Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Start Spreading the News




It's that time again. We left Cape Henlopen, Delaware and headed to a marina to top off fuel in Cape May, New Jersey. We anchored for a couple hours to wait for an outgoing tide....life is so much easier if you're not fighting current At 2:00 we headed north off the Jersey coast. We had perfect timing. We got to Atlantic Highlands to top up the fuel and were able to head to NYC to take advantage of the current!

Here we are headed towards Manhattan



After passing through all the really high traffic areas we turned a corner to come upon this HUGE barge and tug. We contacted him on the radio early and he requested that we pass in front of him to pass starboard to starboard ( a two whistle pass). Yikes, he was big.




I think these buildings were funded by politicians....wait for it.





Yes, they're crooked.



We always enjoy seeing the hustle and bustle of NYC and love that Freedom was doing 11.5 knots of speed with the current assist!



Sunday, June 26, 2016

Weather or Not

We intended to make our way north much faster this year. Weather forecasting has been the issue, this has been the most diffucult six months, weather wise, we have yet to experience. Lots of systems headed this way and that. Weather guessers just couldn't agree about what exactly would happen so we played it safe and stayed in nice protected waters and anchorages. We spent some time in the Sassafras River and some time in Annapolis. We took advantage of a good weather window to travel to the Delaware Bay.

We got to experience this beautiful sunrise as we approached the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.






We spent one rolly night anchored mid bay and headed to Cape Henlopen, a harbor of refuge near the town of Lewes. The Cape May/Lewes Ferries run through here and have facilities that include a restaurant and bus service to outlet malls and "historic Lewes, Delaware". They also have festivals and concerts from time to time. We got our anchor down and battened down the hatches for an approaching thunderstorm. Sustained 40 knot winds with 50 knot gusts made it very interesting. Our wind instrument froze at some point and the Cape May Coast Gaurd station 15 miles away reported 80 knot gusts! Yikes!

Here are pictures the festival we went to. A dress made of seaglass?