New York & New Jersey

Day 220 to 225
2,493 Statutory Miles Covered

Leaving Oyster Bay, the weather report called for a great boating day on the Sound and a not so great boating day the following day. So we decided to head to NYC a day early. Checking the tide at Hell Gate sealed the deal when our ETA showed all was favorable- it was meant to be.

When we neared the East River, the current certainly was with us. Our knots quickly went from 8 to 10....it felt like Long Island Sound pulled the chain and maxing out at 14.2 knots "flushed" us into the East River. The GS was flying!!!

Staying in the city never gets old and we never tire of gazing on Manhattan especially at night-breathtaking. 

Left Manhattan at 4:45 am thinking we would take advantage of the ambient light of the city and do the Jersey Shore in one day. Other than the Verrazano bridge lights, the city lights actually made it hard to tell what lights were other boats and which ones were land as we made way. However our struggles and initial slow going was rewarded handsomely with one I'd the prettiest sunrises I've ever seen.

The ride down the coast was picture perfect blue skies, lots of visibility and almost flat water with a slightly favorable tide. 14 1/2 hours later, just as the sun was getting ready to set, we pulled into our slip at Canyon Club.

So, this leg of the trip, really has been about breaking GS records;  new speed record 14.2 kits; longest day underway 14.5 hrs. Maybe we should play the lotto. 14 seems to be a popular number. 

We learned a new nautical term in Cape May  WAFI 

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Island hopping

Day:   208 - 218
Statutory Miles Traveled:  2,230 

Nantucket

Well we made a last minute decision to hit Nantucket before heading south. We are so glad we did. What a great place (I know I say that a lot). We met up with "Meanders" and had such a good time strolling through town, touring Cisco Brewery and ending the day with a home cooked meal courtesy of Marty and Andy -which was over the top delicious btw.

Martha's Vineyard

Early morning departure on Thursday (6 am lines dropped) heading to Martha's Vineyard for a couple of days. We were treated to a gorgeous sunrise and smooth seas. There is such great boating in New England!  We will miss it for sure but are pretty excited to start our trip south, back to old friend

Pt. Judith, RI

Trip from M/V to PT Judith took about 7 hours  PT Judith is a commercial fishing village that is still very active today. Riding in through the breakwater and up into the harbor was pretty cool. It was like being in the "way back" machine, fishing boats tied up on one side of the inlet and on the other side kids and people on the pier fishing, swimming and enjoying their Labor Day weekend. It was so special to see young kids enjoying the "simple pleasures of life near the water" as they swam in the harbor and jumped off the docks & pylons. 

About a mile up the harbor we dropped anchor in a very quiet and picturesque Point Judith Pond, and rafted with Meanders for the night. Poured ourselves a nice cool beverage and began to plan our trek to Block Island. Sitting there, feet up we kept getting whiff of something that smelled really bad.  Turns out we all mentioned it individually, but then let it pass. After a bit, Mr. B figured we better see what was what and as we opened up our lazerette, we immediately found where the stink was coming from. It was us.  We'd had had a battery explode, which had been the source of a bang we heard the night before that we couldn't figure out and had chocked it off to a rogue "boat noise" and ignored it.  

Essex:

This cut our stay in PT Judith short as we headed to Essex boat yard for battery replacement. The good news is that it's a picture perfect day on the water and not too crazy busy even for the holiday weekend.

As it turns out this was a good decision, as the batteries were being replaced, we discovered that a battery #2 of 3 was getting ready to go; it would not have been good to have had an issue on an island and been down to 1 out of 3 house batteries. So, as we wait a few days for parts to come in, we now have a chance to visit "Mother Therese" and spend a few more nights in Hamburg Cove before leaving New England waters. If you look closely in some of the pictures, you can see the leaves starting to change.

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