August 3 - 5

I'm going to lump the days together, since the offshore journey was one big day to us.  We got up about 7:00 and started getting ready.  We aren't really rushing since I expect the trip to take us into the middle of Friday anyway, so it's not imperative to get a real early start.  We fueled the boat and were underway at 09:10.  The trip out of Norfolk to the open water is over twenty miles.  It took us past the battleship and huge sailboat that we saw yesterday, past  numerous Navy boats that were docked at various businesses that do work for the Navy, and finally past the Navy base itself.  We got to see the submarines, aircraft carriers and all the other boats we saw yesterday, but from the water side this time.  There were several hot-rod Zodiacs with security guys lingering around watching passing boats.  Although we were snapping pictures, nobody questioned us.  Once past the shipyard,, we were headed out Hampton Roads to the sea.  This took us over one of the tunnel portions of the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel. 

Past the tunnel, we turned northeast and headed offshore.  We are going about ten miles offshore, where we can then take a straight line north without worrying about water depths.  Of course there is hardly any wind, and it is out of the north, exactly the opposite of the forecast, so we are motoring.  There is not a lot to worry about through here.  No proliferation of crab traps.  Not a lot of other traffic either. 

We didn't see a huge amount of sea life.  One thing we saw though was a huge turtle.  We have seen several turtles along the way, but this one was the biggest.  It was easily two feet long, and it's head was the size of a softball or larger.  It was lazily swimming on the surface about twenty feet from where we passed.  The other wildlife we dealt with all the way was flies.  Little black normal housefly looking things that bit.  Swatting flies became our entertainment during the day when you could see them.  When one of us slept, we had to keep a beach towel over us to keep them from biting. 

The first night was calm and pretty quiet.  There were a few boats passing one way or the other, but nothing we couldn't handle.  We did find that there are quite a few floats, including many that had four foot sticks on them, out there.  We were in about seventy foot water, so I don't know what they were marking.  They were not in groups like crab traps are.  A few were actually flimsy plastic bags, like a dry cleaning bag, filled with air and tied to a line.  I don't see how those could last very long.  Fortunately, we missed them all.

We saw a lot more trash on the water than anywhere else.  Floating plastic bottles, or cans, or dead Mylar balloons that some kid let go.  I saw two cardboard boxes floating merrily along, and a fender from a boat.

By Thursday morning, it was apparent that we were making too good time.  Since we were motoring, we were making about 6.8 kts for the first twenty-four hours.  This pace would put us in NY harbor about 01:00.  We don't want to do that.  I never want to enter a busy harbor in the dark, and I want to see the sights as we come in.  There is no wind at all now, so we just slow the motor down.  Throughout the day and night, I keep refiguring the ETA, and slowing down, until finally the last two hours before dawn we are only going about 4 kts.  This night is a little more challenging because there is more ship traffic as we get closer to NY.  We arrive at the end of the Ambrose channel, which is the main approach to New York Harbor just as the dawn is getting light enough to see markers.  We speed up and follow the channel in, although we actually stay slightly out of the main channel to avoid ship traffic.

It s very, very hazy in the morning, so we can't see things more than about two miles away.  Finally, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge begins to come into view.  The Verrazano Narrows Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the USA and second longest in the world.  It was cool going under it.  After negotiating a bit of large ship traffic, we were able to get to the other side of the channel by the time we got up to the Statue of Liberty.  I was there two years ago and I said then that the next time I saw it would be from the water.  And here we were.  It was just 08:00 as we passed, so there were no tourists out there yet to be taking our pictures.  We passed by as close as you are allowed, which is about 150 yards. 

Liberty Landing Marina is not much further north, also on the New Jersey side.  We pulled in their channel and circled up to the fuel dock.  To give you an idea of how calm the winds are, I had the mainsail up all the way since it provides stability to the ride even when there's only a little wind.  Well, I forgot it was up and docked with it flying.  You wouldn't do that if there was any wind at all.  While we waited to fuel, I furled it.  We had to wait almost an hour for fuel because they only have one diesel pump and a powerboat was getting his 600 gallons.  Once we had our fuel, we moved around to a slip.  We hit the showers, had a bite to eat at the onsite restaurant, and hit the sack for the afternoon.

We awoke about 16:00 feeling a little more human.  We had been in touch with Casey, our friend's daughter from Texas, and we are going to get together with her this evening.  About 18:30 we hopped on the water taxi that comes right to the marina and crossed the Hudson to Manhattan.  The water taxi lets you off at the World Financial Center, which is just a couple of blocks from Ground Zero.  One of the WFC buildings is corporate headquarters of American Express, who I worked for, for ten years while in Phoenix.

We walked the few blocks from the taxi landing to Ground Zero.  We had been here two years ago and were interested to see how it has changed.  While I'm sure a lot of work has been accomplished in those two years, it still is a gaping wound in the ground.  There still are many people visiting along the Church St. side of the site looking at the temporary memorial they built, and leaving flowers.  Having watched the towers being built as a teenager, and visiting them many times, there is still a very eerie feeling when being here now.

After a couple of slices of NY style pizza, we hailed a cab and went up to midtown to meet Casey.  Our cab driver was middle eastern and he asked us where we were from.  We said Texas, and he said he was afraid of Texans.  We asked why, and he said because we had the big liar.  I took the bait and asked if he meant the President.  He said yes, he was the world's biggest liar.  He then turned around (while driving) and very matter-of-factly said "you should kill him".  He also said we "would go directly to Mecca" if we did this.  Well, regardless of what you think of the President, or the whole state of world affairs today, I was quite surprised that this guy would openly say something like this to two Americans in America, let alone ones that he just picked up at Ground Zero.  After I told him I didn't think that would be a good idea, he didn't say much more to us.  We heard a story on the local news about a new school for taxi drivers that teaches them to be polite and treat the customers nicely.  Guess this guy has not attended yet.

We met Casey at a nice little Irish pub.  I didn't realize it, but NY has outlawed smoking in bars and restaurants.  It was nice.  We visited with Casey for a couple of hours and then headed back to the boat.  The water taxi stops running at 20:45, so we have to use an alternate plan to get there.   Rather than figure out the subway from midtown, we hailed a cab and took it to the train station at the World Trade Center.  This new train station was the first rebuilding done at the site and was opened a couple of years ago.  From here we took a PATH train across the river to Jersey City.  Once in Jersey City, we took a cab to the marina.  We were two tired puppies by now and crashed.

GPS N 40-42.610 W 74-02.490  Miles made good this leg 300. Total miles covered 2256.