Monday, September 29, 2008

Welcome back! When last we ‘spoke’ YA was at her slip in Connelly and Fred and I were at HPC. We spent time with the kids and grandkids, visited every doctor and dentist we know--were cleaned, and viewed inside and out. Here is a day for you--I responded to a 1993 traffic ticket (DMV is cleaning up old records, apparently, and a not guilty plea earned me a $110 fine and NO moving violation.) From there I went directly to the colonoscopy center. Uffda. Not a day I’d like to repeat any time soon. The weather reports--a mariner’s most important friend, perhaps, said we’d have sunny beautiful weather for 10 days, and on Monday Fred drove the boat to Newburgh and I brought the car home and met him at the dock. Tuesday we were underway and LO the weather changed. We stopped before dark at Liberty Landing, and Wednesday morning were only able to make it to Sandy Hook, NJ before the swells became more than we wanted to deal with. So here we are, at the Atlantic Highlands Municipal marina, and here we shall stay until the weather says go. The tide has been uncommonly high, rain, wind, waves and fog uncommonly constant--we had whitecaps at the dock, behind a long breakwater! We’ve sneaked into the cute little one mile square town a couple of times, and once again are grateful for the soft sided wheely cooler that makes grocery shopping less burdensome! This is being written on Sunday, and we expect to head south tomorrow. See you next week! Fred and Linda, tucked in to wait out the storms.

Monday September 8, 2008

Monday September 8, 2008 Monday morning, August 25 was grey and foggy. Weather reports were promising though, so we headed out from Falmouth MA to Buzzard’s Bay, via Woods Hole. Fred allowed as how motoring through the skinny, rocky channel isn’t as challenging as sailing through, but nonetheless it was a delightful run. Much less boat traffic than on the weekend! Motoring along past the beautiful, uninhabited privately owned Elizabeth islands, we decided to put in at Cuttyhunk, the last stop in the Cape. What fun! Asa tied us up at the T dock, where we had to use our stepladder to leave the bow of the boat, so high was the tide. (In the morning the water had lowered the boat to match the dock--how fun is that?) We walked to the ‘business district’ where we found ice cream and ordered our lobsters for dinner. “Come back at 10 minutes to 6”, we were told, and the 1-¼ pounders would be boiled and ready--drawn butter and all. Sure enough, a 4 wheeler pulled up at exactly 5:50 and we tourists gathered around to collect our crustaceans. And a fine dinner it was--celebration of Fred’s birthday and the beginning of the end of phase one of our 4 part, 2 year journey on Young America. We’re heading home. The weather held on Tuesday and we made one long run along the Sound, ending just at dusk at the Norfolk Town Dock. Claude was there to give us our keys to the power outlets, and we enjoyed once again watching the crew teams and exercisers rowing in the River. Long Island Sound meets the East River at the Throg’s Neck Bridge, and the current was barely moving so we were able to ease on through that junction, fondly called “Hell’s Gate”. There was no turbulence and very little traffic. We rounded Manhattan with the camera poised. I’d learned on a Circle Line tour that there is one street which perfectly frames Trinity Church. Photo op, and I was ready! Don’t ya know the Circle Line boat slipped between me and the shot, as the guide encouraged passengers to ‘click quick’ . I took a picture of the Circle Line boat. New York harbor had the usual array of work and pleasure boats, including a Carnival Cruise Ship towering high above the water. We came into the 79th street boat basin in the afternoon and shared the dock with Clearwater, the boat built by Pete Seeger to clean up the Hudson. About 50 people went aboard for a 3 hour cruise--after Brian, the senior educator on the boat attempted to rescue my shoe! Silly story. As we were securing Young America’s lines in the wind and racing water, my left Sperry Topsider jumped off my foot (don’t ask) and merrily floated under the dock heading north to Newburgh! As it emerged from the other side of the dock, I just missed capturing it with a net; and missed again with a boathook! Brian yelled for the boathook, grabbed it and ran up the rope ladder to the end of the Clearwater bowsprit--and just missed the shoe. We (and the crowd gathered on the dock--it was New York, you know) then watched in awe as a tourist named Dennis (from Germany) jumped in his dinghy and motored upriver to capture the shoe. Dennis said, as I thanked him, “All my life I have want to be hero. You have made me hero. Thank you. If you lose your shoe again, call me. We are team!”. We all may have to revise our thinking about unfriendly New York! Thank you, Brian and Dennis! The rest of the evening was delightful as Fred and I enjoyed burgers and fries at the seasonal restaurant in the ‘cave’ at 79th street. Walked to Zabar’s for a cappachino, but missed them by 15 minutes, so we settled for a pleasant stroll in the City. Delicious! Thursday morning we motored off, heading for home. Clouds and light fog put the kibosh on a proposed photo op at Bannerman’s Island, so we tied up at Front Street to enjoy the Newburgh Harbor Festival. Called some friends to share the evening, and we laughed and talked and munched late into the evening, with the band ashore providing background music! (One topic was my frustration with formatting the blog. Special thanks to Jim B. for teaching me how to fix it.) Our new ‘old’ slip awaited us at Certified Marine in Connelly. Young America the houseboat lived 2 slips over for nearly 20 years, but Young America the trawler is 4’ wider, and, as we learned in June, needs a size XL slip! She’s nestled in there, and we’ve moved to our “vacation home” at 68 HPC once again. The huge pile of mail that was held by our favorite postman has been delivered and we’re landlubbers once again. We spent last week in Detroit at a US Power Squadron Governing Board meeting, and will be here in Newburgh until the third week of September. Part II of our four part, two year journey will begin then. We’ll be heading for the Florida Keys, and for the first major stop will join up with other Mirage Trawlers in the Chesapeake Bay to spend a week in the Potomac River and our nation’s capital. Check back in early October, and thanks for joining us on Part the first of our wonderful, delicious dream-come-true journey on Young America!