Port Washington - Tuesday & Wednesday & Thursday & Friday & Saturday

Tuesday

Relaxing day. Later in the day took the dinghy over to the supermarket dinghy dock - Deidre bought some new sheets (we  are having visitors soon) and I wandered over to West Marine to buy some supplies to fix the fuel line problem. On the way back we stopped at the fuel dock and filled up two 5 gallon containers of gasoline. Heading back to Tide Hiker we discovered one of them had a leak so hightailed it back to the dock where I turned the container upside down and put some electrical tape over the crack. Returned 15 minutes later and transferred to fuel into a better container. That was the excitement for the day.

Wednesday

We have been having some issues with generator #2 since we bought the boat. I cannot "load it down" without throwing a breaker. I have had two "technicians" look at the issue over the last two years. But there is a certified "Northern Lights" dealer in the bay so we visited them today to get the problem investigated. After three hours of "trouble shooting" we have decided one of the breakers in the circuit (there are three before it hits the panel) was undersized and maybe even faulty. I assume we will return in the AM to get the replacement part installed.

If this works then we will finally be able to charge the batteries AND make a cup of coffee at the same time. Now that would be something! The dockmaster scalled and said we could stay at the dock for "free". (I will decide how free that is when I get the generator repair bill.) To celebrate we walked to a neighborhood Mexican joint and enjoyed a light dinner.

There was some good news on the canal. July 16 was even mentioned.

Thursday

Progress. We eventually found a serviceman, and for the "meager" sum of $410 the refig now seems to be working OK. The part for the gen has been found and will arrive Friday. We found a little woodwork shop in the neighborhood and dropped off the damaged cabinet door and it will be ready in the morning. And the honey boat paid us a visit so the tank is empty again! .I sanded and varnished the panel that was removed to gain access to the refrig. I will let it cure overnight and reistall in the AM. We are all feeling better.

Deidre walked up to the local shops and purchased new sheets - we are having visitors soon.

Friday

Deidre made pancakes for breakfast while I "watched" Collingwood and the cricket. After breakfast I picked up the repaired cabinet door. Deidre and I washed the aft deck screens with detergent and Chlorox and reassembled them. I spent some time polishing stainless. Deidre filled the water tanks. The Captain from the 135' Hataras came over for a chat. The people in the Northavn "next door" invited us in for a drink at 5PM.

But the part did not arrive! Turns out it was not sent overnight but UPS ground. We decided to have the old one re-installed on Saturday so we could leave, and have the new part FedEx-ed to us up north "somewhere".  We had planned to leave early to catch the tide Saturday. Now we are delayed a day before we even start. Bummer.

Saturday

We were thinking that if we could leave by 12:30 PM we could catch the afternoon tide and make it up to  our target anchorage by dark. But Oscar did not turn up till about 11 AM and the he really seemed to mess around re-installing the old breaker.  He is a nice guy and I did not want to make a big fuss, but at $125 an hour.....

Oscar

"Oscar" he was finished at about 2:00 PM and I called the Dockmaster to get the invoice. All the time I was preparing for battle, but that turned out to be unnecessary. Oscar had only turned in one hour for his work today and then the Dockmaster discounted the rest of a bill - plus we had stayed at their slip for 3 nights. So although it was basically all a waste of time, they had treated us well. I was relieved.

We backed out of the slip and moved to a mooring ball and enjoyed a relaxing evening.

Port Washington - Monday

Monday July 8, 2013

Today we went into Manhattan for the day.

Ahh... A real newspaper

I got up at 7 AM and started the generator to run up the batteries because we expected to be away all day. The water taxi picked us up at 8:30 PM and the batteries were at 83%. We walked up to the Port Washington Long Island Railroad station and caught the 9:11 AM express to Penn Station.

Our only agenda was to eat our way around the city. We walked over to Times Square from Penn Station and checked into the "Brooklyn Diner" for a light "second breakfast". Table cloths and waiters in formal gear and real coffee. Not what we had expected, but nice.

We then walked over to Grand Central Terminal. We were thinking about buying a NY Times, finding a table and enjoying a cup off coffee. It was not to be, just too busy, so after taking in the crowds we found the subway and headed down town to the old World Trade Center area. We had seen the new "Freedom Tower" from the water but wanted to see how the ground level was being developed and if the surrounding buildings had been repaired or town down.

Grand Central Terminal

There was not much to see - its still a construction site and the area was super busy. We grabbed a drink and a danish and headed back to the subway.

Not more stairs!!!

We were looking for a fun place for late lunch so we headed up the "C" train to the upper west side, alighting at the natural History Museum (W81st) and walked over to Columbus and found an open air restaurant. Lunch was good, but hot and noisy. We were both a bit worn and Deidre's ankle was doing its thing. So back in the subway to Penn Station and the 4:11 express to Port Washington. We were back on the boat by 6PM.

We were both impressed with Manhattan. So much cleaner and better organized than when we lived there in 1976. My goodness there are a lot of people on that island.

Port Washington - Sunday

Sunday July 7, 2013

Woke up to our first real day of summer - sunny, warm and a nice breeze. Deidre made me an omelet for breakfast and I set myself up with a good cup of coffee on the aft deck. Bliss. About 10 AM decided to hit the jon and have a shower. Stepped out of the shower into 1/2" of water. The bloody head had overflowed again. (This is the third time in 15 months)

Stark bloody naked and fresh and clean I reluctantly spring into action. Stop the flow, get the wet and dry vac and suck up the water, remove all the carpet and mats and haul them to the forward deck, wipe down the floors, (get dressed) scrub the carpet on the deck with Pineoclean, rinse with precious fresh water and hang mats and carpet out to dry on the rail. Meanwhile Deidre washed the floor with Chlorox. Now we are both a sweaty mess. Boating is fun! :)

It gets better. Deidre has always said "The boat is fun, but just living is harder". PW is a boat friendly place so living here has to be easier. For example the super market has its own dinghy dock, and I was looking forward to a pleasant shopping expedition. We launched the dinghy like experts and off we went. The shopping was satisfactory and we enjoyed a sit down and coffee at Starbucks. Bliss returned.

Relaxation melted away when the dinghy engine spluttered and died halfway back to the boat. We grabbed the paddles and headed for a nearby marina and managed to find a hand hold. (I was thinking "There goes the frozen and refrigerated groceries!") Meantime I could smell gas so my trouble-shooting had a head start. Sure enough, part of the fuel line had split. There was a person on a yacht nearby so I begged a couple of tools and jury rigged the line and the engine started. Phew. 

We headed off and had made it another 200 yards or so and some idiot in a power boat passed us throwing a 2 foot wake. Well our dinghy has about 1 foot of free-board, and so the top 1 foot of the wave came straight over the side. Deidre was 100% soaked, the boat was 4" deep in water and the Doritos were floating. Bloody hell. I did not have a chance to berate the idiot as I was occupied pumping the water out and rescuing the groceries.

All back safe and sound now. We bought a NY Times so I plan to relax with the paper.

Port Washington

Saturday July 6

It seems we are not going to get any news about the Erie canal situation until Monday (and we may not get any then!). What to do? We could sit where we were at Sandy Hook, we could start up the Hudson and hope for the best or we could head thru the city to Port Washington in Long Island Sound. At PW we could take a ball, restock the larder, and/or take the train into Manhattan. The weather was not a factor, it looked like a really pleasant day.

New World Trace Center on the left

We decided PW. But there was no need to leave until Midday because of the tides, so we took it easy for the morning. Just as we were thinking about leaving we had visitors from a boat called "Blue Dog". They had noticed Tide Hiker in a bunch of places and thought we sounded "well mannered" on the radio and decided to pay us a call. It was fun and they stayed for a couple of hours.





So we pulled up anchor a bit late, but in a good cause. We could not approach the East River till about 4:30PM and we were "right in the action" by 3 PM. The Statue reopened this weekend after

being closed since Sandy, and was very crowded. There was lots of traffic on the water.

On the way up the harbor I called Dick Parsanko who I knew to be vacationing in NYC this weekend, before taking a cruise to Bermuda. Dick told me that they had decided to take a Circle Line cruise at 4 PM. So we headed up the Hudson to intercept him. As it turned out, we saw them on three separate occaisons on the water. Amazing.

We were on the East River at 4:30PM and enjoyed a fast ride into the Long Island Sound, past our old home on Roservelt Island. Tide Hiker was secured to a ball in PW by 6:30 PM.

There is Dick in the blue shirt with his hands in the air

Cruise ship leaving

I once went to work on that thing

Sandy Hook, NY

Friday July 5, 2013
40 26.490 N
73 59.831 W

Up at 5:15 AM and underway at 5:40 AM. We are getting good at early starts. We don't talk much, we just stumble thru our jobs and get underway. We were up late watching the fireworks last night so getting up early was a bit of a drag. (On the other hand, the Collingwood game was still underway so I enjoyed watching the live scores for the last quarter.)

"Deidre! There is a boat in front of us! Can you see it?

The morning was fine if a bit on the foggy side. The wind was still coming out of the South and there was a 3' to 4' swell. We had to head South into the swells as we came out of the shipping channel and it was a bit uncomfortable, but once we turned East and then progressively North the boat settled down well. We seemed to get a small push all day and finished the 83 NM in under 12 hours.

We made the turn around Sandy Hook at about 4:30 PM and made our way to the anchorage in Horseshoe Cove. Its a good anchorage except that a high speed ferry passes about every half an hour about 2 miles away, and 15 minutes or so later we roll around like balls in a bucket.

There it is! Turn to port!

We enjoyed a beer on the aft deck as the sun fell. After dark there was another fireworks display to our North and we enjoyed that. Then I found "Foyles War" on Public TV so we were happy campers.

We still have a problem re the Erie canal. As an interim plan we will motor into the upper harbor tomorrow and see if there is room to anchor near the Statue of Liberty. Its the July 4 long weekend, so finding room is a bit of a long shot. If there is no room at the inn, we will head up the East Rive on the tide and spend the night on a mooring ball in Port Washington.

Sunset, Sandy Hook

Brigantine Bay Anchorage

July 2, 2013
39 23.238 N
74 24.544 W

We both slept like logs last night and were not up and functioning till after nine. After attending to a few duties (washing the sheets and getting them into the dryer, filling the water tanks, tidying up the lazarette after a couple of boxes had fallen over, vacuuming and etc) we headed out for blueberry pancake breakfast.

The harbormaster was a nice guy and he came over to let us go at 2PM. The wind was back up again. (I wish I had a weather station. I can only guess at the wind strength. But it must be 20-30 kts) First we headed over to the Golden Nugget marina for a pump out, then over to an anchorage on the other side of the entrance. Took us two tries to get the anchor set (And I am still not totally convinced) The wind is still very strong. We are just going to have to wait this weather out. I hope Deidre has enough books.

Bright lights of Atlantic City from the anchorage

Now Wednesday morning: The wind went down with the sun and we had a restful nights sleep. The weather forecast is holding up OK for Thursday, July 4, although it was very foggy this (Wednesday) morning and that would mean a hassle getting out of this anchorage - it has a narrow entrance and there is all sorts of dredging equipment staged right in the way.

We only have a few of neighbors in the anchorage - two trawlers and one yacht. We talked to the trawler and followed them in yesterday. I assume we will all be leaving Thursday.

Now Wednesday night. The wind has not let up all day. The forecast for tomorrow is still OK, but the wind will need to drop before we pull up the anchor in the morning. I got lots of good admin done today, so not a wasted day..

A new potential problem is developing. The Erie Canal has been closed for ten days because of flood damage. The New York Barge Canal Authority is not saying when it will open, just that it is closed, in typical Government style. If all goes on schedule we will be at the east end of the canal in 5 days.

Thursday Morning: Thank heavens, the wind is down and the sun is out. The anchor can have a well earned rest. We have decided to stay another night because:
1. Erie Canal is closed for now so there is no hurry
2. The weather actually looks a bit better Friday
3. Now the wind is down we can launch the dinghy and have a look around, and do some shopping
4. There will be a big fire works show tonight and Deidre loves fire works.

Locals fishing with a net
Reminds me of photos from Asia

Thursday Night: Quite a few boats anchored in the bay to watch the fireworks.

Five sail boats rafted together. They did not invite us!

Atlantic City

Monday July 1st, 2013
39 22.598 N 
74 25.263 W

Tough day. We did not get to Atlantic City until 8 PM and we are really tired. The conditions were difficult most of the day but our plan worked well. We "only" ran aground once but I fear it was on rocks or a rock shelf and it did not sound nice. As soon as conditions allow I will dive under the boat and see what damage I did. One other time I felt the boat hit something although we still had water under us. Bottom line is that we had to be 100% alert for 8 hours in poor conditions and it was not much fun. At one point the rain hit us so hard we could not see the bow.

Waterfront living, NJ style

The waterfront real estate in NJ is quite different from Florida. Not mansions with sweeping lawns down to the water, but clapboard houses squeezed together and right over the water with runabouts in docks. There were hundreds of runabouts and wave runners.  The cold wet weather was probably a blessing keeping them all off the water.

The ICW coming through Atlantic City almost looked European (if you squinted your eyes and tightened your sphincter) because the canal was quite narrow with houses jammed together on the water. There were a lot of bridges, and they slowed us down. At one spot we saw black kids playing cricket in a park alongside the ICW.! (Jamaicans I assume). We also saw what we assumed was damage from Sandy.

Governor Christie must have stood on this deck!

Realizing we would be tired and arriving late I reserved a spot at a marina. But the staff left at 6 PM so we had to secure ourselves. The marina was just inside the entrance and the wind off the Atlantic was blowing so hard. Tide Hiker was leaning over 10 degrees when the wind was abeam. When I went up to the bridge to dock the boat my hat blew off.

Often there are some other boaters around who can take a line, but not this time. In this situation, I drive the boat, Deidre either lassos a cleat, or steps off onto the dock with a line when we are close enough. As I maneuver the boat she calls at the top of her lungs "5 feet" then "3 feet" then "2 feet". Fortunately the wind was right on our bow so approaching the dock was easy enough.

Deidre has just put a frozen pizza in the oven and its starting to smell great. Then its bed.

Another bloody bridge in AC