We woke up this morning at 7:30 and made up some of the sleep we lost the night before. It felt great to be in a nice marina with full water tanks and calm sea waters. I went to the service office, and they immediately sent out a very friendly mechanic to look at our generator issue. He found seaweed and grass in the water hose that led to the pump, as well as similar debris in the pump itself. After about 20 minutes, he was able to clear everything, and we once again had a working generator!
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| Once again, leaving Falmouth in our rear view mirror |
With our boat in full working order, we set out for Milford, where we were scheduled to arrive yesterday. The trip to Milford would be about 5 hours at 23 knots. We had great clear seas, and I sat on the flybridge thinking that life is good. I reflected on the surprise we had when we arrived in Falmouth yesterday docking the boat.
As I was backing into the slip, the dockhand told me to be careful because my swim ladder was sticking out. Ann and I both exclaimed at the same time "We have a swim ladder?" That was news to us. In fact, when we were out in Baltimore before the trip, I looked for a swim ladder, and concluded that since the swim platform goes up and down, there must not be a ladder. But, there it was, on the port side, sticking all the way out. It must have come out in the storm we were in, and the poor thing was hanging out in the water with 23 knots of pressure against it the whole way to Falmouth. It is surprising that it was still mostly in tact. However, it was bent out of shape, and we were unable to get it stowed. Not sure of what to do, I got it in as far as I could, and then I secured it with bungie cords and a fender line. Doesn't look great, but it will hold until we get home and get it fixed.
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| Turns out, we do have a swim ladder! Who knew? |
Since there were no boats around and no waves on our trip to Milford, I decided to use my time to look at the weather for the next few days. It appeared that today and tomorrow would be calm, but there would be thunderstorms along our entire path on Friday. I dreaded the thought of getting caught in more weather, and I also did not want to get home any later than we already were. I looked at our itinerary and realized that tomorrow's trip to Brooklyn was only about 3 hours. So, I asked Ann how she felt about skipping Milford and heading straight to Brooklyn today for an 8 hour ride, longer than we ever planned on traveling in one day.
Ann was a bit under the weather today, and I think a bit nauseous from being on the boat so long. But, she agreed that this was a good plan. So, I canceled the slip in Milford, which we were able to do without having to pay, and I contacted the Brooklyn marina to ask them to ignore my request for a one day delay, and that we were coming today. It really was a long ride, but it was a pretty one. We saw great lighthouses on the way, and nice scenery and bridges.
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| Lighthouse on Long Island Sound |
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| Another pretty lighthouse closer to Brooklyn |
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| Getting closer to New York |
I called the marina in Brooklyn to see if they had fuel because this long travel day used up almost our entire supply, despite having filled up last night in Falmouth. It turns out that they do not. It took me a while calling around to find a place where we could fuel up. There was no option not to because tomorrow is our run to Cape May - another long trip, and it's on open ocean, so we need to be full for that. Finally, I found a great place in Port Washington in Manhasset Bay. It was an absolutely stunningly beautiful cove, just outside NYC. Once we entered, we got a view of the houses, really mansions, right on the water. The dockhand told us that Chris Rock and Adam Sandler were currently renting houses there, and that he had seen them in town. Nice to see how the other .000001% live.
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| Nice little shack on the water |
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| This one had a boat as big as Sababa docked in their private pier |
Maybe next time, I should buy diesel fuel in a more run down area. The bill was almost $1,200. My most expensive fill up ever. Ann and Benny were no longer the only ones who felt like puking.
We arrived in Brooklyn around 6:00 pm, and amazingly, that put us right back on the original schedule. Ann wasn't feeling great, and Benny was pretty worn out, and I was completely pooped, so we skipped washing down the boat. After all, we're just going out on the ocean again tomorrow. Really needed a break. I took a shower while Benny scoped out the soccer fields next door and Ann checked us into the marina.
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| Tied up in Brooklyn |
This place is really wavy and busy, but I have to say, it's not every day you have a view of the statue of liberty from your boat to the left and NYC up close to the right. What a location!
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| View from the flybridge in our slip |
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| View from the cockpit, a 90 degree clockwise turn from the picture above |
After cleaning ourselves up and tidying the boat, we headed out for a nice dinner in Brooklyn, aided by Yelp. It was not Peter Lugars, but it was pretty good. Ironically, if I had not told Cousin Kenny that we were running behind schedule, tonight would have worked out great at my favorite restaurant in the States, but once I told him I couldn't come, he canceled the reservation and made plans with his brother who was in town from Hong Kong, and so it was impossible to get the reservation and the plans back on track. I'll have something to look forward to next time.
The weather forecast for tomorrow is great. Seas should be 1-2 feet, which is basically flat, and the temp around 80. Ideal weather. I was able to book a slip in the same marina in Cape May where we stayed almost 3 weeks ago on the first night of our trip. We may have some challenges on Friday, as the forecast is not nearly as good, but there may be a travel window for us. We'll deal with that tomorrow night. For now, we're happy to be on schedule and ready to be home again soon.
