Craig is having a great day, there is a good 15-20 knot breeze coming from the desired direction, we have the main sail up fully and the smaller mid sail and we are cruising along at 6-8 knots there have been a few sharp gusts that have heeled us over a bit but nothing out of control, the sun is shining but the breeze is cool, I’d say its about 8c.  
But the best part is there are about 10 other yachts sailing with us, obviously all spread out but within our sights.  This is a big deal because it is the first time we have felt that we have caught up with other yachts that are heading South. We are heading down the Chesapeake Bay.

So exciting to see other yachts on the horizon

We have just spent 2 nights in Annapolis, I have never seen so many boats in the one place we had been told of a lovely quiet basin to anchor in up the Back Creek so once we had navigated our way almost to the main city we veered left towards Back Creek
OMG these are really deep creeks that go on, and on and on, there are boats at docks everywhere,  the creeks wind around and have little tributaries that go on for miles.  

We had stopped and sussed out dropping the anchor quite close to the entrance when we had a phone call from Paul whom we had met in Halifax (I went op shopping with him and Catherine)  to say his friend was on a Catamaran  in that same location and to give him a call, we did and he told us to keep heading up the creek, we ended up going much further in than we would ever have imagined possible, these creeks are deep with so many marinas and docks and boats it was a real eye opener how busy this place is.  We were just not confident enough to anchor in such a confined space, there is a bad weather forecast coming and we want to go ashore so we headed out of the creek towards the main town and picked up a mooring ball, plus Matt and Julia whom we had met in Warton are also here on a mooring ball and we wanted to catch up. 

Add caption

We caught up with Matt and Julia as the were dingy back to sea jay, after using the harbour showers, they had left Wiarton around the same time as us, but they had spent much more time in the North Chanel with family then they removed their mast, tied it to their boat and motored down the Eire Canal, down to the Hudson River and into New York.
We could have done the same trip but thought oh why would we pay $1000 to have our mast removed when we can sail for free, well its taken us months and cost us a fortune in harbour of refuge fees and we were hit by a hurricane but I would not change it now that we have done it..

We had a good old catch up over a few beers and arranged to have dinner the next night. 

Our plans were to go ashore and visit West Marine where the part for our windlass was waiting for us and we had been told about a marine shop called Bacon Marine that deals in second hand marine parts,  we ended up walking the 3km to west marine, i love walking along the streets in the different towns, you get to see the different areas and all the different types of houses,  its Halloween tomorrow so lots of pumpkins on stoops.


Once we had our part and bought a big new fishing rod !! we caught the bus to Bacon Marine on the other side of town.  The skies were getting dark and the wind had picked up so we didn't spend long there, its a haven for second had parts, so much stuff, Craig was overwhelmed by it all and didn't actually buy anything.  We caught the bus back to the harbour and into the dingy just in time before the winds really picked up - we are now sitting in a  - Tornado Watch - posted on the weather site - what next !!!

There is a cold front coming through that is capable of creating  tornados when it meets the warm air off the land !! Although I think tornados are more likely to develop and cross land.

The mooring ball is not in a good spot but I think we always look out at the other boats and think they are not getting the same swing and roll as us, but its all just the same.  
Matt and Julia were waiting to see how bad the weather was before they said yes to dinner.

They felt it was doable in the dingy and joined us for a delicious vegetable risotto, cooked by Craig. Accompanied by a beautiful red wine a special edition from Julia’s Dad ,the first wine we had for ages it was rather nice.  I was a bit apprehensive for M & J getting in the dingy to go home but they messaged us to say they had made it safely back to Sea Jay.  Oh yes its Halloween we would have gone ashore to see what was going on but the weather was too bad, but we did have 3 witches sup past early in the evening before it got dark and too windy.  when were on the bus we saw the local primary school kids doing a lap of the school they were all dressed up in their halloween outfits so very cute.

We rocked and swung during the night it was really uncomfortable the winds probably peaked at 25knots, up the next morning the weather had cleared and there was good winds predicted so without even saying goodbye to Matt and Julia we headed out to sail further down Chesapeake Bay.  Again we had more yachts sailing along with us it was back to being chilly with the overnight lows dropping to 0c later in the week one of the main reasons we high tailed it out of Annapolis.

Sunday 20th October 2019

Finally a day out in NYC 

Up early showered and into the water taxi, a hike up the hill to the train station and we were just in time to catch the hourly train, it stopped at all stations and in less than an hour we were stepping out into Penn Station.

Daily edition with our coffee 

We had a rough itinerary with a few things we wanted to see but the plan was to walk and  wander and take in the sights of the big city.  

Off we trekked from Penn Station to Times Square, then on to 79th Street Basin Marina, this marina had been one of our options to be able to stay in the heart of NYC, we could have taken a mooring ball right in the centre, but we had heard is was very rolly and uncomfortable (our friend had to take a seasickness tablet while on a mooring ball while they were there) but we still wanted to have a look so that if it looked ok we could stop there on our way through.

It was a bit of a hike but by going there we walked off the main tourist path and passed lots of beautiful apartment buildings opposite the Hudson river.  The marina was tiny and didn't look that inviting so we were satisfied we were not missing out on anything.

By this stage it was raining quite heavily.

its a bit overwhelming after living on a boat 

We bought an umbrella and kept walking.  We wanted to make it to Seinfeld's Diner, just for fun.  It was packed and I really don't remember what it looked like inside from the tv show but it was warm and dry, we shared a souvlaki plate  -  that was awful !!

and we got the photo

By then we had had enough and headed for the subway, an Australian lady from SA had stopped us earlier in the day and after a brief chat had gifted us her subway card that still had some $ on it.  The ticket guy let us both go through using the one card, we were happy to sit down. I must say the subway carriages were quite small inside but there were plenty of carriages.

On the Monday we made the same trip,  this time our first destination was Ground Zero we caught the Subway from Penn Station to the World Trade Centre, it was interesting how upscale the subway stations became as we got closer to the finance district. The 9/11 memorial site was stark and poignant, such a sad place to visit. 

We headed out towards Battery park so we could see the Statue from land.

Walking back up Broadway we passed the Charging Bull statue and the New York Stock Exchange then into the fashion district starting with the uptown designer consignment stores with their genuine old Levi's and 80's platform shoes, I could have spent hours looking through those shops.  On the street there were venders selling fake bags, wallets and clothing this area was quite rough, next we passed the huge designer stores so many and all so Grande.

We passed a huge number of poor and homeless people, all living on the streets just like any city they have to sleep during the day when they are safe and then they will be awake all night.

We noticed a lot of locals out walking their dogs I think its a status symbol to show you live in the City.

Next stop was a cute French bakery for some sustenance, giving the hot dog vendors a miss.  Weed is legal in NYC and we passed many new shops selling it and all the paraphernalia, there were even food truck like vans all down Broadway selling the stuff.

After 42000 steps (logged on Craig's watch/phone) we were done and we were more than happy to jump back on the train home to Adriana.  The trip home in the train was interesting just a snap shot of life in New York State.

In the 8 seats in our divided row in my line of sight, there was a couple on their way home from a New York Jets game, a man reading the Koran to himself as in prayer, a couple that looked like they were on their way home from work, eating burgers and having a beer out of brown paper bags, a young girl with headphones in scrolling through her phone and us, all squashed in a crush of humanity in one moving train. 

Our mid morning and early evening trains had not been so busy as the subway or if we had used public transport in peak hour.  The subway carriages were a lot smaller than I had envisioned and humanity is really crushed together in those carriages.

We now had three days to fill, waiting on the part for the engine to arrive, of course we had been told it would be ordered on Monday and delivered on Tuesday but it actually didn't arrive until Thursday morning then it was fitted and we were set to leave on the Friday am. We did some washing, shopping cleaning all the usual stuff, One of the highlights was meeting  Mario a French/ Canadian from just outside Quebec he is heading in the same direction as us and after a few beers declared he would like to follow us through Hells Gate and out of NYC. 
We paid for our mooring ball at $25pn we had been there for 9 nights all up, we had sheltered from a storm, used the water taxi and visited NYC so it had been worth the expense.

Friday 25th October 2019

We were up before the sun at 6am we had worked out the times so that we would have a good strong current running with us down the East River and through Hells Gate, Mario followed us out of Port Washington Harbour. 

Mario following, leaving Port Washington 

We would have to motor the whole way.   The scenery started off with expensive suburban mansions on the water, then it changed to industrial back lots including passing a floating prison, just opposite LaGuardia Airport. Passing the airport was fun we could almost wave to the pilots we were so close.

Can you believe -  a floating prison

There were so many bridges to pass under, and the water traffic started to increase. going under a bridge is incredibly nerve wracking we have the information that tells us the height of the bridge and we know the height of our mast but it never looks like the bridge is tall enough for us to pass under !!

It never seems like we are going to fit under !!

The scenery changed constantly

it was so smoggy 

so many bridges

It was a cold morning and the sky was so smoggy its almost a green colour.  We timed it just right and literally flew down the river as we approached the area called Hells Gate. The river was a bit bumpy and the traffic became heavy with ferries, police, water taxis and other

pleasure craft, there were two other yachts as well as Mario with us all heading through.  

Then the scenery changed from industrial to expensive high rise apartments and high end hotels all with river views, we had timed it just right and we had a very quick smooth passage out the East River to where it joins the Hudson.  

And there she was the Lady of Liberty everyone else kept going giving the area surrounding her a wide berth as there were now sightseeing boats and cruise ships in the fray.

Almost there 

It got a bit hectic as we got closer !!

Up close and zoomed in

I had found out while researching New York City that the Statue of Liberty has a web cam looking down to the water and I posted on FB that we would be passing by soon, in the off chance that family or friends were awake and if online they might even be able to see us going past.

Steven my brother was on to it letting everyone know the link and we had friends from Canada and family in Australia following us via the webcam as we passed her, it was really cool but it got a bit hectic trying to reply to Steven giving him our exact location, take selfies and dodging the other traffic, the smog was so bad the photos look such a strange colour.  We put our mainsail up so that we were easier to identify.

Steven managed to take a screen shot of us as we passed that was really cool...
We were tempted to turn around and do it again but the currents were so strong and the traffic was hectic.

So we have done it sailed past the Statue of Liberty in New York City, when we flew from Miami to Toronto we cruised over NYC and I was so excited to see it from the air, never dreaming that we would actually get to visit or even sail past the iconic statue  !!!

It was not so daunting as I thought it would be motoring Adriana through one of the worlds largest cities, really we had no choice we just had to do our research as much as we could and do it. Not that I was at the wheel Craig did all the stressful navigating and did such a great job. 

We managed to put the sails up once we had left the main port behind us and cruised on to Sandy Hook, about 16nm out of the city we dropped the anchor and had some lunch and a bit of a rest as we were going to continue later that afternoon and do an overnighter to Cape May.

Leaving NYC behind 

The overnight passage went smoothly no huge seas or strong winds, there was a light wind at the start that dropped off around 2am and we motored for the rest of the night, it was cold but we only needed one hot water bottle fill at about 4am so not so bad.

All the way down the coast we could see the lights on land which is always comforting not as scary as pitch darkness.

Loosing the light at dusk

On the horizon we could see Atlantic City lighting up the sky with all its casinos and hotels, we don't hear much about Atlantic City but its a huge place like Las Vegas. On our overnight passage there were a few ships on AIS to watch out for but quite an easy journey overall.

We had a stowaway for a couple of hours 

Around 9am we motored up into the Delaware River and dropped the anchor just inside the breakwalls of the town of Lewes at Cape May to take shelter while another cold front went through. 

The winds were not hurricane strenth but peaked at gusts of 30knots so still uncomfortable our Matis anchor and swivel held well in the open anchorage but we did keep the anchor alarm on as at one stage we were backing on to the rock breakwall and old unused lighthouse that seemed to be getting close as we swung past.  We we’re stuck there swinging for 3 days it was chilly but not freezing cold, it didn’t rain but incredibly windy.

The winds died down late on the Monday night and allowed us some sleep.

 

We seemed to be getting close to this breakwall but really the anchor did not move 

Tuesday 29th October 2019

On our way before sun up at 6am again !! this is so we have the right currents to take us up the Delaware and through the C&D canal this route takes us up river and inland it is used by huge ships and barges that allowed safe passage without having to go out in the Atlantic Ocean.  We will be going close to Philadelphia, then on the way down close to but not going to Baltimore and then Washington. 

Again Craig timed it right and we had a good strong current pushing us up the Delaware River, some friends had done it before us and had had an awful time with wind against tide the whole way.  We navigated our way through the canal it was such dirty water with so many big logs to dodge and small sticks and other debris it was quite frightening how black the water was, I would not be trying to fish in this area  - we were passing nuclear power plants and other huge industrial sites not really very nice.

Some scary industrial plants

Passing these always makes me think of The Simpsons 

The canal was pretty straight forward one lock that only dropped us a couple of feet 

The autumnal colours were stunning as we traversed the canal

Eagles Nest

Once we had cleared the canal we pulled over to the side at a point where its called the Elk River and it was soooo still and calm we had such a good sleep after our wild nights at Cape May.  

Up at a reasonable time this morning to make our way to Annapolis the home of the famous Boat Show.

Tuesday 8th October

Naushon Island, this Island is part of a group of privately owned islands,  they are owned by the Forbes family of Forbes Magazine fame, it is such a pretty sheltered spot that apparently the family got sick of people anchoring there and blocking the thoroughfare (there is a private ferry that the islanders use )  that Mr Forbes provides free mooring balls for anyone to use.

There were huge mansions around us

But they all seemed unoccupied  -  the top of the private ferry boat 

And boy were we thankful they were there, the huge low that came through went on for days the forecast was for the wind to increase Tuesday evening and not to abate until Saturday morning  that's Tuesday to Saturday 4 days and 4 nights on the boat unable to get off. 
It was so wild we didn't even venture up top or even consider dropping the dingy.  The forecast was for winds 30 - 40 knots with gusts up to 60  - and we sure did get those speeds,  the bullets moved Adriana quite forcibly.. it was relentless the wind did not stop howling for days.  We swung around a lot  but it was not too unbearable I think we just got used to the noise and the movement plus there was nothing we could do about it. 

There was so much condensation inside that we didn't want to go out, get wet and bring more moisture in.  On the second morning Craig went to check on everything outside, "We have a problem" he announced, he had found that the anchor was rubbing against the mooring ball rope and even though the rope was incredibly thick it had started to be cut by our anchor he spent a bit of time trying to secure the anchor up higher than the mooring ball rope so it wouldn't make contact but in the end the only solution was to drop the anchor.  

Craig told me as we were heading out on the Saturday morning that he had lost sleep worrying that the boat might have swung around and our anchor would be all entwined with the mooring ball,  but luckily the wind was consistently from the North East and we had not ever swung around full circle once so we managed to extract ourselves quite easily thank goodness. I actually don't know how you would get out of that predicament but it must happen.  
We also tied a rope over the solar panels to hold them in place a bit more securely, the wind was hitting one particular corner constantly.  
The time actually went quite quickly and we were comfortably cocooned inside Adriana, I don't know how we passed the time, we made bread and humus, cooked some nice meals, we read and played solitaire on the iPad. One exciting time occupier was to plot the next part of our journey.

By the Saturday morning we were relieved that the wind had abated enough for us to venture out of our hidey hole, I had been worried that the sand might have shifted and covered the narrow entrance and we would run aground on the way out but no we made it back out easy enough.  

The exit/entrance to the ocean was incredibly bumpy with wind against tide and 2 bodies of water colliding, waves were breaking over our bow as we dipped and rose in the big seas.  

The seas calmed once we were away from land, and once we were heading in the right direction there was a nice steady wind and we sailed on towards Newport Rhode Island - Home of The Americas Cup.  

We had been warned that Newport was a busy harbour and to our thinking the summer season is over and how busy can it be... well there were cruise ships and their tenders running back and forth, ferries, water taxis, hundreds of motor boats zooming around,
yachts sailing in and out plus all the little runarounds, there were boats everywhere. It was hard to find a clear spot to drop the anchor and allow enough room for us to swing around with the tides.
We ended up anchoring out the front of the Ida Lewis YC it was late in the day so we didn't bother going ashore even though we had been boat bound for 6 days !!!

Our position in the harbour was quite a long dingy ride to shore, but it was great because we were able to have a close up look at all the beautiful boats .

We were quite taken by this timber sloop

Our first stop was the Maritime Centre this facility is housed in an ancient building owned by the local shire and it is specifically for boaters, they provide public toilets and showers, laundry facilities and the best thing,  a lounge area with good free WIFI.

There was a fair bit of  Americas Cup memorabilia 

Built mid 1700's it could have been a windmill but some say it has links to the Knights Templar !!

We spent a few hours walking exploring the town,  Its very pretty and historical but  you can see its a destination for the extremely wealthy.  With lots of top end designer shops, we found Americas Cup Avenue and shared a Ruben sandwich for lunch, later in the day we found a cute Aussie café but we had eaten already so we stopped and had a cup of tea,
and of course we visited the supermarket.  

We stumbled across this Aussie Themed cafe

We deposited our shopping back on board and loaded our washing and rubbish in the dingy and spent the rest of the afternoon washing and I did a page on the blog. 
I must say once all the water traffic stopped for the evening I was surprised at how extremely still  it was. It was St Columbus Day and we were treated to a huge fireworks display, we had front row seats the fireworks were almost on top of us !!

Monday  14th October 2019

Today our destination is Fishers Island an island inhabited by  American billionaires, retired politicians and maybe even a retired president?  
We had managed to sail out of Newport and the wind lasted most of the day, this is important to us not just to say we sailed out of Newport along with all the other yachts but it makes our travelling free.... It was only as we rounded the channel between fishers Island and the mainland when we had the tide running against us that we had to turn on the engine.

We encounter so many fishing boat, this one had the most birds around it we have ever seen 

Ha Ha we were moved on, of course they don't want transient gypsies trespassing on their exclusive waters, we had motored into a pretty bay and dropped the anchor, we were all set to make ourselves at home when a young man in a motor boat came alongside and informed us we were "not allowed to anchor here" ! He said "the sea grasses were important habitat of the endangered striped bass" (fish) "we were welcome to take a mooring ball for the day but defiantly no one gets to stay overnight".

He actually admitted he could not make us move but hinted there were some well connected people on the harbour committee.  We weighed up our options and decided it didn't feel right if we were not welcome so we pulled up the anchor and motored on our way.

We kept on going for another hour or so and anchored in Niantic Bay just outside the Yacht Club, it was a bit rollie so much so we were tripping over ourselves as we were getting ready for bed. But the wind changed direction around midnight and we had a very comfortable still night.

I rugged up in my overalls and layers the next morning for our trip to Port Jefferson Harbour NYC, but by 9.30 am I had dropped a couple of layers I feel we have turned a corner and its defiantly a bit milder although the overnight low was 7c last night and 6c tonight. 

We had the most beautiful sail straight out of our anchorage, the sea was calm, the tides were with us and we scooted down Long Island Sound, listening to a boppy radio station, not only that but the wind kept up it was forecast to drop but it worked for us most of the day.
We changed radio stations after a while and found a great public station that had a evangelical pastor being interviewed and we were like wow imagine if we could find a Pentecostal church service with gospel singers, we will keep a look out for one. 


We did have to motor into Port Jefferson Harbour eventually but that's ok it gives us hot water.  We dropped the anchor in a very pretty spot away from the busy harbour and yay had a lovely calm night, but the forecast is due to change .....

Our next stop along the way is Port Washington which is only a short train ride to NYC.
It was a short easy sail down the Long Island Sound.

There was very little wind and at one stage we put up the big red kite to see if we could catch a breeze, there wasn't much but enough to break the line that was holding the bottom of the kite down - poof the kite blew up and soared up into the sky we ran to grab the lines that still held it tied to the boat, plus it was still connected up top so we were not in danger or loosing the kite but it could have been damaged as it was flying wild.

The line was 10mm  thick and really we should have been using a much thicker stronger line, when you think about it the kite or the sails are pulling along so many tonnes of boat, no wonder things break under that stress.

Sunshine

Big Red 

Ooops

Port Washington is listed as being a very friendly destination for cruisers we were told its $30pn for the yellow mooring balls and the first 2 nights are free, this includes a free taxi service from your boat to the dock.  It sounded too good to be true.

And it was, they no longer give the 2 free nights or maybe they do but not at this time of year, the taxi operator advised us to take a white/blue mooring ball, they are all the same price $25pn including the free taxi.

There is a storm coming through tonight and tomorrow the forecast is for 30-40 knot winds with gusts up to 60 knots.
These storms are called Sou'westers and are the normal weather pattern for this time of year. We still feel we are running so late getting down south but there are a few yachts behind us we can see them on AIS.

As we approached Port Washington we could see NYC skyscrapers on the horizon yay we were so excited to see it at last, just like Land Ahoy it was New York ahoy. But first we had to weather another storm.

A very hazy NYC

Once on the mooring ball, which was a bit of a drama to secure, the angle we approached from only allowed me to grab the rope end closest to the ball, which then knocked against the hull and it took a lot of strength and swearing from Craig to pick up the looped end and put the plastic chafe sleeve in place.

We then took everything inside and decided to take off the back part of the dodger as this had rubbed against the solar panels during the last storm at Naushon Island and had worn 4 holes at the points of contact. We took down our Aussie flag we cant loose a second one.  Once the decks were cleared we went below to cook some bacon and eggs and hunker down from the storm. 
And as forecast around 4pm the wind picked up we managed to tune the TV and find a news station, the storm was on the news it was a big deal for NYC with wind gusts and flooding predicted.

The wind started howling and we swung back and forth with the bow facing into the wind so as the wind direction changes we swing around, some gusts hit us sideways and pushed into us but not too violently, we were never in danger of tipping over but it sometimes felt like it.   The fetch of the waves increased and at one stage when it was really bad we were also rocking back and forward like a hobby horse.  
You can never trust a mooring ball so the anchor alarm was on and we watched it like it was the TV..

We had our beers and popcorn around 4.30pm then dinner about 6.30pm we had so many leftovers we just heated them up, The only programs we could tune the tv into were old American cop shows like Cagney and Lacey, Cold Case and CSI the reception was not great so it was tedious to watch.  
We were ready for bed by 8.30pm the sun had disappeared at 7pm  At one stage something woke us up and we were so disappointed to find it was only 11pm..
It was so rocky Craig got up to lay on the couch he feels he can hear the whole boat from there rather than being in our bed at the bow of the boat, he also opened the hatch so he could hear if there were any changes to the incessant howling, bumping and clanging. 

Around midnight for some reason, he doesn't know why, he went up top to check on things outside,  as he turned on the engine to take the pressure off the mooring ball line he had to rub his eyes to make sure he was not seeing things, there was a concrete floating dock heading straight for us.

At first he thought it was a wave, then he realised what it was, in a panic, he started to yell for me (what was I going to do) but he then threw Adriana's stern around, just in time, the thing missed us only by inches.  the pontoon floated on past missing the boat behind us but we could not see after that. We imagined it was just like a bowling ball hitting skittles (we found out the next day it had come from a yacht club across the bay and it actually did not hit anything as it moved through the mooring field) 

After that adrenalin rush it was hard to settle back down, we were experiencing winds of 30 -35 knots as normal and getting gusts of up to 60  It was too uncomfortable in bed up the front but eventually I got cold and climbed in with my ipad and played solitaire until I
fell asleep, Craig climbed into bed around 6am he had gotten cold on the couch even with our big fluffy blanket over him.

Daylight emerged through the clouds and we managed to sleep until about 8am around 9.30am  the taxi owner called past to check on us, we told him about the near miss with the floating dock and he asked us to check that our anchor wasn't chaffing the rope holding us to the mooring ball.

After the storm there were a number of boats with torn sails and covers !!

Thursday 17th October 2019

We had a  very lazy day, the winds were not forecast to drop back until 6pm and in fact around midday 34 knots was average and at one stage while I was watching and we had gusts of 40 and 41.8, remember we like to sail at speeds of 8 knots with winds around
20 knots being ideal.  
It was grey and overcast with no sun so there was no solar, so no power which meant no TV so not even old American tv shows to watch.  The wind was still blowing strong at 6.15pm.

To keep busy I washed the bathroom walls and one of the corners in our bedroom with vinegar and then diluted clove oil: some mold was appearing and needed to be stopped before it spread,  but apart from that we read and watched the world bob and spin out through the window.

Friday 18th October 2019

Finally a nice sunny day, the clouds cleared and the wind dropped allowing us to catch the free water taxi into shore for a day in Port Washington, Our first stop was West Marine the one that wouldn't order in our part, then on to the supermarket.

Eventually we emerged and got to walk on land

We took advantage of the free taxi and went back to Adriana for lunch and to put away our shopping then headed out again to explore.  Its a lovely town set on a steep hill we walked up to the old part of town with its strip shops so different from the usual Malls. 
We checked out the railway station and picked up a timetable ready for NYC.  The original pub on the wharf had a good happy hour so we had an early dinner a  beer and a burger, there seems to be a pattern to our first day on land after a few days on the boat.

We were planning to head into NYC on the Saturday and Sunday, but a good thing happened that changed our plans by one day.
One of our nagging concerns with Adrianna has been a slight oil leak from the engine, Craig could not find the source of the leak he had been over the engine with a fine tooth comb and even used a mirror to look underneath and over some of the hard to see places but  he could not see anything.  
We asked Matt the water taxi owner if he could recommend a mechanic, he did and  we called and Guido was available the next morning to come to the boat and have a look.
We had to change our NYC plans, that was ok I would have the Saturday to myself while Craig worked with the mechanic.  

 

I had spotted a sign for the local library promoting a book swap, so the next morning I picked up the books we were finished with and headed to the library and wow you could take as many books as you wanted or in my case as many as I could carry all for free !! The hard part was lugging those books around for the rest of the day but it was worth it, I visited the op shop and generally enjoyed having a  walk around the town.
Sourcing things that we need is not a problem but having them delivered to us is proving to be difficult.  We organised for the part for the windlass to sent from Binnacle in Halifax - 10 days later we had not heard from Binnacle?

We rang them to discover that they had been unable to process our credit card and so the part had not even been ordered.  Then when we were in Gloucester we ordered the part from Amazon along with 2 Australian flags (so we had a spare) and a pump for our tap water (so we have a spare)  Amazon advised that these things would be shipped overnight, we gave the harbourmasters address - a street address with big numbers out the front.  The UPS guy did not deliver it said it was an unknown address !!  We cancelled that order and received a refund.  We had tried to ask West Marine to order in the part for us but they were doing inventory and could not place any orders ??  When we were in Port Washington we gave the home address of the Water Taxi , well somewhere along the line the address was written down wrong I think it was the postcode that was wrong so we had to cancel that order too.

Guido was great and sourced the leak it was a fixed line that went under the back seal of the engine, Craig had been worried that it was the seal and that it would be a huge job to fix.  So finding it was an easy fix was a huge relief.  Guido ordered the part and we would have to wait for it to come in.

Craig had looked over the engine but could not source the leak

It turned out to be underneath and bent around so really well hidden 

We are ready for our day out in New York City.  When we flew from Florida to Toronto we flew directly over NYC and I was so excited never dreaming that I would get to actually visit it....