Maryland, New Jersey and New York

We had a nice visit with Tom’s family in Ocean City, Maryland.  His mother lives 15 minutes away from the marina and we spent all but two nights sleeping off the boat at her home.  All three of us luxuriated in baths almost every night and really slept soundly in her beds. We played cards or other games each night and it was like we had never left.  She had a small list of things to do mostly in her kitchen area that was being updated.  Most items were completed quickly and we were happy to help out.  We also did some other little items and some cleaning but brother Jeff has been doing most of this work for the past six years.

 

While we visited, a local mechanic sorted out problems with a generator (new raw water and coolant pumps) and lugger transmission (reverse plates missing and damaged seals from Africa repair).  The work was more expensive than we have grown used to but the work seemed to be done right and higher prices, I fear, are going to be the norm from here on.

As a bonus, Tom got to see his brother Mike working on the kitchen and brother Jeff and sister-in-law Peggy and two of their 6 kids.  Emily really enjoyed playing with Brian who had latched on to her and never tired of playing games. We enjoyed being paraded around to my mother’s bingo and AARP clubs and we even got interviewed by Ocean City Today for an article about the circumnavigation.

After two weeks, we headed out to sea and after two quick stops in Atlantic City and Sandy Hook, we found ourselves anchored just off Liberty Park in New Jersey just across from New York City.  We still cannot believe that there is a free, protected anchorage near this city where most marinas charge about $200 per night for dockage. The half-broken dingy dock that was here in 2008 is now gone and we now have to dingy right under the Statue of Liberty torch and by Ellis Island to leave the dingy at the expensive marina.  From here we can take a $7 ferry right to the World Trade center in Manhattan.  

We stayed here for 5 nights exploring the city for two days. On our first day, we saw the 911 memorial that was quite moving and the new World Trade Center building (Freedom Tower) that was built while we were traveling. 

 

We then took the subway uptown to spend the day in the Museum of Natural History. We spent a full day exploring the museum and barely scratched the surface.  The pterosaur exhibit and the exhibit on poisons were particularly well done.  

 

One exhibit worked by standing on a special pad and flapping your arms, you could control a live video of a flying and hunting pterosaur.  Emily understood that all the information was being transmitted though her feet to the computer.  The foot pads could detect arms flapping by the fluctuating changes in foot pressure.  Pressure on the toes would cause the bird to dive for fish and pressure on the heels would make him soar higher.  Left and right turns would be directed by the differences in pressure caused by leaning…very well done.

Emily found it interesting that many of the poisons like the tarantula, manchineel tree and poison dart frogs had been seen (and handled) first hand! We also saw the Mysteries of the Unseen World in their IMAX theatre.

Day two kept us closer to the boat and we spent the day inside the Liberty Science Center which was about a 10 minute walk from our anchorage.  Although many of the exhibits and interactive displays were geared toward kids younger than Emily, there was still plenty to keep us amused all day.  A high cool factor was given to the 3D simulator that required remote operation of two robotic arms to do delicate tasks like moving and transferring small objects.  Emily was much better at this than Dad.
 

We also saw two movies (Great White Shark and Island of Lemurs: Madagascar) in the nation’s largest IMAX dome theater.  The domed screen is 88 feet in diameter and seats 400 which is just a tad bigger than the 17” screen on Emily Grace.

 

After a quiet Sunday aboard doing homeschool and a few boat repairs, we headed back to the city. Although the subway was crowded with morning rush hour traffic, we did not experience 105 dB music, smell any stinkfruit (durian) or see anyone carrying live goats or chickens.   

The first stop was FAO Swartz (toy store) uptown near central park.  Emily experienced culture shock with 3 floors of toys.  We next wandered around central park seeing the Handsome cabs and did some people watching around the pond. We found authentic Maine lobster rolls for lunch at Luke’s Lobster in the Plaza food center.  

We strolled down 5^th avenue enjoying the elaborate window displays.  St Patricks’ Cathedral was covered with scaffolding for renovations and Rockefeller center was converted into a restaurant, so things were less impressive than we remembered.  Not discouraged though, we rounded the corner a turned into a LEGO store.  Emily has not tired of LEGO and we even found a couple of bargains.  She hand built 3 mini-figures and filled a container with all the special pieces she could fit in a special cup.

We were back on the boat by late afternoon and slept good again in the Liberty Park anchorage.  Tomorrow we will ride the 3-4 knot current up the East River through Hell’s Gate and into Long Island sound.  Our plan is to slowly work our way back towards Groton and our old yacht club in Pine Island by early July.  Our old car is still being revived after sitting for 6 years and we are uncertain where we will find dockage while we unpack the boat.  Any Readers with dockage in the area are encouraged to let us know.

Tom

Moving North up the Ditch

It was a bumpy overnight ride from Charleston to Carolina Beach, NC.  We slipped by Cape Fear into the intracoastal, through Snows Cut and down Masonburo Sound to find our destination.  Carolina Beach is a nice town with the ocean on one side and the calm sound on the other with cottages lined up between.  We were greeted at a really nice dingy dock where they had individual slips for each dingy with proper cleats.  We tied up and enjoyed strolling the town. 

We found a nice place serving local fried oyster Po-Boys that were really good.  As we walked near the beach we saw a line of not less than 60 people lined up at Britts.  We found out that they only serve one thing…hot, fresh glazed doughnuts!  Since the locals promised that they were famous “round these parts”, we joined the line and chowed down.  They were, in fact, good.

44 miles up the ditch, we pulled into Mike Hammock Bay for the night, which is a part of Camp Lejune.  We enjoyed watching the Marines playing war around us in the sea and air.

 

Another 40 miles up the ditch brought us to Beaufort, NC.  We visited the North Carolina Maritime Museum were they had all kinds of artifacts from Blackbeards ship Queen Anne’s Revenge that was recently found nearby.  We stocked up at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store (I just love that name) and moved on.

 

Two more anchorages in the Nuese and Alligator Rivers allowed us to rest for two nights tied up at the free Elizabeth City docks.  Kim spotted turtles all along the rivers and even saw one alligator. We even found a free electrical plug in Elizabeth City that I could reach with two 100 foot extension cords I had aboard.  It was enjoyable being able to step ashore and not running the generator to keep the batteries happy was also nice.

Another two nights and we crossed into Virginia and pulled into a dock at Atlantic Yacht Basin.  They are known for quality work and I needed a second opinion on a transmission problem.  Unfortunately they confirmed that I will need to pull it out of the boat (as I did in Africa 2 years ago) and change some seals.  Their quote was too high so we made arrangements to have this work done while we visit with my mother in Ocean City, Maryland.

We moved 10 miles to the north and found ourselves in Norfolk, Va.  Here we found the Chrysler Museum and Glassworks to be extraordinary and, even better, both were free to enter.  

 

 

The car magnate opened his collection to the public and we all enjoyed the artwork and artifacts from around the world.   

 

 

The blown glass, cameos and paintings were breathtaking and this statues face really captured my emotion as I discovered that my transmission needed to be repaired again!

We visited the Glassworks and saw a presentation where a glass vase was created and blown from liquid glass to the finished product.

We had one more day to wait for weather to move up in the Atlantic Ocean to Ocean City Maryland, so we went ashore again.  This day we visited the Nauticus museum. We spent 2 hours in the morning just going through the museum and had lunch out side and came back to see the ship.  Berthed at Nauticus, the Wisconsin is one of the largest and last battleships ever built by the U.S. Navy. It was impressive and Emily liked seeing the oversized equipment like anchors and windlass compared to our little ship.

The weather report finally said go and we headed out to sea again.  It was another overnight passage to Ocean City and we slipped into the marina at 8:30 AM.  Once hooked up to power and water and rinsed off, we called my mother who lives in nearby Berlin.  We will get our transmission and generator all fixed up while we visit for 2 weeks.  My mother has a short list of handyman items that I can help with and the whole crew is looking forward to long baths and beds that don’t move!

Tom