North to NYC!

I have had quite a hiatus from the blog, and I apologize for such a long silence.  We are weathering this winter in New Bern, NC, where the temperatures have been quite cold.  A positive of the delay in the blog is that I am looking through all the fun and WARM places we were this summer and fall.  It make me feel a bit warmer myself, seeing photos of us in shorts and tshirts. 

When I left off, we had completed the ICW northbound and entered the Chesapeake Bay.  From our past experience there, we knew it was a fun place to travel and explore.  However, the heat of summer was upon us in mid-June, and we were heading north to escape the heat (I sure would like some of that excessive, oppressive heat now!).  Our short term goal was to get north of NYC and on to Long Island Sound as quickly as possible, where the weather would be more mild.  Aside from a short stop in Solomon's Island for some stormy weather, we were moving north as quickly as possible. 

Travelling quickly is a term we use pretty loosely here on Tatiana, and while the speed may not have felt any faster than normal, we weren't stopping anywhere to smell the roses.  It was a pleasant change, that the red and green daymarkers of the ICW had changed to lighthouses and bouys, so we were required to slow down and take a few photos.  We even had a lovely spinnaker run up the bay one day!

We stopped at Reedville, VA, where there is an active fishing fleet.  This was one of a half a dozen fishing boats we saw there. 

An obligatory lighthouse photo on another lovely sail heading north.

Regrettably, the closest we got to Annapolis was Thomas Point lighthouse.

I think every cruiser up the Chesapeake is require to photo the Bay Bridge.  It is a beauty, and you can't beat the perspective.  

At the north end of the Chesapeake is the Chesapeake-Delaware canal, also known as the C&D Canal.  It connects these two busy commercial bays, but can also be used as a inland route to New Jersey.  There were several nice bridges along the canal.

There were also some big ships - this was the biggest we encountered.  It's a car transport ship, and believe me, we were giving this behemoth as much room as we could.

The Delaware Bay was far less scenic than the Chesapeake, and it was extremely busy with shipping traffic.  We were happy to leave the Delaware Bay and enter the Atlantic as we rounded Cape May.  Here is a view of the cape as we exited the bay.

We were fortunate to have some very benign conditions here, as Cape May is known to get really rough when it's windy.  There was hardly a ruffle of water as we headed offshore.  If fact, it was so benign, that we decided to keep going overnight and end up in NYC the next day! 

On our way north, we passed Atlantic City at sunset.

As you can see, we found some cooler weather.

An low an behold, we found NYC!  Here is the Verazzano Bridge, and the entrance to the NYC inner harbor.

And someone else, we hope you all recognize.  

We ended up anchoring behind Lady Liberty with wonderful views all round.  We splashed the dinghy to get some photo of Tatiana and her surroundings.  

It was a very special experience to arrive in NYC by boat, and anchor in the harbor.  The night was visually spectacular (they light up both the city and the statue), but it was also very bouncy, with ferry boat wakes rocking us all about.  We were happy to stop here, but the following day it was time to move somewhere we could get some sleep!