Oct. 25st 2012 – day of our return flight from USA. We look at the sky and think when exactly our plane departs. With the sound of motor and waves we are approaching New York City…
It’s Saturday, with a fair wind from behind and little drizzling we are leaving Provincetown behind us. We sail across Cape Cod Bay and go through the canal with motor. We anchor past the canal at Onset marina and enjoy the last rays of sun light between the clouds. The surrounding is quit and calm.
We continue early next morning with motor to Point Judith. It’s cold. We are not used to the movement of the boat yet so most of the day we try to be outside and look at the horizon :). No one wants to spend longer time inside in galley (which is the ideal place to get seasick) so we lunch with the sunset :). We are freezing, we still hear the noise of the engine in our heads and hope the next day will be a good wind for sailing.
On Monday we finally set sails and tack against the wind. We enjoy the magic of sailing, learn how to set the jib and the waves are leaning the boat to the site so much that we hope we’ve closed our waterproof bags properly.
And suddenly – bang! The wind was too strong and jib is torn almost the whole width. Joe stays calm and we change the jib to a smaller one. We help with the motor, but after a while the motor begins to make weird noises. Guys change the motor for a smaller one which we have as backup and we go to the nearest marina. Jan haven’t understood Joe, doesn’t tie and stop it and the boat hits the piling – today is the day full of fun. Joe takes it easy and doesn’t want to exchange his crew yet :)
We are staying at Noak port marina at the beginning of Connecticut for the next 2 days to repair all the things. We use this time to have a shower and do laundry … we look and smell like people again :) During these days we read, write articles, learn Spanish. In the evenings we write diary, play cards in the candle light and drink Cuba Libre. Joe is a perfect captain and also a great person.
Whole Wednesday we are listening to the noise of motor again with a little help of sails. A lot of flies use our boat as a hitch. We spend the night in Bridgeport.
Next day we fill fuel and continue motoring to New York (helping a little with sails). We enjoy the surroundings and the approaching City landscape.
We came to USA with a return flight ticket. Right now is our plane leaving Boston and we are staying and sailing towards our dreams.. (how long are still our visa valid?:)
Joe listens to the weather forecast and the hurricane Sandy. We decides where we are going to be when it comes – but is 200 miles away which means we are going to sail the next days also in night.
This evening we go along Manhattan. Joe was saying us the last days how important is to get to the Hell gate (join of Hudson river and and ocean bay) in the right time because otherwise we’ll go slower than a mam walking with stroller…
The view from the boat is great and the skyscrapers are astonishing. We enjoy the noise of cars, horns of cabs, grayness of the buildings almost 3 hours and every walker is faster than us :). With sunset we pass the Statue of Liberty and watch the skyscrapers getting smaller and smaller and above all this is a dramatic sky.We anchor at 9pm near to Sandy Hook island.
The sun is shining finally the next day, but the air is very humid. We make 120miles along the New Jersey coast in 17hours. We also some dolphins near to Atlantic city. We finally anchor before midnight and till 2.30pm play cards and drink Cuba Libre with captain. The wind, waves and current make our boat turn in circles so we have a nice panoramatic view of the Cape May bay.
Cape May will be our shelter from hurricane Sandy in coming days.