To New York, and Beyond!

We’re bouncing back, baby!!!!

So we were stuck in Haverstraw Marina (aka purgatory) for a couple weeks, but we’re outta there!

So our roller furling repair was quoted at $3200, but we managed to get out of there for under $1600 (thanks to some sweat equity courtesy of Caitie and yours truly)  We’re outta there!

So we had one nasty experience at anchor where it was blowing 20+ knots the night we left the marina, resulting in shifts sleeping/watching for anchor slippage, but at least WE’RE OUTTA THERE!

Frankly everything is looking up – We’re making progress again.  Who knew how good it felt to be on the move (and, more importantly), have decent weather!

Trying out the new headstay w/New York City in the distance

Trying out the new headstay w/New York City in the distance

 

Today we did the rip down the Hudson River to Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  At first, we weren’t sure how far we were going to get (because I, Mark, slept in this morning after a long and tiring night on anchor watch Wednesday).  We were targeting an anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty for an afternoon anchor…but as soon as we hit New York Harbour, we had the current in our favour and were going 10-11 knots!!  It was the fastest we’d been in the boat, and was extra crazy due to the hundreds of other boats/ferries flying around in all directions.

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Needless to say…we were happy to get through that chaos and decided to stretch it the extra 15 miles to Sandy Hook.

The anchoring process here wasn’t fun (first solid argument b/w Caitie and I so far), but we got it on the 4th try.

Even after that stress, though, we had a magic moment where a gorgeous white dove landed on the boat out of nowhere.  We were both a little awestruck…we continued our anchoring and he hopped onto my shoulder!!  It was so surreal!  Then he flew over to Caitie’s shoulder!!  We took the mandatory pics and feel it must have been a good omen.  Right?!

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Tomorrow just may be the day we start our trek down the Atlantic coast.  Wish us luck!