and Liberty Island tour boats. Afterward, with the day growing long, we hurried on under the Gateway Bridge to anchor around the tip of Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  It turned out to be a very long day, but We enjoyed our first New Jersey sunset with cocktails, safely at anchor, with two other Canadian Boats!

The southern tip of Manhattan Island

The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor

Anchored off Sandy Hook New Jersey, in time to enjoy the sunset.

The next morning, we made way for an anchorage inside Barnegat Inlet.  There was a remnant swell from Hurricane Jose, but it was on the beam, so sailing was good.  The New Jersey Shore was one endless sand beach! While underway we prepared a chili for supper, and it simmered on the gimballed stove top. We arrived at Barnegat Inlet near low tide, and it was our first experience entering an inlet. There was a strong current flowing against us, like rapids in a river, and the ocean swell rolled against the current creating steep breaking waves.  We watched a big fishing boat navigate the inlet ahead of us, gave the engine more power!  The rolling and pitching was wicked! I was at the wheel, so Karen carefully (yet quickly) climbed down below to rescue our dinner, and put the entire pot of chili in the galley sink where it wouldn’t spill. Inside the inlet it was like a calm lagoon, and we anchored nearby.

Barnegat Lighthouse at the inlet's entrance.

The next day, we moved further down the coast, and ended up anchoring in Atlantic City, surrounded with tall casino hotels. Wonderful sight at night!

Arriving in Atlantic City!

Two Atlantic City casino/hotels beside us, all lit up for the night.

On September 25, 2017, we set sail for Cape May Harbor, at the south end of New Jersey.  We anchored beside the Coast Guard Station. Meanwhile, Hurricane Maria was moving up the coast, and the wind forecast would not make for easy sailing, so we decided to stay put and wait for gentler winds.  Instead, we visited the town of Cape May, and her historic buildings, and provisioned, completed our second engine oil change of the summer, and enjoyed hot temperatures in the safety of the harbour.

Ushes Marina had an excellent marine supply store with great staff so we didn't have to use this...

Some of the historical buildings in downtown Cape May

"A Tiny Cruise Line" offers guided tours of the harbour and surrounding area.

The Acme Supermarket where we did our groceries.

Tomorrow, we’ll move on to Delaware Bay, but we still have to decide: go up the bay to the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal to Chesapeake Bay, or down the Coast to Virginia….

New England

Maine was a huge State, and it ended up taking longer than intended to get across it. Our last stop would be in Kittery, where we lucked out and found an excellent deli on Route 1, a mere ½ hour walk from our dinghy where we found delicious meats, and a next-door grocer with abundant and affordable produce.

We left Kittery, Maine, with a mission to get to Long Island, New York, so, we picked up the pace, with favourable winds. 

Most of you guys have no idea what that means… but it’s hard to sail against the wind. That’s why the traditional sailing routes went from Europe to off-shore Africa, to the Caribbean, northerly along the east coast of North America then back across the Atlantic to Europe. A great big circle!

To make a long story short, we were going against the prevailing southwesterly summer winds, so when the winds were in our favour, we went! Fortunately, as the leaves start to turn colour the winds start to swing a bit more westerly to north-westerly, which makes for a great sail down the east coast.

So we left Kittery, Maine, and sailed past the entire shoreline of New Hampshire, before setting the hook in Wood Island Harbor, Massachusetts. The next day, we stayed because the forcasted weather wasn’t good, an instead we took care of several chores.

When the forcast improved, we sailed to Gloucester, Massachusetts, an old harbour, but made famous in the movie “The Perfect Storm” starring George Clooney. It was a very busy harbour due to the number of fishing boats there, and they like to leave throughout the night instead of sleeping like sailors like to do.

The next day we had fantastic winds again and sailed to Provincetown, Massachusetts, on the very tip of Cape Cod.  If you have never been there, it is worth a trip to P’Town as the locals call it.  A very colourful town bustling with people, and stores and restaurants for everyone.

 

Provincetown, MA at sunset, with the tall Pilgrim Monument marking their first landfall in the new world.

In P’Town we consulted the tide tables for the next leg, Cape Cod Bay and the Cape Cod Canal. It is important to enter the canal when tides are slack or running in the direction you are going. Interesting to note, that on Cape Cod Bay the tidal range is 10 feet, whereas on Buzzards Bay, the tidal range is 4 feet.  So halfway to high tide the water in the canal starts to flow toward Buzzards Bay, and the current increases every hour, to 4 knots. The next day we sailed to the canal and caught it 1 hour before high tide. Nearing the canal, we were making 6 knots motoring, and 50 minutes later we shot into Buzzards Bay doing 10.1 knots! We anchored in quiet Mattapoisett Bay an hour later.

 

Flying through the Cape Cod Canal!

Winds still favourable, we left Mattapoisett Harbor early, and sailed past Newport Rhode Island, all the way to Judith Point.  At one point, I heard a huge swish sound behind Vata, and I turned around to see a humpback whale surface!  At Judith Point, they built a large breakwater enclosing an outer harbour here many years ago, and called it a “Harbor of Refuge”. Well it was very lumpy in there overnight, and I don’t think the breakwater would do much to keep a hurricane’s storm surge out. 

In any case, we are starting to recognize the names of boats we see, and often can’t remember where we saw them before, because we didn’t keep track. But, it seems that we are all geese starting to flock together on the migration south!

On September 11, 2017, the winds were once again in our favour, and we sailed from Point Judith nearly all the way to Orient Harbour, located on the very eastern tip of Long Island’s North Fork, motoring for the last bit of the day’s run. So close to New York City, we remembered the terrible events of 9-11, 16 years prior.

 

Tim at the helm

The next day, against an ebbing tide, we motored for 3 hours and anchored in Cutchogue Harbour, neatly tucked into a relatively small protected bay, where we would visit with my brother for a few days. The employees at New Suffolk Shipyard were accommodating and allowed us to leave our dinghy there fore our duration.

We had several days of seeing the area and completing some heavy provisioning. Then we took the “Orient - New London” ferry and went to the Newport Boat Show! The best part was the floating display of boats!!  We even toured a huge sailboat for sale that had a hot tub and a crew of 4! People in Newport definitely have a passion for boats!

 

Newport Boat Show is an "on-the-water" show

One of the mega-sailboats we saw in Newport

We toured this $4 million yacht, complete with a hot tub!!

So Tim, we NEED a washer and drier on our boat too!

Afterwards, we found time to tour the summer cottages of old in Newport, owned by people like the Vanderbilts… well, they were grand!  Much more cottage than we’re used to at home.

The Vanderbilt's summer "cottage"

Before leaving Long Island, we had to taste some of their famous wines.

wine tastings at Mattabella Vineyards! Thank you Christine and Mark for your great hospitality!

Most harbours are a wake-free zone, but some people don't comply...

Hurricane Jose was kicking up a fuss in the Atlantic Ocean well to the south of us, but threatening to move closer, so it is time to move on to a safer place.  We sailed north to the Connecticut River one day, then east to New Haven, opting for a turn to the south and a safe harbour of Port Jefferson. And we spent a day tearing down the boat to prepare for Hurricane Jose.

Arriving in Port Jefferson, NY

Karen talking to the kids with the Library's free Wi-Fi.

As we were preparing Vata for storm conditions, these swans came by to say hello. An Omen?

Everything stripped off the deck to reduce windage - and now we wait!

Maine - America's Lobster Capital

We entered the United States of America southwest of Grand Manan Island. We called in to US Customs and Border Protection and were informed our user fee decal was not the most convenient choice and that we should just get a Cruising Permit.  The officer was very helpful, and went beyond his job to accommodate us, and not require us to go against the tide to Lubec to pick the permit up.

We came into Cutler, Maine (funny after leaving the club near Cutler, Ontario 103 days ago), anchored and got ready to go into town for provisions, since we had no meat, fruits and vegetables in order to prepare for a clean entry into the States. We dinghied into town and asked some lobstermen where the supermarket was and they gave us blank stares. “The nearest one is a half hour drive away… but you can borrow my truck if you need to…keys are in it by the yellow house over there.” And they continued sorting lobsters on a storage pen with their boat tied alongside.  We declined the offer of his truck, and asked if we could buy a lobster. He gave us two, saying one isn’t enough. How much I asked? He said “no charge – welcome to Maine!”

The next morning we woke up to fog, intermittent showers and winds that we decided the best place for us is here. We dinghied into a nearby dock to walk to the library for their free Wi-Fi. We found a dock to leave the dinghy, and crates of lobsters were being loaded into a transport truck. Further up the dock, 2 boys were stuffing salted herring into little nets for bait balls to be used in the lobster traps. It was messy, very smelly, and oh the flies!  Do you remember some summer jobs you did as a kid? Anyway. The walk to the library was short, and the lady there arranged for her gransdson, the harbourmaster’s son to drive us to a nearby General Store where we could pick up a few things to tide us over until we found a bigger town.

Downtown Cutler, Maine

Currents not being as strong here, but still a friend if going in the same direction, we planned our departure from Cutler for one hour before slack high tide and set a course for Jonestown, Maine. We picked up a mooring there in the protected harbour, and it was quite an experience! It was a mooring with a floating dock, and we tied to the mooring and the dock and swung with the winds and tide. And the tide… went out to show a depth of 5’6”, and our boat needs 6’3” to float! Thy said we would set a bit in the mud, but it was soft. Timing of the low tide did not permit us to leave in the morning, as we were stuck in the mud, so we dinghied in to the floating dock to do some laundry while we waited for the water to come back in. We ran out of water short of the dock, an I jumped out (reluctantly) into 8” of sea mud and pulled Karen and the dinghy closer to the dock… but the dock was dry, so let’s just say it took some work and was messy.

While we were doing laundry we had WiFi, and we welcomed our new granddaughter Ginevra into the world, born on August 25, 2017!

We left Jonesport, Maine around 11 a.m., and headed for Southwest Harbour on Mount Desert Island. We sailed off-shore but the Maine lobster season never ends and the number of lobster floats we encountered made navigation very difficult. We eventually nailed a float and it fouled our propeller and the day was getting long and we were tired…. We made to Southwest Harbour and grabbed a rental mooring.  The high hills of Mount Desert Island made a beautiful backdrop to the scenic harbour.

In the morning, we dinghied into town and took advantage of the free island bus, thanks to sponsor LL Bean, and saw the sights of the island.  Hats off to LL Bean for their long-term financial support to keep cars off the roads and help the environment in this National Park.

We stopped at West Marine to pick up a chartbook, and prepared to leave the next morning by taking on fuel and water.

We moved southwestward to Vinalhaven Island’s Seal Cove for the night, and moving further to Rockland the next day. We were already out of fresh water, which really concerned us, as we had a leak and had to find it! Fortunately, Rockland had several marine stores, and we ordered a new hot water tank, the culprit of our fresh water leak.  The next day, after many frustrating hours, we had the new water heater installed. On August 31, 2017, we filled our water tanks to the brim, with fingers crossed, and left Rockport.

We sailed to Tenant Harbour in 20 to 27 knots, and all the stuff we had left around while waiting to check for further leaks got dumped on the salon floor.  We went into town to see what the local store had to offer and to stretch or legs, but much wasn’t to be had, other than lobster for $5.50 each.

Friday, September 1^st, was even windier, and we tucked into New Harbour’s Long Cove in a nice anchorage. Well so we thought… the swell came in and halyards were clanging in the mast all night, then the lobster boats started early and created more waves…. So, we left for Boothbay Harbor.

Boothbay is the most happening place between Rockland and Portland Maine!  You may be surprised, and so were we! It was a major tourist town with many hotels, a downtown shopping and restaurant area with scads of people.  What impressed us about Boothbay, was that they had a free trolley giving tours of the town, and we got dropped of at a grocery store and picked up 35 minutes later! Another amazing thing, was they had a free pump-out dock floating in the middle of the harbour, and in addition, the Harbormaster drove a pump-out boat in the morning and would visit your boat, for free, of course! Maine goes above and beyond to ensure their coastal waters remain clean!

We moved on to Harpswell Harbour, after a rough day sailing downwind in 3m waves with the remnants of the extra-tropical depression of hurricane Harvey, and the next day continued on to Biddeford, south of Cape Elizabeth, where we stayed two nights waiting for favourable winds.  We visited their sand flats at low tide, serviced our winches, and took advantage of the time to get caught up on several other jobs. With flat seas but several thunderstorms rolling through the day we moved south to Portsmouth Harbour, and anchored off Kittery Point. We would soon be leaving Maine, and her pesky lobster floats, having eaten our share of the critters ourselves!

A Kittery lobster dock

And as category 5 hurricane Irma blasts through the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean far to the south, we know we are moving away from some of the best hurricane hiding holes on the east coast, keeping a daily watch on the storms and their tracks northward.