Oyster Bay to Cape May

Whew! A lot’s happened since my last post. Before our departure from Oyster Bay, we had a spaghetti dinner on Maleki (Alex and Joe’s catamaran). Trudy and Dennis brought an awesome salad with fresh greens from their boat garden. They also brought cheese, crackers, and a baked garlic bulb (like they do at Vinnie Testa’s). Alex made a delicious spaghetti dinner with sausages, and Michele made cup cakes for the kids and cake for the adults. As you can see from the pictures the kids hated the cup cakes J. Leighia brought us all bamboo shoot plants for good luck. We had a great last night at Oyster Bay. But time to move on.

We headed out just after Malekai and headed west in Long Island Sound through Frog’s Neck to the East River. Going through Hell’s Gate in NY was a trip! The currents were crazy (again see pictures). Of course with Steve’s excellent planning and Navigation Skills, we hit Hell’s Gate at perfect timing to get pushed along at 10 knots (probably a 6 knot current). We motor sailed most of the day since the winds somewhat light. Although you can see the awesome trim on the sails as we traveled towards New York.

Not only was the current interesting, but we had planes going overhead, helicopters taking off and landing on the helipad. We had ferries coming and going and container ships and barges in front of us, behinds us and also anchored all around. We passed the Empire State building and the Statue of Liberty just to name a few of the attractions. I had a blast snapping pictures while Steve was courageously manning the helm.

After leaving the East River and going through Raritan Bay into New Jersey, we had to make a decision whether to stop for the night or sail straight through. We opted to sail straight through since the seas were calm and wind was favorable. We sailed through the nights. Michele took first watch at 7:00 p.m. and stayed up until 1:00 a.m. Steve took over until 6:00 a.m. Even though I got up, he still stayed up for a few more hours. As the sun came up, the winds died out and we had to turn on the engine. We motored along the New Jersey coast past Atlantic City (and no, mom, we didn’t stop) into Cape May at around 2:00 p.m. yesterday. Calm night, beautiful sunset and taps from the Coast Guard Boot Camp right beside us.

Today we went ashore and did some sight seeing. Cape May is a National Historic site, so it was very interesting checking out all the old Victorian houses off all different colors. We spent a couple of hours at the library to do some computer stuff without having to worry about power.

After the library, we strolled down to the beach and watched dolphins swimming back and forth. I say there were hundreds, but Steve thinks it was only 30. I’m sure I’m right! I tried to take pictures when they surfaced, but not sure how they came out yet. We splurged and went out to eat at the Lobster House which was absolutely delicious (cheaper than a slip and just a little more than a mooring would have cost – well worth it).