Ease The MainWith Benevento and its crew

I used to work in New York City.  I would take the train into Grand Central Terminal from Peekskill, fight my way through the terminal, and then walk to my office at 41st and Lexington.  We had a great view from my office of the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center.  It was therefore very, very surreal to arrive in New York on our own boat and see that same (well, almost the same) skyline view from the water.  Darold cued up Sinatra, blared it loud on the cockpit speakers and we sailed under the Verrazano bridge at dawn.  We then cruised up into New York harbor and dropped the hook in front of Lady Liberty.  RIGHT in front of her.  We hung out for awhile until the wakes from the ferries drove us up the Hudson River.  Most marinas in New York Harbor are prohibitively expensive – in the range of $6 / foot a night. For us that would mean we’d be paying $240 a night just to sleep on our own boat.  So instead we went to the 79th street Boat Basin and picked up a mooring ball for $30 / night, with great access to the Upper East Side. Best bargain in NYC.

We only spent a few days in the city, but a big highlight was going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Dante.  We showed him the enormous Washington Crossing the Delaware.  Never mind it’s not historically accurate – it is awesome.  I had forgotten how enormous the museum was.  I also didn’t remember how many paintings and sculptures of naked ladies there are in the museum.  (I guess you have to be with a wide-eyed and secretly smiling 10 year old boy to realize that.)

At St. Patrick’s Cathedral gift shop we pressed a small statue of St. Nicholas into service.  Turks out that St. Nick (aka Santa Claus) is the patron saint of sailors. He can’t take night watch, but he looks good on the bookshelf.  We also did a few more obligatory New York tourist stops: Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central, Times Square, 9/11 Memorial, dinner in Little Italy.  We even got to see friends and our beloved cousin Donna.

We motored up the Hudson, under the Tappan Zee bridge, picked up family members near Sleepy Hollow and continued on up to Croton-on-Hudson.   We anchored Benevento for a few days and came ashore to spend time with Darold’s family in Croton and Mahopac.  When it was time to leave, we motored down the Hudson, through New York Harbor, up the East River (including under Brooklyn Bridge), through Hell’s Gate and then into Long Island Sound.

We sailed the length of Long Island Sound to meet up with Darold’s uncle Roger at Mystic, Connecticut and pressed him into service for the journey to Cape Cod.

The next three days we visited three different states: Mystic (Connecticut), Block Island (Rhode Island) and Cutty Hunk (Massachusetts).   Sailing from Cutty Hunk to Cape Cod, we accomplished two important feats: first, we won an impromptu regatta against 6 other sailboats (well, they were going the same direction as us and we were FIRST thanks to Roger) and second, we conducted a successful sea trial of our series drogue (a type of device dragged behind the boat in very heavy weather).

We arrived in Cape Cod, ready to visit with more family and prepare for our Atlantic crossing. Our next post will be after we cross the Pond!

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