The transients move on

Coordinates the same

Atlantic Highlands

October 29,2015

Yesterday was fun even though we did the mundane most of the day.  It was a work day.

First thing in the morning was laundry, back to the boat, back into town with Sue, Paul, and Rob for lunch and grocery shopping. Part of the day that was fun included two characters that we met, one at the laundry mat and the waitress at the Zoe Vintage Kitchen. I use the word waitress because the theme of the restaurant was from the 50’s. Even though I was born in the 50’s, certainly what we had at home for kitchen furniture carried over into the 60’s. We had the Formica oval table with the chrome legs and the style of the chairs that I don’t have to describe because most of you know what they looked like.  The nut choppers, the green blender and the pretty aprons that only covered from the waist down was the theme. 

Back to talking about the waitress.  She had a dry sense of humor and was very good at her job.  She had a long beautiful gray braid down to her waist.

I was alone at the laundry mat for most of the time, actually I can’t say I was alone. The owner was quite funny. My time at both places was like a skit from The Carol Burnett Show, and all I could do was ad lib.  I won’t describe the entire two hours that started with him calling me a boat person, probably because of the back pack, and ended with him teaching me how to fold a bottom sheet. 

Rob and Paul walked 6.5 miles a lot of that looking for West Marine and not finding it.  Guess what they are doing today.

We finally were able to pick up CBS on the antenna from NYC either the Empire State Building or the Freedom Tower or any number of high places but this is not my point, the point is that we were able to watch the Patriots play the Dolphins.  It was not a great first half and it was on at 8:30pm, but we picked it up and I hope we will be able to pick it up again as we move south.

...and I thought I had nothing to say about yesterday.

October 30, 2015

Coordinates the same

Atlantic Highlands

We have been here since Tuesday waiting out the high seas and tomorrow we leave here for Barnegat, NJ.   The coordinates will be listed tomorrow, because one never knows where they will end up dropping anchor.

For those of you who wear make-up and use mascara, I want you to think about what happens to your application if you rock back and forth on  your feet and sway to and fro. Yup you have it in places that you didn’t intend, but I feels so good to get gussied up that it doesn’t really matter.

I spent most of the day in town and the others spent parts of their day there. Rob and I each have pedometers so we know how far we walk and I walked 6 miles and Rob walked 7.9.  I highly recommend any kind of pedometer except a complicated one to encourage walking and then patting yourself on the back.

Did I tell you that we can see NYC from our anchorage? Well we can.  It isn’t a great view but it is a pretty big deal to us.

Now I am just rambling, so I will say good night and hope you sleep tight.

Tricia

Sit down with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and enjoy my post

October 28, 2015

Coordinates: 40.41668N, 74.02140W

Atlantic Highlands, NJ

44.2 NM

5.5 hours

8.0 average kt.

I hate the wind!  We are anchored today instead of moored. The winds are very strong, the boat is being tossed around and there are white caps in the harbor where we are anchored.  The weather report says there will be gust of wind up to 40 miles per hour, so we are staying put today, tomorrow and Friday. The NJ coast will be 21 kt with gusts up to 29 kt and seas 7-9 feet. Rock and roll today.

I truly don’t know where to start because so much happened yesterday.  I can tell you that we started out at Playland Amusement Park in Rye, New York and from there we  traveled through Hell Gate Bridge and NYC before resting on an anchorage in NJ. We looked at the 54 pictures that Rob took with his phone and the 175 photos Rob took with my phone. It took a long time to go through them because we enjoyed reliving the day.

Fun Fact from Jim Brooks

The Playland Amusement Park is featured in the movie Big where Josh makes the wish on a fortune teller machine that turns him "big".   

I was beyond excited to be on the East River through NYC.  I can’t imagine the traffic through there during the prime sailing time, because it was really busy yesterday. I will choose the pictures of the bridges we went under carefully. The bridge I will enjoy showing you the most is the Hell Gate Bridge.  “ High tide slack water is just what you want--that is, unless you are looking for excitement to start your day!  You’ll also get to ride the falling tide down the East River and out the lower harbor.  As you pass under the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge, which was opened in 1892.  Finally, you will pass the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island just beyond Manhattan.” Description offered by Lenny Reich.

The day started with calm seas and following Sue and Paul. Because I had heard some dramatic stories about going through Hell Gate, I wanted to follow them closely without our auto pilot engaged.  Rob was at the helm early and needed a break, so he went below into the cabin to get a snack, big mistake, I took the helm.  I don’t know what happened. I guess I tried to follow Sue and Paul, but was a little off course headed toward an obstruction. I over corrected headed in a complete circle.  My cue to Rob is to stomp twice on the floor for general assistance or a question, but this time there wasn’t any gentle stomping.  Rob came to the flybridge from the cabin and asked me “what the heck are you doing”.  Remember Rob’s reactions are usually low key.  Well we got situated and continued our journey.  I really wanted to take the helm down the East River and somehow I was able to do it while Rob took the pictures.  The pictures don’t capture the feelings of the day, but still I do want you to see what we saw.

The trawler in the pictures is Sue and Paul’s. Keep in mind that our trawler is the same size.

The City

Hell Gate Bridge

Captain

In Honor of the FDNY

Empire State Building and Chrysler

We were there!

Fun! A Navy Ship makes a 36' trawler look like a bathtub toy

Ellis Island

With a lot of the Jews who left eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it wasn't so much their dreams of a new life that brought them to America as their fears of what would happen if they stayed where they were. Did you see "Fiddler on the Roof"? At the end of the show, those villagers were forced from their ancestral homeland by government-sanctioned violence, and many of them went to America. In fact, many thousands of Yiddish-speaking Jews fled northeastern Europe at that time and for that reason, most -- though not all -- landing on our shores.

They found freedom here, yes; but for the rest of their lives, most felt as if they were strangers in a strange land, clinging to their old ways in a rapidly evolving culture that made no sense. Many of them died young -- three of my four grandparents succumbed in their 50s. Their children (my parents) were caught between two worlds, the one their parents could not let go of and the one they met every day outside their door, and they wound up very conflicted people. Finally, with the second  and third generations born in America, the assimilation is complete, and a new story is underway.

My friend shared this with me and said that I could share it with you there isn't another story that tells the story any better.  

A security boat protects Lady Liberty

Isn't she beautiful!

Goodbye, goodbye New York

THAT WAS NEW YORK CITY!

It was a beautiful day and Hell Gate was heaven.  I so much thought of you while I was at the helm and wanted to tell you all about it and show you what I saw at the same time knowing that I could not really capture it for you.

No, no being a tour guide down the East River is not in my future but sitting down with a cup of coffee and telling you more could be in my future.

Tricia

NYC here we come

October 25, 2015

Coordinates 40.96163N, 73.67006W

Rye City, NY

Long Island Sound

83.5 nm, 9.75 hours, 8.56 average kts

Our day begins

We are presently sitting at an anchorage in Long Island Sound at a place called Playland.  It looks like a “closed for the winter” amusement park. I can’t imagine what it is like to get to this place in the summer!

Sitting in view of NYC just gives me the goosebumps I didn’t even know this was a possibility.  The trip from Stonington, CT. was good. The bus heater was on in the cabin and the day ended on the flybridge with the side window open.  Now there are spectacular views of the moon and mirror like waters surrounding the boat.  It is 71 degrees in the cabin and 60 degrees on the flybridge. Even so the bedtime dressing includes long johns.

One might wonder, what is this bus heater contraption? Just think about riding the school bus.  The one we have is in the cabin.  Heat is generated from one of the twin engines while they are running and is routed to the cabin with the bus heater.

I saw Manhattan as we continued in Long Island Sound and the absences of the Trade Towers stood out in my mind.  I thought of Sully Sullivan and his rescue of the plane in the Hudson River. I thought of my father who loved to take a boat ride on his pond on the night of the full moon and eat popcorn and drink tea, it was his piece of heaven.  I have my piece of heaven too.

I did knitting, and did my reading, I took pictures, communicated with friends and took a shower.  When you live on your boat using water to take a shower is an event.

My nephew had a great idea to save water while running it to get hot water for doing dishes, etc. Use a jug to save the cool water and then use that water boiling pasta or eggs, etc. Perfect!

Tomorrow if the plan is executed we will be traveling Hell Gate.  We have read and heard horror stories and as a result of that, felt it was a near impossible area to travel through NYC.  We have the best of the best captains leading us into the Hell Gate, so I think we will be okay.  The plan is to leave this anchorage at 8 heading for Hell Gate to time it so that we are there when the water is slack.  The tide needs to be high and not coming in or going out to make a smooth trip through a very narrow place.  I am not sure, but the information that scared me was mostly from sailors and we have a trawler.  I will let you know tomorrow what it is like in our trawler.

Another day is done.

Tricia

October 24, 2015

Coordinates 41.32967N, 71.91473W   Stonington, CT

We left Onset, MA at 7:00am and arrived in Stonington at 3:25pm after 68.6 nautical miles, 8.25 hours at an average of 8.31 knots.

It was a fair day on the water with dark skies and seas higher than predicted, but not bad.  We went through Buzzards Bay without incident.

Sue, Rob and I took a dinghy ride into Stonington and since it was late Saturday there wasn’t anything happening on the quaint downtown area.  However we met our goal of finding the self-service fish market. 

Sue and Rob found out about this place from Active Captain on Garmin Blue Chart Mobile.  Blue Chart is an application worth more than the $30 they charge. Both the Trues and the Myers have this program on their iPads.  Blue Chart is an invaluable navigational aid which is identical to USCG charts and can be sent via WIFI to our boat’s Garmin chart plotters.  Also on BC is Active Captain, a user created program with information about good anchorages, local food stores and services including water, harbor master, showers, trash bins, laundry, fuel, dockage, moorings, places to eat, and all is rated rated by people.  For instance if a certain town dock is helpful people will make comments to that affect. I can’t tell you all that this program gives to people travel the seas. It is a priceless aid.

We have a new anchor that works great.  Do you know what a snubber is? I didn’t either.  A snubber is a rope with a hook on one end, that you hook to the dropped anchor chain and secure to the boats cleat.  The purpose of the snubber is to release the pressure of the anchor chain from the bowsprit.  When the snubber is on, you will see a loop in the anchor chain.

Today’s breakage included a part of the forward head. It is nice that there are two heads, because everyone knows that two heads are better than one.  I apologize for that one.  Rob can fix it as soon as he gets the part.  I have learned that first a boat needs to be stocked with two of everything and the tools to fix that list of everything. If there is room after that, you can bring clothes.  

I made double fudge brownies in my oven yesterday and they came out perfect.  I had no idea I would be able to cook onboard.  Even though the boat is a 1992, no one had used the oven.  Tonight we are having Empanadas, also cooked in the oven.  

Here is a picture of my collapsable silicone tea kettle it works great.

I guess that is it for today. More tomorrow.  We will be traveling the length of Long Island Sound, I am very excited.

Tricia

Addendum:

It has creatively been pointed out that perhaps “self service fish market” needs more explanation.

A self service fish market is on the honor system. You put your money in to a slot, like a mail slot in a door, or swipe your credit card in order to pay for the fishing rod, bait and the use of their dinghy dock to catch fish native to Stonington.

...but the real truth is pictured here.  It is a fish market open 24 hours a day where you can buy fish that has been flash frozen on the fishing boats.  You can see the prices of the seaford listed.  We bought a pound of scallops and a tuna filet.

Liz thanks for asking me.

Sue and Tricia

Gloucester to Onset

October 21, 2015 written on the October 22, 2015

Coordinates 40.71399N, 70. 62785W. Onset, Massachusetts 

It was warmer on the 21st with 56 degrees in the cabin and I was down a couple of layers of clothing. South here we come. We were in the fly bridge most of the day except when it was raining and because there is still water proofing to be done, the rain was coming in. We navigated from the cabin until it stopped raining. You see it is much easier to see the lobster pots or any other hazard from the fly bridge. 

Well it works most of the time but...

We tangled a lobster pot in the propeller and because of Rob's quick thinking he put it in neutral. With Sue and Paul's help on the VFH radio Rob was able to free the pot from the propeller, a relief since Rob would have put on his wet suit and stepped into the water to fix it.  

It was 61.2 miles through Boston and Cape Cod Bay including the Cape Cod Canal  which was14 of those miles. The trip was very exciting for me not for the reason you might think. At the mouth of the canal we were first in line ahead of a barge. The barge and Rob had different ideas about who should go first. Really!  There wasn't any doubt in my mind nor the captain of the tugboat who should go first and there wasn't any persuading Rob that he should let the barge enter first. Rob pulled over and let the barge go first. I don't know how much of this is drama of the situation on my part but it makes a great story. 

BB (Big Barge)

If you click once on the photo I believe that it will enlarge the picture.

We anchored in Onset Harbor.  For dinner we had stir fry and since we have a few GB to use before the end of the billing period we splurged and watched Bones while eating.

October 22, 2015
We stayed put in Onset.  Today was a visit to the laundromat and explore the local town.  Everything is pretty much closed up for the season.  I did find a local yarn shop.  We try to walk anytime we have a chance and today we had plenty of time.
We played Tichu with Sue and Paul. Paul and I being the winners this time.

Speaking of Bones... There are so much that is different on the road.

I think that it is time to say good night!

Tricia

October 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st of 2015

I have missed writing and I am trying to figure out how to do my blog a little different.  I am still trying, but wanted to catch you up before any more time went by.

Coordinates  42.61198N, 70.65613W Little Harbor anchorage Portsmouth, ME,
On the 18th we didn't go any where because we were waiting for the weather to change making calmer seas.

October 19th we left Little Harbor for the Annisquam, MA it was a beautiful day.  When you get to the Annisquam and the Blynman canal you have to wait until the tide is almost high and the current carries you through.

October 19th started with 44 degrees inside and 33.1 outside.  I was lucky enough to stay in bed until  the generator heated up the cabin to 53.

First you will be very excited to hear that my long johns have been found.  Since the beginning of the trip their whereabouts have been unknown.  You already know that it has been very cold on route and without this wonderful layer of undies, it has been cold.  The long johns were packed with the bathing suits!  Don’t ask!

There were 41 turns in the Blynman Canal, if you ignore the color of the guided red and green markers you will go aground.

                                                 

There are pictures of bridges and bodies of water that stretch out ahead.  You may be interested in the first 20 bridges that you see and you might be interested in the  first 1000 bodies of water that you see on the blog but you will soon tire of seeing the bridges and the water so here is just a sampling to feast your eyes on and after this you will only see the very exceptional.

Today was one of those days on the “road”.  The sky was very blue and the seas were cooperative.  It was very exciting to see how the drawbridges work, by work I mean not just the mechanics but the logistics and human component.

The pictures can speak for the trip that ends in Gloucester Harbor.

Boat Hook mangled in last mooring pick up.  I was going to hold onto that mooring regardless and it almost was regardless.  This happened late on October 17th.

"Thy staff that comforts me...

Can you tell it was a cold day on the canal!

At the end of the canal was Gloucester, MA, once the largest fishing capitol of New England. Think about the book and movie "The Perfect Storm" and Linda Greenlaw.

Coordinates 42.61180N, 70.65591W

We spent the day in Gloucester, because once again the seas were not good to travel.

Here are a few pictures I thought you would enjoy.

We walked around Gloucester on the 20th, it looks kinda sad to me with fishing boats mostly docked with no jobs to be done.

I am going to sign off for today, I will let you know when we land in Onset, MA.  

Coordinates for Onset, this is a rough idea  41.74059N, 70.65764W.  I will let you know if that is the exact location for our trawler.

Tricia

Little Harbor

October 18, 2015

We did not travel today as predicted.  We met a 42’ Grand Banks, ours is 36’, trawler in Rockland and saw them enroute.  We knew they were headed to Portsmouth yesterday and even though the weather was not good today we saw them leave in the morning very early. Perhaps they feel safe traveling because their boat is so much larger than ours.  The owners live in Ontario and have lots of experience boating.  

It was 28 degrees when we got up this morning, but it was somewhat easier to get out of bed knowing we had warm whole wheat bread waiting.  Today was a traditional Sunday breakfast of bacon, eggs and bread, which was as good as it sounds.

We had a list of chores we wanted to do in the morning and it is 6pm and we are just sitting down for the evening.  Our drive was to hook up the antenna to get television and watch the Patriots play tonight at  8:30, mission accomplished!  We are disappointed that the antenna won’t pick up NBC here, CBS but no NBC.  We have not given up hope that in the next place we stop when the Pats are playing we will be able to get whichever station they are on.

I did install my indoor and outdoor thermometers today, so we can see how cold it is in the morning without looking online. You see it takes Gs to find out the weather online and you see data is precious when not on Wi-Fi.  It is an adjustment for me to be without endless Wi-Fi, so I have to figure out what is really important to me.  I don’t think there will be watching anymore Bones on Netflix for awhile and that I miss a lot now.  I would like to have some guide about data usage, so if anyone has a detailed list or guideline for this, please share.

Imagine sitting in your kitchen all the time and having tempting goodies to eat, well that is the story here.  You might tell me not to buy tempting goodies but that is harder than it sounds and lots of my friends know that. You see one must have chips with hot dogs, guacamole with the chips and hummus with other chips all before dinner happens.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to leave here and head to Gloucester, MA.  I am not looking forward to being in the open seas again after yesterday.  I will let you know how we make out.  Tuesday is predicted to be horrible traveling weather, so we may stay put on that day too.

Gloucester has all things mariners like.  Rob needs to pick something up for the boat.  I have learned from Rob that places like Hamilton Marine in Rockland are “toy” stores. I guess we all have toy stores they just sell shoes, stamping supplies, yarn, cooking supplies, and actual toys.

I only have one picture to share today and it is taken by our traveling friends.  No one wanted to travel to the other’s trawler by dinghy at least that is my take.

Thanks to friends a nice picture of Linda Jean.

If I have time to write, I will see you tomorrow.

Tricia

Sailors Take Warning

October 17, 2015

Goodbye Falmouth

Red sky at night sailors delight
Red sky in the morning sailors take warning

...almost a rainbow

That Ship Has Sailed!

October 16, 2015

Before we could leave Rockland there were chores such as fueling up, filling the water tanks, securing the dinghy.  I asked Rob for more to the details of the preparation, but he had deleted his "done" list.  I think one's done list should not be deleted for several reasons including credit on my blog.

Fueling

Filling water tanks

Eider at the Rockland Breakwater

Goodbye Rockland

I wanted to get this post out yesterday, but I was spent so you are getting old news but good news.

We are socializing this weekend with folks and I suspect we will be doing this the entire trip. Some with very good friends, some family and some complete strangers.  Something I have learned about cruising is that at the end of the day boaters like to have "cocktail" hour and we might get invited to join in.  It is important to know that you have to bring your own cocktail.  

We are in Falmouth on a mooring with a lot of other sail boats. I guess their season for sailing is longer than in Rockland, where most of the boats have been taken out.  

Our coordinates are 43.72835N, 70.20292W.

I have taken several pictures over the last two days ones that I know you will enjoy seeing.

Sunrise

Well, I really don't want another day to go by without sending out my news to you so I will say good night for now.

Tricia