New York City

Here we are crossing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which connects Staten Island to Brooklyn.  It is 649 feet high!!  It is the gateway to New York Harbor - separating the upper bay and lower bay.  Never in a million years did I think that we would be entering New York Harbor in our own boat.

 Sailing past the Statue of Liberty.  We thought it would be really scary in New York Harbor - busy with all the BIG boat traffic, ferries etc...  But the reality was that it is large and as you can see folks are just out there sailing their boats!

 Lady Liberty standing so proud out in the Harbor.  They will actually let you anchor your boat right by her.  Pretty neat.

 Gotta love NYC - beautiful skyscrapers and a church right in the middle!  

 Love the reflections in the buildings.

We walked around Greenwich Village for awhile.  It was so hot that day - 93 degrees.  New Yorkers have to cool off any way they can - the water fountain doubles as a swimming pool for the little ones.

 Love the mix of old and new.

 One of the coolest buildings I have ever seen.

On the way to NYC

May 16, 2017

Finally, finally, finally we were able to leave Cape May, New Jersey.  The weather just has not cooperated for this trip.  But here we are on the way to NYC and you can see from the photo that the seas are pretty calm.

 This is Atlantic City as we are passing by.  They say when you pass by at night you can see the city lit up for miles and miles.  

 Some folks are working on the sea - not just playing like us.  

 This is a common site up here.  A tugboat towing a barge.  They are so far apart that you wouldn't know that barge is being towed but you would find out in a hurry if you were foolish enough to go between them.  Of course, they would not let you.  The tug operator would be calling you on the radio pretty quickly.  Down the rivers in our part of the world the barges are pushed by a towboat rather than pulled.  Not so here.

NYC popping up out of the haze. NYC seems to be encapsulated in a brown haze - so evident from a distance in the water.  Will stay in NYC a bit and enjoy what the city has to offer.

Ocean Critters

 As we were sailing from Norfolk to Cape May about 5 miles or so off the coast we saw this flipper coming out of the water.  At first we thought it was a fish jumping out of the water and then we realized it was a Right Whale playing!  They are endangered creatures and tend to stay fairly close to the coast.  Very docile - but I have read that even if they know you are there they won't move.  Up around Cape Cod they have specific routes you have to follow during their migration times - which is now.  If you stay in those areas you are less likely to get too close to them.  And that is a good thing as they are massive.

Whale

 

Dolphins

 At one point we had dolphins on one side of the boat and whales on the other.  Pretty darn cool!

Cape May

 This is the view from our cockpit.  We made an overnight passage from Norfolk, Virginia to Cape May, New Jersey.  Here we are at the South Jersey Marina.  We have actually been here a few days now as we are stuck once again!  Every night the wind reaches gale force and today it is howling and coming from the wrong direction!  So here we sit - waiting for the wind to change directions.  Cape May is a very nice little seaside resort community. The whole town is on the National Historic Registry due to the many, many Victorian homes. 

South Jersey Marina

  

Harbor View

Beautiful Homes overlooking the Atlantic

Interesting architecture

Fire Department!!

 

 

 

Physick Mansion - Victorian House Museum

Sunset Beach - Cape May NJ

Cape May Lighthouse

Atlantus

During WWI there was a shortage of steel so the US tried using "concrete ships" - Atlantus was one of 12 ships built.  She was towed to Cape May with the intent of using her as a Ferry after the war.  But she ran aground and here are her remains.

 A second war artifact is this WWII watch tower - also near Sunset Beach.  This is actually the last remaining WWII tower.  It was part of the massive harbor defense of the Delaware Bay.  There were once 15 towers that helped to aim the coastal artillery at the German subs.  Pretty awesome place!  Love the history.

Norfolk, Virginia- Home of the World's Largest Naval Base

 Finally, the water receded enough that the swing bridges would open and we could fit under the fixed bridge!!  The ICW takes you right through the Naval Shipyard.  The Naval shipyard is huge and right across the river is huge commercial shipping yard.  Massive ships go in that harbor.  

Coming in you have to go under a series of bridges.  The first is a combination railroad bridge and then a lift bridge right behind it.  These waters are very heavily patrolled.  You can see the Coast Guard boat coming under the bridge.  

Needless to say the Naval shipyard has been around for a long, long time.

There is also a heavy commercial presence - this is just a small sampling of the containers and cranes to lift them onto the container ships that come in and out of this port.

 As we were heading out of Norfolk we were following a "warship" - there was an aircraft carrier out there also as we heard them all talking on the radio.  

 We had a slip all the way out at the harbor entrance so as to position ourselves for an outside run to Cape May, NJ.  We saw this in the water and not knowing what it was decided to stay away from it.  Michael radioed the ship that was coming the opposite direction to notify him of our intention and he said "that is a submerged pipeline and I am heading to it."  

 And so this is the boat heading to the pipeline - you can see where he latches on to suck oil out of the pipe.

 The marina we stayed at before our run on the outside was in Little Creek which is the major operating base for the Amphibious Forces in the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet.  It is the largest base of its kind in the world.  And we were looking at them from across the creek!!  Heavily patrolled area.  These little boats had guns on the front and back.  We felt pretty safe there!

 The trip through Norfolk was a highlight for us - really amazing to see.

Coinjock

May 3rd, 2017 - Wednesday.  We departed Dowry Creek Marina in Bellhaven around 0800 and decided to go as far as the Alligator River.  Not as much wind today - 5 to 10 knots.  We mostly motored with the staysail up as well.  Our chart plotter was acting up all day - unable to receive a GPS signal.  But as soon as we got closer to civilization it finally picked up.  We get used to seeing the little boat (which is our boat) moving on the chartplotter.  And we don't like it when we can't see it.  Spent the night at the Alligator River Marina (pretty unfriendly place) and departed early next morning.

May 4th, 2017 - Thursday.  Heading to Coinjock, North Carolina which is right before you cross the Currituck Sound and the cut leading to Virginia.  Love the pictures of sailboats on the ICW it looks like they are sailing through the grass!  Very windy today again but no problems with engine for last two days.  Thank Goodness!!  It was blowing 20 to 25 knots again today as we were crossing the Albermarle Sound.  Several sailboats out and they were hobby horsing in the sound.  We had waves breaking over the bow.  We had the engine running with a reefed staysail.  Michael had been running the engine at 2500 RPM rather than our usual 2200 RPM and the engine overheated right as we were coming into Coinjock.  We met the people in the Catamaran (Rush'n Blue) and took a dinghy ride across the river to the restaurant to eat.  Met up with our new Finnish friends and we all ate together - fun times!  All of us planned to hang out here until the storms on Friday passed.  

Coinjock Marina - rafting boats

 May 6,2017 - Saturday
I called the North Landing Swing Bridge at 0600 to see if the bridge would open today with the water being so high and the answer was no - not opening.  And the next swing bridge will not open either.  The water is 4 feet above normal height and we would not fit under the fixed bridge either.  So... here we sit waiting for the water to recede.  The marina across the river from where we are is now rafting boats up two deep and it will soon be three deep.  The boats keep coming all heading to Norfolk.  The marina calls them on the VHF and tells them that "all these boats are not here because the restaurant food is just that good - the bridges are closed and if you continue on there will be nowhere to go and nowhere to anchor".  And so they have been rafting up all day long. 

Oh well, time to catch up on blog and do paperwork.  Dinner with new friends tonite.  Hopefully, we will make it up the river tomorrow.  Fingers crossed.