My OperaIt’s a wonderful town!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 6:19:05 PM
Well, surprise surprise, the plan changed again.
When it came to it, the crew was a little reluctant to put to sea from Norfolk, where we spent a pleasant few days taking in some big city sights and enjoying the company of friends that we’d met in Florida and to our surprise, Rolf and Femke in their drop-dead-gorgeous steel ketch, Rajac, who we last saw in Portugal heading across and towards the Pacific. At least it’s not just our plans that change...... theirs was adjusted after a 50% increase in their crew by baby Sil, now 7 months old.
Norfolk is the home of the US navy and the array of ships is really something to behold. It makes our home port of Plymouth with its Royal Navy base seem positively small time.
So, meanwhile hurricane Bertha was lurking out in the Atlantic and Tropical Cyclone Cristobal was causing trouble down in the Carolinas, so we decided to take the inside route up the Chesapeake instead. I guess that we didn’t see the very best of the bay. We’d got to the stage of being a bit fed up with the heat and un-nerving thunder storms, water spouts etc, and wanted to get up to Maine, however we did stop in Annapolis which is a charming town and home of the Naval College. Felt a bit like Dartmouth but hotter and, lets be fair, rather more grand.
Through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and down Delaware Bay was hot, hazy and undistinguished except by yet more thunderstorms. So at last we came to the point where there was no option but to put out to sea for the 100 mile uneventful trip up to New York.
After a night recovering just inside the Bay, we made an early morning run up into the Hudson River. While I’m not naturally a city person, this has to rate as one of the most exciting bits of the journey so far. Sailing past the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan waterfront was simply jaw dropping. Anchorages are a bit scarce in NY harbour and the tide runs up to 5kn in places, so we decided to take a convenient but rather uncomfortably bouncy mooring at the 79th St Basin.
We unloaded the now slightly rusty bikes into the dinghy and within half an hour we were cycling down Broadway with skyscrapers, yellow cabs, neon lights, bagel shops etc all around. It’s difficult to describe how arriving somewhere by small boat feels quite different from any other means. To say that it felt unreal doesn’t really convey the full weirdness of jumping off Fair Grace and being there in what is anyway a bizarrely alien city but full off familiar landmarks and references.
Suffice to say that we spent the next week cycling around trying to see as many things as we could, and while our legs got tired, we really never tired of just looking around (and mostly up) and taking it all in. We also visited Halcrow NY office which is on the 31st floor overlooking the World Trade Centre site (construction still not above ground level).
We decided that it would be easy to spend a lot more time in NY.....as long as one had considerably more money than we currently have.....
Sailing out of the city and into Long Island Sound is rather like going out the back door of NY harbour, and was just as spectacular as arriving, but the next day brought a bit of a shock as the temperature dropped to a shocking 70 degrees during the morning and saw us in full oilskins, socks and woolly hats until midday.
Our thoughts that we would escape the thunderstorms when north of NY were dashed when the first night brought warnings of severe storms with tornadoes just a couple of miles away from us, but luckily we only caught the edge of it.
The last push took us through the Cape Cod Canal, a short cut route through the neck of the cape and out into CC Bay where we lost count of the number of (humpback) whales and dolphins we saw.
So here we are now in Maine, where we arrived after an overnighter and the last 6 hours in thick fog, for which this coast is renowned. We heard motors going by.....felt the wash of passing boats, smelt pine trees, but saw nothing but white while cautiously nosing our way into Penobscot Bay, except a bouy that Lucia nearly ran into, and lobster pots so numerous that it was sometimes literally difficult to find a path through them. Finally, as we approached a cove that was to be our stop for the night, rocks loomed out of the murk ahead and then a few minutes later we emerged with shocking and implausible suddenness into a warm clear sunlit afternoon and a ruggedly beautiful wooded cove.
We really felt like we’d arrived.
When it came to it, the crew was a little reluctant to put to sea from Norfolk, where we spent a pleasant few days taking in some big city sights and enjoying the company of friends that we’d met in Florida and to our surprise, Rolf and Femke in their drop-dead-gorgeous steel ketch, Rajac, who we last saw in Portugal heading across and towards the Pacific. At least it’s not just our plans that change...... theirs was adjusted after a 50% increase in their crew by baby Sil, now 7 months old.
Norfolk is the home of the US navy and the array of ships is really something to behold. It makes our home port of Plymouth with its Royal Navy base seem positively small time.
So, meanwhile hurricane Bertha was lurking out in the Atlantic and Tropical Cyclone Cristobal was causing trouble down in the Carolinas, so we decided to take the inside route up the Chesapeake instead. I guess that we didn’t see the very best of the bay. We’d got to the stage of being a bit fed up with the heat and un-nerving thunder storms, water spouts etc, and wanted to get up to Maine, however we did stop in Annapolis which is a charming town and home of the Naval College. Felt a bit like Dartmouth but hotter and, lets be fair, rather more grand.
Through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and down Delaware Bay was hot, hazy and undistinguished except by yet more thunderstorms. So at last we came to the point where there was no option but to put out to sea for the 100 mile uneventful trip up to New York.
After a night recovering just inside the Bay, we made an early morning run up into the Hudson River. While I’m not naturally a city person, this has to rate as one of the most exciting bits of the journey so far. Sailing past the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan waterfront was simply jaw dropping. Anchorages are a bit scarce in NY harbour and the tide runs up to 5kn in places, so we decided to take a convenient but rather uncomfortably bouncy mooring at the 79th St Basin.
We unloaded the now slightly rusty bikes into the dinghy and within half an hour we were cycling down Broadway with skyscrapers, yellow cabs, neon lights, bagel shops etc all around. It’s difficult to describe how arriving somewhere by small boat feels quite different from any other means. To say that it felt unreal doesn’t really convey the full weirdness of jumping off Fair Grace and being there in what is anyway a bizarrely alien city but full off familiar landmarks and references.
Suffice to say that we spent the next week cycling around trying to see as many things as we could, and while our legs got tired, we really never tired of just looking around (and mostly up) and taking it all in. We also visited Halcrow NY office which is on the 31st floor overlooking the World Trade Centre site (construction still not above ground level).
We decided that it would be easy to spend a lot more time in NY.....as long as one had considerably more money than we currently have.....
Sailing out of the city and into Long Island Sound is rather like going out the back door of NY harbour, and was just as spectacular as arriving, but the next day brought a bit of a shock as the temperature dropped to a shocking 70 degrees during the morning and saw us in full oilskins, socks and woolly hats until midday.
Our thoughts that we would escape the thunderstorms when north of NY were dashed when the first night brought warnings of severe storms with tornadoes just a couple of miles away from us, but luckily we only caught the edge of it.
The last push took us through the Cape Cod Canal, a short cut route through the neck of the cape and out into CC Bay where we lost count of the number of (humpback) whales and dolphins we saw.
So here we are now in Maine, where we arrived after an overnighter and the last 6 hours in thick fog, for which this coast is renowned. We heard motors going by.....felt the wash of passing boats, smelt pine trees, but saw nothing but white while cautiously nosing our way into Penobscot Bay, except a bouy that Lucia nearly ran into, and lobster pots so numerous that it was sometimes literally difficult to find a path through them. Finally, as we approached a cove that was to be our stop for the night, rocks loomed out of the murk ahead and then a few minutes later we emerged with shocking and implausible suddenness into a warm clear sunlit afternoon and a ruggedly beautiful wooded cove.
We really felt like we’d arrived.
