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.