NYC Pretty much Sucked, But we are Having Fun Again!

All it took was a day away from the city, back on "the hook" to remind us of why we are doing this.

After our move to the Liberty Island anchorage, we left early Thursday morning for Atlantic Highlands, NJ. The trip went smoothly, although the first part was again a little stressful since we traded the NYC water taxis for the Staten Island Ferries. I plotted a course on our new chartplotter that kept us along the main shipping channels so things actually went quite well.

After we arrived in the anchorage and were confident the anchor was set, it was time to relax and have a little fun. I went around to talk to a couple of other boats, seems we are all here for the same reason, waiting for Hurricane Bill to pass so we can run the 110 miles down the coast to the Delaware Bay.

Once again it was stinkin` hot, so it was nice to be somwhere we could all swim ( we didn`t realize crabs could swim!!). The day ended with our 182nd viewing of Lemony Snicketts.

Today was another hot one, and unfortunately called for a visit to shore. We needed to go to West Marine to get charts for the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. This really brought to focus how much we love being on the boat and hate having to be onshore. Mitch and I caught a cab to WM, Lisa and Delaney checked out the local shops in town. We also picked-up a few necessities (milk, bread, cerveza),before gettting back just before some bad weather.
I had actually just taken the kids off in the dinghy to check-out some kiteboarding kites off in the distance (hopefully get some kiting in tomorrow), when the front moved in. As we were heading back to the boat, we hit a wall of wind that was about 10C cooler than anything we had felt the past 2 days. The wind had also shifted 180 degrees from the heading it was on when we set the anchor (no fear, our new $600 Rocna15 anchor was up to the challeng).

Anyway, some pretty spectacular thunder and lightning kept us entertained, the benefit being a great sunset.

The kids were a great help cleaning up after supper, Delaney even made us some garlic toast to go along with the pasta.

We really needed a change after two longs days on the Hudson River and our time in NYC . It was taking it`s toll . It`s not always easy keeping everyone happy and entertained, kids and adults alike!

On another positive note, we found out that the marina on the Chesapeake Bay that our friends Bobbie and Gord recommended will be able to accomodate us when I return to work in a couple of weeks. Sounds like there are quite a few kids living aboard there, a very family-oriented kid friendly spot (and well protected from hurricanes).

Life is good!!

Later,

The Crew of the Good Ship ``Happy Again``