iPhonerratta

The Cloisters, not Covent Garden. Desserts galore, no desert. Never to sidestep the editor again.

Under sail at 5.3 knots on a beam reach toward Block Island Sound. And it's only 9:00 AM.

Leaving New York

Good morning from Greensport. We are anchored off Horton Lane Beach about 400 yards from shore on the eastern end of Long Island. After eight days in NYC we had no real travel plan except to get in to Long Island Sound. Dead flat sea and no wind had us motor past Oyster Bay, past Port Jefferson, past Mattituck Inlet and finally to here as the sun set at 7:55.

NYC is a new must stop destination for us. We had a great time. Ali moved aboard for the duration. Charlie flew up for the weekend. And Katie, Kyle and Judy just happened to be in town for a show. Dinner at Maze at the London Hotel was an event to be remembered. The kitchen selected the menu, the food was outstanding, the staff exceptional. What a great treat.

But finally meeting Judy was the highlight. It was like a meeting of old friends.

All this in addition to Covent Gardens, the Museum of Natural History, a couple of Shake Shack attacks, lunch at Momofuko, desert at Milk Bar, walks on the Highline and Ali's Sundowners Party aboard. We took an extra day to rest.

While the 79th Street Boat Basin is not pretty (or well maintained, or the least bit helpful), it is in a great neighborhood, close to shopping, restaurants, easy transportation and the rest of the city. We came in at low tide (bad idea - never again) and left on a high tide (quite easy). The quantum physics part is being able to leave 79th Street at high tide, run eight miles down river to the Battery, and then run eight miles up the East River to hit the high tide at Hell Gate. We calculated a 7:00 high at 79th Street and a 9:14 high at Hell Gate. This gave us a 2 hour 14 minute window to run 16
miles. Unfortunately we were 20 minutes late leaving 79th Street and a resulting 30 minutes late at the Gate. Speeds of 8.2 in the Hudson and 6.2 in the East River dropped to 2.2 at Hell Gate. The Catalina 38 we passed did only one knot through Hell Gate. But with an early morning start we put in a twelve hour day to Greensport. A great start for what is now a short hop to Block Island. We think.

Today we sail (closer to) home.

Here we go again....

We left ENDURANCE in Baltimore on May 8 after having been aboard since November 16, 2010 when we picked her up in New Bern and headed South again. Baltimore was our agreed upon end of The Bahamas Adventure. Tess was to write a wrap-up blog entry and close out the trip there since we had first left Baltimore on or about May 1, 2010. Did you see that blog entry? Neither did I. I guess this is the trip that Tess won't let come to am end.

Over the past 15 months we have spent all but three on the boat and moving. We can blame the Slater clan mostly (Alyssa & Dave's wedding last September and this June's Slater/Ericson family holiday with the twins to Iceland and Sweden - should we be complaining?). After sixteen weeks in the Bahamas we have nothing to complain about. But we are likely ruined for domestic life in shore.

Now, Saturday July 30, we are six miles off the Jersey Shore headed to Sandy Hook. Then a week in the Big Apple before heading to Maine for the rest of the Summer. This can't last forever, can it? Tess? Tess?

April 17 - April 28, 2011

The quiet times……sometimes we leave posts unwritten because we’re having such a good time that we feel terrible verifying the reality exceeds the dream.  Sometimes we leave posts unwritten because we have no internet connection; sometimes we’re waiting for input; sometimes, most often in fact, the silent gaps in our postings are because we are in the “drudgery mode” of the trip. 

This past eleven days have been days of mostly just work….anchor up by 7:00 am, means Tony’s up and checking in at the office and with the weather bureaus and checking all the boat systems long before first light.  We have moved the boat through miles and miles of territory we saw for the first time just a few months ago (but it was colder then).  We’ve had a few delays for weather, and we’ve been exceedingly lucky and/or smart in our choices to delay, hold still, or speed up.  We’ve been on the edge of some harrowing systems, but we’ve been only on the edge of those systems.

Scott's Eggshell Scrimshaw - Bahamas 2010/2011

Our biggest highlight over this past stretch was Easter, spent in Portsmouth, VA with Messenger and Georgia-E.  Tony and I split off from them just before the last storm (4/16).  We left Wrightsville Beach and ran some long, long days covering 96 miles in one run.  Those days were spent with a schedule of early up and out, then one hour shifts hand steering through the mind-numbing tedium of the ICW.  We finally came to the last stretch making it through 4 bridges and a lock with precision timing, to pull in to the Tidewater Marina at Mile Marker “0”!!! And there we sat.  And got off the boat to see if our legs still worked.  And, went to bed later than 8:30 and slept later than 6:00!! We had a BLAST in Portsmouth, VA;)  Messenger and Georgia-E pulled in on Holy Saturday after their similar, exhausting run.  Never daunted, Lisa had Easter “in the bag”.

Endurance & Georgia E in Eggshell

After quick showers and reconnaissance, Messenger has all three boats off for a lovely dinner-theater event that night to see “The Conspirator” at the local dinner/movie venue.  We closed the night with just the Captains and First Mates off to the local Irish Whiskey Bar “Still” to enjoy some of the best imports to be found in liquid form.  At first light Messenger has already had an egg hunt and baskets, and at 11:30 the three boats were sitting down to a lovely Easter brunch on the docks with sun-shading Easter bonnets and Ray-Bans feasting on Messenger’s ham and ‘sunshine salad’, Georgia-E’s mashed potatoes, Endurance’s coleslaw and watermelon and (later) a burned but edible Pineapple Upside-down Cake.  If you can’t be with the ones you love, love the ones you’re with – and we do.

The light air sail flies as we head North on the Chesapeake

All three boats left Easter Monday and are now in the upper Chesapeake; Georgia-E spun off yesterday for a quick tour of St. Michael’s, while Messenger and we are in Annapolis; we’ll wait out the rest of today for this nasty storm front to pass, and then to Baltimore, tomorrow.  Baltimore – home away from home for us.  We simply cannot wait.

That's over!!

Yikes!!  Sustained winds of 37 with gusts to 57!!  Four foot waves in the anchorage.  Ninety minutes of "Yikes!".  Can we sleep now?  Get on with our trip?  At 9:15 p.m. we have a steady 11 to 12.  Radar shows it all out to sea; trailing all the way down to Charleston.  The sun will be out tomorrow.  We'll have sun.  And we're headed Home....

Proof of our journey...

 Our fine feathered friend.

Georgia E under sail in the Gulf Stream!

Home, but under quarantine.

 

           


 The Big Blue!!!  And the Little Blue.

For this we come home?

Tornados?  What a welcome home!

Trip to Georgetown (South Carolina, not Great Exuma - unfortunately), was uneventful and fish-less. George and I had spent several hours at Hadley Creek Tackle Shop in Charleston "gearing up" for a few days of South Carolina coastal fishing. Spinning rods and tackle and ten day licenses, but, as they say, "we was skunked". We did spend a pleasant night anchored at Harbor River and saw them jumping. Likely moving too fast on the ICW for either trolling or casting this light gear. It ain't the ocean, my friends.

Rained on and off (mostly off) as we made it to Georgetown. A pretty little town that was once the rice and timber capital of (and thus, the third largest city in) South Carolina. Harborwalk Marina looked brand, spanking new and we had a delightful walk in town checking out the historic markers and great buildings. George Washington actually did sleep here.

Prior to our afternoon naps, beer and fried oysters at Buzz's Roost reminded us of the Cruisers' Life we recently left in the Bahamas. Sitting at a bar at 3:00 in the afternoon will be surely missed.

George subsequently managed to catch two catfish off the boat. Technically, they were Gafftopsail or Schooner-Rig Catfish; what George calls Ocean Blue Catfish back in Florida. The first one could have fed a family of six, the second a family of four. But, not in South Carolina. Immediate release required. Dinner at the River Bend Restaurant, resulted.

Next morning we were off to Charleston International Airport in an Enterprise rental car to send George back home. A great trip. Great crew. Great fun.

And now, we are headed Home. Up the ICW on Thursday to the Calabash River off Little River Inlet on the South Carolina-North Carolina border. Next morning, we are in North Carolina and South Carolina is $11 richer without having given up any of her fin-fish resources to Endurance.

Now, in North Carolina, they actually throw fish at you. As we left the Cape Fear River through Snow's Cut, we turned back North on the ICW at Carolina Beach Inlet. When we came through here last Fall, the shore was lined with fishermen. Same, this time through. I don't know if it was a South Carolina fish that chased us clear through to these foreign waters, or a North Carolina fish that just felt bad for us, but as we made the turn, a three foot fish hits the side of the boat, jumps as high as the lifelines and almost lands in the cockpit. If the enclosure window was rolled up (battened down against this Northern cold wind), we would have either had him for dinner or heard him laughing at us. In any event, as close as we have come to successful fishing in U.S. waters.

A long day to Wrightsville Beach put us in their great little anchorage with a nice dinghy dock at Wynn Park. Walked to the Post Office and the Beach. The place is jam-packed with young co-eds working on their early season tans and social lives.

Our travel plans, though, are thwarted for Saturday. The front moving through on Saturday promised rain which would require us to get really wet as we waited for the next four "timed" bridges on this next part of the ICW. Then,  NOAA issues a Severe Weather Alert for potentially damaging winds. Then several of the bridges close to openings due to high winds. Then NOAA upgrades it's Alert to a Tornado Watch (till 9:00 tonight). And the Coast Guard says there are six to nine foot waves in Bogue Inlet.

We're staying put. As of 5:00 p.m. still no rain, but "blowing stink". We'll either be on our way at 0630 tomorrow (to catch the first bridge opening at 0700), or you’ll hear about us on the news.

In either case, we are headed Home.