After a harrowing subway ride home last night we noticed Eric Clapton’s Blue Guitar had left the anchor and was replaced by the megayacht Klosters a 154′ sailing yacht designed and built by Perini Navi. It even has a matching motor launch! Very cool.

Billed as the “world’s largest fireworks display”, Mary and I left the boat with great expectations for what is our favorite pastime, watching fireworks. The #1 train took us all the way to the South Ferry stop at the Battery. After disembarking we headed down Water Street toward South Street Seaport. There was a street festival going on and we enjoyed the aroma of the many different ethic foods offered. We chose “soul food”. Very tasty spiced fried shrimp and mac and cheese. Yum! We stopped at the Pacific Grill for a pitcher of sangria and a few more morsels.

The crowd was gathering so we searched for a spot to sit. With four hours to go before show time we got a spot under the balcony but fairly close to the railing. Those in front of us had already been there for six hours!!! We had a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Waterfalls on the East River by artist Olafur Eliasson. As “art” I wasn’t impressed but they are better than nothing.

We were to find out that it really doesn’t make any difference when you get there, in New York you push past others and take up your own spot despite that you are now blocking everyone else’s view.

This is Miss Center of the Universe and her eunuch Fubu. She barged in front of several groups, including us, and defied anyone to try to make her move. The universe revolved around her and heaven forbid if Fubu raised a voice in her defense or to ask her to be rational. It became quite interesting. There is a final justice though. It started to rain and they were now standing under the downspout draining dirty water from the decks above. She still wouldn’t move but she was wet and dirty which I’m sure was not pleasant for a woman of her stature in the scheme of things.

All in all, Mary and I would like to say that it was indeed a great show, but we can’t. It was mediocre at best. Thirty minutes long is not a great show. It may be the largest but only because they shot off four different barges with the same show on them. We waited for four hours to watch thirty minutes of mediocre fireworks. Never again. Milwaukee, Wisconsin still rates as number 1! There are no pictures of fireworks to post because we ended up behind a post and well, they just weren’t that impressive!

We had real problems sticking the hook at Atlantic Highlands. We dragged slightly the day after arriving and relocated to a more open area. It felt like it was set well but at 2:30 am on Monday morning we dragged several hundred yards during another severe thunderstorm with plenty of lightning and wind gusts up around the 40 knot range. Enough of this, so we got fuel, pumped out and filled with water and headed for a mooring at 79th Street Boat Basin. This was to be a day of one irritation after another. While fueling I managed to spray the cockpit with a little diesel fuel. Nice!!!

After a long haul up the Hudson, passing under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and then past Lady Liberty and Ellis Island we made it 79th Street and picked up a ball. As we picked up the ball I noticed that the thru hull for the automatic bilge pump was spewing a steading stream of water. This may sound gross but I tasted the water to see if it was fresh or salt. Fresh is a problem, salt is a serious problem. It was fresh. Mary went below as the last of our 100 gallons of fresh water was pumped overboard. Another fitting had blown off and all our water was pumped to the bilge. While below Mary saw a wet spot on one of the settee cushions. Goliath not only had failed to warn us of another problem but had created one also.

We’ve been having troubles with the dinghy’s outboard and after launching the dink to go ashore we weren’t surprised when it wouldn’t start. There was water in the fuel so I changed tanks but still no start. I decided I’d wait a until the next day to tackle this problem. Enough, already, I went to bed.

The next day after a good rest, I tackled the outboard. I took everything apart, inspected and cleaned and reassembled. I removed the float bowl from the carb and noticed a pin laying in the bottom. It’s not supposed to be there.

It’s supposed to hold the needle valve to the arm of the float. The needle valve was stuck so I removed it, cleaned everything, installed the pin where it’s supposed to go and put everything back together. The engine starts fine now but still doesn’t run well under load. We’re close enough to the docks to go ashore but it can get harrowing when it isn’t slack tide.

This place is crazy but where else can you stay in NY for $30! There is a tidal range of almost 6′ and currents can run upwards of 2 1/2 mph or more. When the wind is blowing hard against the current it can get very unpleasant as the waves get real choppy and the boat sails around on the mooring bouncing you all over. It can be real uncomfortable especially when combined with the wakes from passing barges and ferries. Doing it a dinghy with a half hearted outboard is insane.

If he rain holds off we plan on heading to the Battery and South Street Seaport to watch the big Macy’s fireworks display tonight.

I have forgotten little things that should have been in other posts but I had forgotten to mention them.

The trip from Titusville to Daytona takes you through the Haulover Canal. Perhaps the highest concentration of manatees, on our route, live there. I saw at least a half dozen in the canal and maybe four more further up Mosquito Lagoon. Also there is an island that is always full of exotic birds, this time there where flamingos, roseate spoonbills, scarlet ibis and white pelicans.

While walking to West Marine, Tom and I saw one whopping crane fly over and two more whopping cranes near the roadway in a park. Turns out there is a pretty good population of these cranes in the area.

While at Calvert Marina in Solomons several weeks ago we fell asleep to the sounds of ZZ Top drifting over the water. They were performing at Calvert Marine Musuem across the river.

Just the other night while anchored in Atlantic City we listened to a band that sounded an awfully lot like The Who, doing their music.

And last but not least, our neighbor, anchored not to far away is none other than Eric Clapton’s boat “Blue Guitar”. Pretty cool stuff happening here.

As we rounded Sandy Hook, New Jersey I had to say it, “Well it looks like we dodged the last of them, we were pretty lucky but it looks like we should make it just fine”. Within 10 minutes the wind was blowing 30 knots and we were being pelted by a torrential downpour.

We had made the run up the Atlantic coast from Cape May to Atlantic Highlands with an overnight stop in Atlantic City. Overall about 150 statute miles with almost a hundred the last day. The trip from Cape May to Atlantic City was uneventful. Sea swells were running on average 2 to 4 feet with occasional swells of twice that. Apparent wind was negligible so we motored the whole way. We arrived in time to eat dinner and go to bed early. The next day was to be a long one. Marine warnings would be issued that evening due to incoming weather and those warnings may not be lifted for several days. We wanted to be ahead of the weather.

Up at dawn (5:30ish) we readied for the day ahead. The anchor chain had decided to become a mussel farm. Cleaning it off as we weighed anchor took forever. It was covered in little mussels, 1000’s of them. The ride out Absecon Inlet was exciting. The swells were from the southeast and the tide was ebbing and since the current in this inlet is swift, the waves were steep and large. Had we done the right thing? After reaching deeper water out a mile or so the waves lessened and we continued on. The fog thickened as we headed out four to five miles offshore to keep us out of fish traps and floats and inside of any ship traffic. Visibility was soon a half mile or less, sometimes much less. Our radar became our eyes.

Around 11:00 the fog finally lifted as the wind increased to 20 knots, 10 apparent. Unfurling the headsail added a knot or so and soon we were scooting along at 7-9 knots. We kept the engine at cruising speed to try to beat the weather to Sandy Hook. As the day wore on the skies began to darken. We had read that our radar could track the heavier rain cells and soon we could see those cells on the radar screen as we they crossed our path. One particularly bad cell caused us to slow and wait for it to cross a mile ahead. This is pretty cool! The VHF was beginning to get very busy. As boaters became stranded or whatever, the calls to the Coast Guard, Sea Tow and TowBoatUS became frequent. We listened as a USCG helicopter came to the assistance of a fishing boat that was dead in the water somewhere way offshore from Atlantic City. Marine warnings were made as new storms would approach. Pretty exciting. The winds stayed at 20 knots or so and the seas were still the same (had we been going the other way it sure would have been rough). As we headed into the channel around Sandy Hook we were warned of another severe storm approaching the bay. We watched as lightning flashed and the dark storm traveled just north of our location. Radar showed little additional activity. We had dodged them all and had our anchorage in sight. I should no better than to breathe a sigh of relief until the hook is dropped.

Click on the link to the right to see where we’ve been. There’s still some glitches but I’m working on it.

Having splurged and rented a car we decided to see as much Cape May as we could. It was beautiful although a little hot for us. The public beach looks inviting and borders the entire Atlantic side of Cape May. At $4.00 per person per day to walk on it didn’t seem quite right, so we found a free spot down near the lighthouse.

The architecture is Victorian with many homes built in the 1800’s. The gardens were full of blooms.

We toured the waterfront, the bird sanctuary, West Cape May and finally capped off our day with an exciting trip to the grocery store! We know how to have a good time.

For more pictures visit the gallery.

After being escorted from our anchorage in Havre de Grace by a tug pushing a barge of shale, we rejoined the tip of the Chesapeake and the C & D Canal.

As we rounded the lighthouse at Turkey Point we encountered wind gusts up to 20 knots. We were zooming along in places at 8 to 9 knots. We stopped for fuel along the way ($140 we would have spent in HdG) and then proceeded to Reedy Island to anchor for the night. Reedy never disappoints for spectacular sunsets.

The Delaware Bay is a tedious sail with many ships, strong currents, and little scenery. Managing the currents we made it to Cape May in 8 1/2 hours. Tonight we’ll go for dinner ashore ($50 we would have spent in HdG) and tomorrow reprovision for the rest of the trip to NY ($200 we would have spent in HdG).

The storms never materialized and we woke with excitement as we planned a day ashore in Havre de Grace. Somewhere along the way we got water in the dinghy fuel so our land excursion was delayed as I filtered out the water and got the motor restarted. I should have never bothered.

We ventured towards the spot where Skipper Bob had said there was a dinghy dock. Fences and railings made it very apparent that we were not welcome. We motored down to Tidewater Marina to ask if there was any other place to go ashore. A nice gentleman offered their dock, but before we could get ashore someone else with more “authority” told us in no uncertain terms that we were not welcome and needed to leave immediately. Needless to say we are very depressed over the whole ordeal. It is very hard getting used to the feeling that we are second class citizens, homeless people that no one wants.

If you follow the link to Wikipedia for Havre de Grace you will see under “Local Color” that the towns people don’t think much of their out of town visitors. I guess that means us as well.

We will leave in the morning (without spending a cent), hopefully not only leaving this place behind, but also the feelings we now have.

With the boat in the water and all things checking out, we moved over to our favorite anchorage up Mill Creek near Cheryl’s house. I still needed to organize all the junk I’d spread all over while working on the boat so we spent a couple of days anchored. The weather pattern of evening thunderstorms has been common and we’ve been through a few so far. Thursday night was our farewell dinner at Cheryl’s. Friday morning, 6/20, (not too early) and we were off for Annapolis.

As you round Drum Point and start heading north, the Calvert Cliffs and Calvert Beach are visible to the west. Annapolis is an easy day sail away and with favorable winds we were able to motor sail part of the way. Dropping the hook of the seawall of the Naval Academy is always a pleasure. After several tries we were able to get the Delta to set in the hard clay bottom. It was very rough since we were near the edge of the Severn River so the next day we moved closer to the mooring field in Spa Creek. Much nicer. We spent two nights and never made it to shore.

Early Sunday we headed for Havre de Grace near the tip of the Chesapeake. We’ll wait here until the thunderstorm threat passes. This is an interesting little town with a rich history. Birthplace of Cal Ripken and David Hasselhoff!!! It lost out by one vote to be the nation’s capitol.

A look out into the bay from our boat.

The skipjack, Martha Lewis.

Hopefully more tomorrow as we plan a day in town (if it isn’t raining).