Return to Rhode Island ….. October 2013

01 – 15 Oct:  Newport, Rhode Island to Havre de Grace, Maryland – 39 32N 76 04W

Hanging Around in Newport

It is always such a good feeling to return to somewhere we have been before.  We already know where to anchor, where the dinghy dock, laundry, supermarket etc are; familiarity is such a wonderful feeling, but one we seldom get to experience living the nomadic life we do.

We had returned to Newport on Rhode Island to collect our new headsail that we had ordered from Quantum Sails before we went north to Maine.  It was ready for us and they delivered and fitted it promptly, we had increased the size slightly but it was perfect, a job well done.  Every time there was a lull in the wind at anchor skipper seemed to roll it out, just to admire it – he was itching to try it out!

From Newport we were planning to head south around the outside of Long Island and do a two night passage down to the entrance of Delaware Bay then up the Delaware River, through the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal and finally into Chesapeake Bay.   The weather however, had other plans, we weren’t going anywhere.

So - Back Onto the Bikes 

 

We found a safe spot to lock our bikes so kept them ashore for the duration of our stay.   One warm sunny afternoon we cycled around to Fort Adams, built around 1824 it is the largest coastal fort in the USA and sits defending the entrance into Newport.  The road to the fort was bordered by small farms, it was just like being on an English country lane: stone walls separated the paddocks, cows grazed, pigs rolled around in their pens, autumn leaves tumbled – just beautiful, all very rural and just minutes from Newport town.

We carried on from the Fort, through the surrounding State Park then followed the road around the coast out to Brenton Point State Park at the bottom left tip of Rhode Island. 

From there we just kept going along Ocean Avenue which fringes Rhode Island Sound, we passed modest homes, seaside cottages and magnificent mansions all sharing the same wonderful views over the Sound.  

It was an excellent afternoons bike ride, followed by Quahog Fritters (just had to order them as we had no idea what they were!!) and a relaxing drink at The Lobster Shed, a great spot we found in Newport’s converted warehouse waterfront area.  And to enlighten those of you, who – like us have never heard of a quahog, it is a shellfish found around these parts and was very tasty!

Mansions, Mansions …. and even more Mansions

In the late 1890’s Newport became THE place for the incredibly rich to build “summer cottages”.  Yes, the photos are not actually of mansions, these are all just cottages. 

Known as the “Gilded Age” the absolute wealthiest of America’s society built these incredibly opulent mansions, mainly along the cliff edge on Bellevue Avenue.   Each owner went to great lengths to have the latest inventions installed (electricity for the newer ones!!) and it really goes without saying that they simply wanted to outdo the neighbours.

 

We purchased the Preservation Society 5 Property Pass for $31.50pp and took a few days exploring these decedent properties.  4 had audio tours which were entertaining and informative, they told the stories of the owners and staff and enabled us to gain a real insight into this age of extreme wealth for a select few.  They also told stories of which properties had, over the years, been used as movie sets – remember Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby, the ballroom scenes were filmed at the Elms.  

 

Still Waiting for the Weather

Although we were getting rather settled and sunny weather in Newport, offshore a tropical depression was loitering, sending gale force winds and huge seas onto the Delaware Coast south of us. 

In the end we decided to head back through Long Island Sound and New York, day sailing to cover some miles, whilst giving the weather and seas time to settle before we headed out into the North Atlantic for what would then be only one night at sea to the Delaware Bay.

Our good intentions of leaving at first light got scuppered when our anchor chain had not only a lobster pot wrapped round it but an old rusty anchor hooked through it as well.  We eventually managed to untangle ourselves and dropped them back into the deep for the next poor cruiser to hook onto! 

We headed out into lively seas and had a fast and furious ride for the first few hours, conditions improved slightly the further we got into Long Island Sound.  We had a mammoth day, logging over 70 miles to Joshua Cove and anchoring just on dusk.   Next day the seas were slightly more agreeable and we made it to Port Washington on dusk, anchored in a deserted bay and watched the lights of New York twinkle in the distance as darkness fell.

In A New York Minute

The tides were right for another early departure: with up to 4 knots of current through the East River, you sure want to get the tides right.  We flew through at speeds of over 10 knots, passed Manhattan in a flash and next thing we knew the Statue of Liberty had come back into view after our 3 1/2 month excursion north.

But we were soon past it and carried the current all the way out through the channel and into the Atlantic. 

Finally Into the Chesapeake

We were met with an extremely messy sea state and winds too fickle to hold the sails so we motored south until late in the evening when we finally filled the sails.  With a full moon to light our way and temperatures not quite down to freezing it wasn’t a bad overnight sail.  We carried on into Delaware Bay and motored up the Delaware River in  calm conditions and warmer climes, finally pulling over to the rivers edge and anchoring at sunset, just 10 miles short of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. 

Working the tides meant yet another early start as we headed through the D&C Canal, by late morning we had, at last, reached Chesapeake Bay.  We headed across the shallows to Havre de Grace, a small riverside town where we had arranged to haul out and antifoul. 

Time To Turn Balvenie into a Two Storey Condo

More Mansions & Millionaires ….. July 2013

20 – 30 July:  Shelter Harbour,  Long Island to Newport, Rhode Island  - 41 28N 71 19W

Hanging round in “ The Hamptons”

We carried on along the top of Long Island and turned down into the protected waters of Shelter Harbour.  Some windy weather was forecast so appropriately named Shelter Harbour looked like a good place to stop.

We had heard of The Hamptons, where movie and music stars and other seriously wealthy people  keep “summer homes”, and singer/songwriter Billy Joel is a local lad. But honestly we had no idea where it was – we can now report it is an area near the far eastern end of Long Island.  The reason it is called The Hamptons is because is it made up of several hamlets with Hampton in their name.   There’s Southampton, Bridgehampton, Hampton Bays and East Hampton, then there are a couple of outsiders just as lovely as their Hampton cousins – Greenport and Sag Harbour. 

We spent a day catching the local buses, exploring the hamlets and sneaking a peak up gated driveways but didn’t spot any celebrities, or their homes for that matter, they are all tucked away behind well established trees in acres of manicured grounds.

You can certainly see the attraction here, there are long sandy beaches on the south shore of Long Island,  the quaint fishing harbours of Sag and Greenport are delightful, every designer store you could possibly require is represented in East Hampton for your shopping needs, acres and acres of pristine vineyards offer boutique wineries for long lazy lunches and tastings, then there is the beautiful heavily wooded countryside with a few quiet lanes off the busy roads to take the Maserati or Rolls for a quick spin – ah the life of the wealthy!

Rollicking Good Sail to Rhode Island

July was ticking away, our plan was to get to Maine for August so we needed to keep on moving.  We left Sag Harbour at dawn in the drizzle, but with a steady southerly to push us north it was a great opportunity to cover the 62 miles to Rhode Island in one chunk.  We will be coming back this way so a stop at highly recommended Block Island will wait for our return.  The weather perked up during the day, we caught a huge fish, the wind stayed with us and we pulled into Newport, Rhode Island before happy hour.  An excellent day on the water. 

Home of Americas Cup History

Just arriving into the harbour at Newport we could immediately  feel we had entered one of the worlds top sailing ports.  It was a Tuesday evening  and the harbour was buzzing, it was a sea of sails, there were yachts absolutely everywhere – skipper had immense fun weaving Balvenie through the lot of them, our Silver Fern flag flying high and our seriously oversized New Zealand flag proudly displayed off our stern.  

The harbour was packed full of mooring buoys, we have never seen so many very expensive yachts tied to moorings instead of in a marina dock, but there are just so many yachts here there obviously isn't enough marinas to go around.  We squeezed into the few inches of designated anchoring zone still available, almost able to pass drinks to our neighbours, but we were all just happy to be in this iconic port.

Move Over Millionaires – now its Billionaires!

In the late 1800’s Newport became THE place for rich New Yorkers to have a “summer cottage”.   A building frenzy ensued with the wealthy all trying to outdo each other, but these days it is accepted that Breakers, the modest 70 room cottage in the photo was probably the pick of the bunch.  It was commissioned by Cornelius Vanderbilt II,  at that time the Vanderbilt's were Americas richest family. 

We did the excellent Cliff Walk along the foreshore in front of many of these beauties but we will save visiting inside the mansions for our return to Newport. 

Newport is just beautiful, couple of blocks back from the harbour found us (almost lost) in heavily wooded country lanes – you can escape the busy harbour and town within minutes.  They are very proud of their heritage and history here and have gone to huge efforts to preserve it; and although it is very touristy, especially at this time of the year, it had a lived in and looked after feel to it.

We enjoyed our stay, there was a small Jazz festival on, then a weekend Folk Festival that we listened to from the boat, it is just such a lively happening place and we will look forward to spending some more time here on our journey south.  We said farewell to Brenda and David on Bandit, yet again, unless our paths cross in the Chesapeake in autumn we are unlikely to see them again on the water. Bandit and Balvenie have shared many anchorages in the past 2 years we will miss sailing (racing!!)  with them.

 Time to Head for the Cape Cod Canal and Cooler Waters

Grandeur & Glamour in Long Island Sound ….. July 2013

11 – 19 July: Port Washington to Truman Beach, Long Island – 41 08N 72 20W 

Cruising the Path of the Presidents

When we popped out into Long Island Sound from the East River in New York it was a total transformation from an overcrowded world of chaos to total tranquillity and wide open spaces.  Gone were the high rise buildings, built in each others shadows – here it was the exact opposite, each property had acres of manicured grounds - there were stables, coach houses, boathouses and summer gazebos perched out on the ends of deep water jetties.  We had found the keepers of Americas “old money”, and they were displaying their wealth in style.

We stopped in Port Washington, Port Jefferson and Truman Bay, all named for past presidents – we imagine they all had their summer homes in these areas, and why wouldn’t you? 

We also stopped in beautiful Oyster Bay, can’t have been a president here and that is  probably because this is Rockefeller territory – their summer home and museum are tucked away in extensive grounds on the headland, the home is currently closed for renovations so we couldn’t visit - glad we are not paying for the refit!

Last Slice of the Big Apple

Port Washington was a great stop. The anchorage is tucked away at the end of the bay and the town offers free moorings for a couple of nights, and a free dinghy dock.  Then there's a laundromat, supermarket and West Marine within a short walk – all the ingredients we cruisers need for a good stopover.  Now the other bonus here is that there is a train link to New York Penn Station, so we just couldn’t resist another day in the Big Apple.

We had our day all planned, a walk through Madison Square Gardens, a leisurely stroll to Times Square for coffee – and that is where our plan fell apart.  While Mark queued for our daily caffeine hit I spotted the last minute theatre ticket booths and came up with Plan B, Saturday afternoon at a Broadway show.  I had seen Phantom of the Opera over 20 years ago in London and Mark hadn’t seen it, with excellent tickets available for US$75 each the decision was made in a flash, we were off to a Broadway show.

Saturday in Times Square – chaos!!

So we revised our walking tour and instead walked up Broadway through all the covered market area then turned down into the Diamond District.  We visited the Rockefeller Centre (yep those Rockefellers again), when it was built the lowers levels housed the largest indoor shopping centre in the world, nowadays it would be classed as rather upmarket and select.  We went up and down streets, found parks and plazas and happily got lost until we found Times Square again, grabbed some street food for lunch and observed the masses.

We joined thousands of other theatre goers for an afternoon matinee and the Phantom was absolutely brilliant.  Our seats were excellent, the theatre was lovely and the performance nothing short of superb.  The stage sets, sound quality, acting and singing were all first class, it was magnificent and for us completed our stay in New York – a Broadway performance, it just had to be done!!

We had another great day in New York and collapsed onto an early evening train back to Port Washington, we ended the day with cocktails at a waterfront oyster bar as the sun dipped – it had been an excellent day.

New York – All Done ….. till next time!!!

Munching Away on the Big Apple ….. July 2013

09 – 11 July:  Liberty Landing, New York – 40 41N 74 03W


Pounding the Pavements

It was great to be anchored in the Hudson River so close to the action, but we had a very bumpy night with the current whipping past at speed.  Still, we were in New York and it was time to explore.  We took the subway downtown and popped back up to ground level at Ground Zero. 

You don’t really have an appreciation for just how big the footprint of skyscrapers are until you see the emptiness that remains once they are gone. Gosh this is a busy area -  construction is well underway to refill the space with more towering skyscrapers and a transport centre, roads are closed off, security is tight, tourism is booming: there were thousands of people milling around.  Access to the large Memorial Park honouring the victims of the 9/11 attack needs to be pre-booked online and confirmation printed off, guess we should have read the Lonely Planet first, but really - how many tourists in New York have printers with them anyway???

Skippers comment - I’m not a religious man and I’m no engineer, but I was struck by how a church and other old buildings just metres from ground zero were untouched when not one but both of these huge towers dropped like a stone within their own footprint …. maybe the Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways …. or maybe not … just saying !

 

The Financial District – then more, and more

After a much needed espresso break, and this is a good time to mention just how hard it is to find a decent espresso coffee (latte for us) in America, actually it is hard to find espresso at all.  Most cafes and delis have a line up of pre brewed coffees in thermos flasks on offer, just ghastly.  It really has become quite a challenge to satisfy our daily latte fix when we are off Balvenie.   And yes – we do have our own espresso machine onboard!!!  

Anyway …… next up was the Financial District with a walk down Wall Street and surrounding areas, followed by a detour along the East River to the Vietnam Veterans Plaza at which time the skies opened, very heavy rain fell and everyone disappeared.  We just donned our raincoats and carried on, through Battery Park and onto Broadway.
We walked for miles, through Chinatown and Soho then found a quiet street in Greenwich Village and stopped for a very well earned late lunch.



With our energy levels replenished we carried on through the leafy streets of Greenwich to Washington Square and then Fifth Avenue, classic apartment buildings line the avenue with very ritzy street level designer stores.  Rather a pleasant part of town! Next up was Union Square with the excellent Greenmarket Farmers Market underway, some of the best looking and most varied produce we have ever seen – and right here in the middle of this huge city. 
 
With showers setting in again we called it a day and headed underground to the subway, back to 79th Street.   Back on the river the wind was whipping in from the bay and the tide was on the turn setting up a nasty chop - it was a long, wet and bumpy ride back to Balvenie.
 


Spending the Night with Lady Liberty

We decided one night of bouncing around was enough so we lifted anchor and set off back down the Hudson River, timing our crossing right on peak hour yet again!!  We headed towards the Statue of Liberty and turned into the shallow and compact anchorage at Liberty Landing in the Liberty State Park.   We were out of the current, the wind had eased and there was no traffic noise –  peace and comfort in New York! 

Sadly though there is no where to land the dinghy at Liberty Landing so it was just a pit stop, we got a peep of Manhattans lights at night and moved on in the morning with the tide up the East River to Long Island Sound.
   

An Action Packed 2 Days in New York!