The dock master saw our Wisconsin address and asked if we were doing the loop. We replied that we were. He went on to say we needed to meet a really neat guy on another dock who was also doing the loop. We went over to introduce ourselves. What a surprise! It was an old NNYC sailor, Tom Smith, doing the loop in a powerboat. Brad Abbott had given me Tom's cell number before we left, but we'd never contacted him as he'd left well before us. We swapped tales and agreed to have dinner when we returned. Tom was leaving the next morning up the shallow stretch of the ICW that leads to New York, we'd be going offshore along with several other sailboats.

That evening we moved to anchor just off the Coast Guard station so we'd be ready for an early start. We were watching for a weather window for the over 100 mile trip to Sandy Point near New York City. The forecast didn't sound good.

5/24/05 - Dawn revealed a gray overcast, light mist and high 40's; but with only 8 knots of wind from the north. We decided to jump to Atlantic City, about a 4 hour run offshore. This was a short trip, however the weather forecasters were warning of a major storm hitting New England and coming down the coast with gale force winds hitting our area by midnight. We felt that a 35 mile chunk of the coast was all we could safely do; but now was the time as the storm hadn't riled the seas yet.

The trip to Atlantic City was cold and uneventful. We arrived just after noon, surfing into the inlet on 6' swells created by the seas running against a 2 1/2 knot tidal flow. We took a slip in Trump's Marina figuring we didn't want to be at anchor in tidal currents  if the forecast 50 knot winds hit at mid-night. The dock master at Cape May had assured us that the channel was deep enough. Seems that Trump dredged it for his 200' yacht, without permits, at a penalty of $10,000/day from the government. The dock master said he wished they'd had the guts to do it - it took them 6 years to get a permit to do 3 days of maintenance dredging in their marina. He allowed that $30,000 would have been a small price to pay.

As I write it's 5pm and the winds are 25 -35 knots out of the north. Ruth is paying homage to The Donald in his marina casino. If the weather forecast is correct... BIG IF... we'll be here tomorrow also. The high winds are to continue through tomorrow evening and the next couple of inlets are pretty small to take with 9' seas.

5/25/05 - We awoke to 15 - 20 knot winds, low clouds and mist in high 40's temperatures. Just like Wisconsin in June! Looks like an inside kind of day. The winds last night never got above the mid 30's; even so it was nice to be in a slip. The weather forecasters are calling for things to improve tomorrow afternoon so we'll likely move to anchor then and head to New York on Friday.

5/26/05 - The weather here is stuck in a rut. Two lows are dancing off the coast, one above and one below New York. A 50' Trawler left this morning only to return 2 hours later. They'd been battered by 45 knot winds and seas that broke over their bow. When they turned back they were surfing at 16 knots down the face of the waves.

I used the day to do an oil change and batten the boat down for tomorrow. The wind and rain dropped off late in the day, so several of us are making a run for it at dawn... expecting decaying seas and swell, but not the sharp waves. We are still pushing to pass under the George Washington bridge by June 1st to keep our insurance in force.

5/27/05 - We left Atlantic City at 6:30 am, accompanied by over 20 boats that had ridden out the storm there. Sailing and motor sailing we caught up with Sampatecho, Bradd and Maeve, about mid-day. We slowed to run with them, planning on going to Sandy Hook. We got to Sandy Hook early and jointly decided to push on, crossing the New York Harbor and entering the Hudson. As we passed under the Narrows Bridge a thunderstorm hit with 30 - 40 knot winds and rain. Made for an interesting trip with the harbor traffic. After the storm the evening turn balmy, almost tropical.

Bradd had a chart that showed a state park anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty. We found it and our two sailboats snuggled in with a couple of trawlers for the night. The sight of Liberty up close, and then from behind, was awesome. I've never seen a photo of the back of Liberty lit by the setting sun. Everyone turned in early, having spent almost 14 hours on the water.

5/28/05 - I awoke to the sun rising over Ms Liberty. What a fantastic sight. Bradd and Maeve showed us Bannerman's Island and a nice anchorage behind it. The island features an old castle that was built to store Bannerman's collection of weapons and munitions. It burned after his family had gifted it to New York State's park department.  Of course we had to illegally visit the island to see what we could.  15 minutes later we were found by the sheriff asking if we seen the postings for private property.  Luckily, we didn't have to go to the Pokey and we learned more about the island's history from them while they were booting us out.

We joined Sampatecho for dinner, polishing off half of the large blue fish Bradd had caught while sailing from Atlantic City.

5/29/05 - We anchored off the the jetty leading into Kingston, NY. We tried to go to the city anchorage but the bridge was 18" too low.  We dinghied in and walked the town and found a trolley depot where they are renovating old relics and putting them back into service.  Unfortunately, the one car they had in service broke down quite a few times to make the normal one hour trip last about 3 hours.  (we saw lots of blue smoke during their run)

We invited Bradd and Maeve to dinner on AA. They asked for a rain check, inviting us to come over and help polish off the second half of the Blue fish.

5/30/05 - We motored up the Hudson for 5-1/2 hours, arriving at Hop-O-Nose Marina in Catskill, NY.  (That's right- Hop-O-Nose) This is where we will drop the mast in preparation for the trip through the Erie Canal.  Spent the rest of the afternoon foraging for timber and hardware to complete the assembly of cradles for our mast.  Ruth and Maeve used the courtesy car to provision and of course came back with much more than the originally planned on.

We entertained Maeve and Bradd with supper - Ruth's famous Italian dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with cheesy garlic bread and red/white wine.  Oh, and for dessert we had a wonderful Key lime pie.  Very refreshing! 

Maeve and  Bradd will be leaving for the canal tomorrow morning, having gotten their mast dropped this afternoon so we wound down about 9:30.

5/31/05 - We got up at 7 to start assembling the cradle for the mast. The weather is sunny, high 70's. The stand was ready by 11:30 and we waited for the mast to be lifted.  We spent around 5 hours sawing, drilling, cutting carpet and fitting pieces together for our mast supports.  It's been neat listening to the spring songs of different birds and watching thunderheads grow and move away.  (There is one mountain peak south of us that has been dubbed the Storm Troll.  He is the one that traditionally generates all the storms in this area just below his peak.  Strange, but so far the lore has been accurate.)

We left Hop-O-Nose about 3pm and pushed upstream to Troy, where we moored at a yacht club dock around 8pm. We were surprised when Tom Smith helped with our lines as we docked - hadn't seen him since Cape May. A long day, but we are trying to rejoin Maeve and Bradd.

6/1/05 - A dawn start on a beautiful day. We hit our first lock, the Federal lock above Troy, about 7am in the company of Tom Smith. Then we pushed on to the first locks of the Erie where we caught up with Sampatecho. We traversed 12 locks, mooring at the top of the 12th for the night.

Continue to Erie Canal.

Return to the Loop Route.

Night scene from our Cape May slip

Piling house at Cape May

Tom Smith, fellow Neenah voyager

Atlantic City Lighthouse

Ms Liberty from our anchorage

Yes, this is New York City

Bannerman's Island Armory

Entering Catskill, Hop-O-Nose

I'm now a couple of  photo galleries behind  - will work on it this week.