Long Island Sound and New York City

We departed Boston energized by friends, music, a restocked fridge, clean clothes and a good rest; however, time was marching forward and we had a firm date for New York. To complicate matters further, Hurricane Fiona was traveling up the Atlantic on her way the Canadian Maritimes. Although we were not in her direct path, she was a huge storm that affected sea and wind conditions outside of her official boundaries and was a very real reminder that we were in the Atlantic during hurricane season. Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and we are relieved that our friends living in these areas were relatively unscathed, but our hearts break for the communities of Port aux Basques and Burgeo, places we’ve recently visited, that were devastated by the hurricane.

Leaving Boston, we had the best sailing day this season – 15-20 knot offshore breeze, beam reach and flat seas – it doesn’t get better than this! We landed at the Plymouth Yacht Club and ventured out to see the famous Plymouth Rock and Mayflower. As many fabled things, the rock was a bit of a disappointment.

Tradition tells us the first Pilgrims stepped upon this rock when they arrived in 1620 after nearly 2 months at sea; however, the rock does not appear in documents until 1741, more than 120 years later. Since then the rock has been moved several times, cut in half, put back together and eventually displayed in a portico in Plymouth Harbor. No matter the real history, Plymouth Rock will always symbolize stability, permanence and the birth of a nation.

As we traveled south along the New England coast, the sea-side homes seemed to get bigger and bigger, some cannot even be called mansions anymore, perhaps small castles would be more appropriate. We stopped near Newport, Rhode Island and Mystic Connecticut, opting to anchor when we could as the tides were getting smaller and the marinas continued to be very expensive. We also had to keep moving as the calendar was still ticking forward; however, we did stop in two lovely towns, Clinton and New Haven, CT, to sit out some strong winds and waves that Fiona stirred-up as she headed north.

If a few days prior we had our best sailing day of the season, the next two days served up some of the most challenging sailing of the season. The forecasted offshore breeze of 15-20 knots was amped up to 25-30 knots of sustained wind, causing a significant heel with a screaming 7+ knots of speed. This sailing is not for the inexperienced nor feint-hearted sailor, but we know our Meshuggana can handle it and as long as Captain Allen is smiling, I’m not panicking. These were two exhilarating and tense days on the water, but we ended each day with the satisfaction of knowing we could handle it and actually have some fun with the challenge.

One of the rough days offered us an unexpected, lovely surprise. As we left Clinton, CT and were hit with wind and seas much bigger than expected, so we shortened our day by a few hours by pulling into New Haven, Connecticut rather than continuing to our original destination. We normally do some research before choosing a port, but sometimes you must go where the wind takes you. We arrived in the harbour, picked up a mooring ball at the yacht club and thought about having dinner at club and spending the evening watching Netflix aboard the boat. It was only after we checked in at the club that we realized we were in the home of Yale University, one of the most beautiful university campuses in the country. Our plans quickly changed – we walked the magnificent campus for hours, marveling at the amazing architecture, enjoyed happy hour cocktails and even went to a movie. It was a fabulous day!

As Long Island Sound narrowed, we pulled into Oyster Bay and took a mooring ball at the swanky Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club. We didn’t know it at the time, but this club is located on the exclusive Central Island in Oyster Bay, and is surrounded by New York’s rich & famous (rumour has it that Billy Joel lives here). It turns out the only guest boats this club allows are members of reciprocal yacht clubs, and our Royal Newfoundland YC membership got us in. We didn’t have much time to take-in our fancy surroundings (and Allen did not have the jacket and tie required after 5pm), but were picked up by dear friends/family, Ilze and Joe, and enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the town of Oyster Bay.

Another hi-light was coming up – sailing down the East River into New York City Harbour! The day was overcast, but I was still stoked to see the NY sights from the East River. As we neared the end of Long Island Sound our VHF squawked a pan-pan alert that there was a boat on fire near Sandy Point – exactly where we were at that moment. Looking around, we saw nothing unusual, but within minutes several NYPD and NYFD boats went flying past us to a small motorboat about 1 mile off our beam. We watched and saw nothing and after a few minutes the emergency was called off – there was no fire, just someone power-washing their boat.

The trip down the river did not disappoint. We sailed under several suspension bridges, including the Williamsburg and Brooklyn Bridges. We passed LaGuardia’s runways running along the water and watched jets landing just over us. We passed Rikers Island, the location of one of the world’s largest corrections institutions, operated by NYC Department of Corrections, as well as the Vernon C. Bain prison barge. The East River’s crazy currents carried us quickly downstream past the United Nations and many more New York landmarks.

We finally reached our destination, One 15 Marina in Brooklyn, the most expensive marina we’ve ever used, surrounded by mega-yachts, but with a perfect view of the magnificent Manhattan skyline, and close to Allen’s daughter, Leslie and her husband Jay.

Our stay in Brooklyn was short, but sweet. We had a visit from Martins, a Latvian high school friend, with his wife Sarah and their sons, then dinner with Leslie at the famous Grimaldi’s Pizzeria near the Brooklyn Bridge. The following morning, we departed the marina, crossed the harbour for our own, personal tour of the Statue of Liberty before dropping the anchor about 200 yards east of Ellis Island. We spent our last night in New York sitting in this lovely (and free) anchorage, rolling with currents and wakes from passing boats and watched the lights of Manhattan illuminate the sky – the perfect ending to a New York City weekend.

The calendar was still moving forward and we didn’t time to dally. The next big milestone stop was Annapolis, Maryland for the sailboat show; however, we were still hundreds of miles away and again there was a monster looming – Hurricane Ian. He was marching through the Carribean and aiming at Florida and while not projected to be a direct hit on us, he would still stir-up dangerous seas and gale-force winds in New England. We turned our bow south and went as quickly as we could to safety, a hurricane hole – The Chesapeake.