Maine to NYC

The resplendent nature of Maine was hard to leave, but Hans had a flight out of Philadelphia on September 22 and we also wanted to spend at least a few days in New York City on our sail south. With that in mind, we weighed anchor in Southwest Harbor, Maine on the Tuesday after Labor Day and set a direct course for just north of Provincetown, the tip of Cape Cod. Roughly 120 nautical miles away, we planned to sail past P'Town at first light and keep going through the Cape Cod Canal and see how far we felt like going.

We had great winds for the one night passage, actually much more than forecast, and passed the cape at dawn, almost exactly 24 hours after we left Maine. As we were sailing in Cape Cod Bay toward the canal, Matilda yelled that she saw dolphins "or something big" off our starboard beam. We all looked and definitely saw some movement, and then briefly saw at least two fin whales glide over the surface of the water, breathe, then go back under.

Chilly sailing in the Gulf of Maine.

Sunrise off Cape Cod.

Matilda eating her breakfast in the doghouse.
She's always the first one up on passage.

The Cape Cod Canal was like a leisurely river cruise. The sun was shining, the tide was flowing fast in the right direction so we were making around 9 knots, and people were biking, jogging, and fishing on the shore. It was very reminscent of the Kiel Canal. We relaxed for an hour or so then were shot into Buzzards Bay. The wind picked up more and more. We were quickly running downwind at 8 knots in a 18-20 knot breeze. We initially planned on stopping at Cuttyhunk Island but since we were making good speed we decided to keep going, especially since the next couple days were forecast to have light winds.

It doesn't look like much, but we had amazing winds in Buzzards Bay,
thanks in large part to the very squally weather.

We ended up making it all the way to Newport, RI, arriving just at sunset. The mooring field took up most of the harbor, leaving the little anchorage rather packed. We anchored on the edge of the channel in a rather bumpy spot, but it was better than spending a night at sea and we were happy that the trip was just a single overnight. 

We woke up bright and early and pushed off for NYC. We'd have to tour the historic town and mansions on another trip. From Newport we calculated two solid days to Port Washington where we would stage to catch the tide down the East River to Brooklyn. They were two long days. The currents in Long Island Sound were surprisingly strong and our first day found us slogging along against the current and making around 3 knots. We fired up the engine and managed a little over 4 knots. Obviously the tides were something to a be reckoned with.

Breakfast (and fencing) as we sailed down Long Island Sound.

Hans chatting with someone on the VHF.

At anchor that night we did a much more careful study of the currents, leading us to weigh anchor before dawn the next day to ride a favorable current to Port Washington. Our 5AM wake-up paid off. We motored with the current in flat calm for eight hours, arriving in Port Washington midday after averaging well over 7 knots all day.

A little fed-up with boat food, we dinghied ashore and found the closest pizza parlor. The kids ordered a "Kevin McAllister" and our server not only got the reference straight away, but he had pretty much every line in Home Alone memorized, including the voices. We had a fun evening trading quotes and he definitely cheered up one rather out of sorts kid.

Back to the boat and early to bed in anticipation of a big day!

photo by Matilda.