Hard to believe the Atlantic can look like a pond

We had the option of stopping in Cape May on our way up or doing a straight shot home. Cruising friend Mike (from Luperon) had just gotten home to Wildwood and encouraged us to stop for July 4, but we knew a cold front was approaching and didn’t want to get trapped, or worse – have another snarly run up the New Jersey coast. So we opted for the straight shot to Staten Island. From a boating perspective it was wildly boring – mostly motoring with very little sailing. The VHF radio was busy though. Reports of sinking boats (my favorite was the Sea Tow captain who kept reassuring the Coast Guard that the six people AND the dog were safe and sound, plus the rec cruiser who gave the play by play commentary (‘she managed to keep her hat on coming out of the water!’), a humpback whale, and jet skis drifting having run out of fuel. The scariest though was a situation where someone 20 miles out on a fishing boat started experiencing seizures and losing consciousness. It was rather incredible to listen to the coordination between the Coast Guard, the boat captain, and the helicopter sent out to pick the victim up – makes me grateful that we have the public support system out on the water that we do.

Final sunrise during offshore run

Fixing the auto-pilot underway

After all that excitement, as we were nearing the tip of Sandy Hook, we finally caught a little bit of wind and were able to fly the spinnaker one last time into Raritan Bay. We were close to our harbor, but still out in the bay when the fireworks started – we could watch them all the way from Red Bank up and around the coast to Coney Island. Staten Island must have come into serious money, because every neighborhood was setting off their own fireworks that night – we pretended it was to celebrate our return, and it was just a coincidence that it was July 4…

Captain Matthew and first mate Dr Aramide

We had a couple of days to clean the boat and get organized before our ride was arriving, and in the meantime we heard from another friend from the Dominican Republic (Matthew, who we met in Samana). Sailing solo on his 40 foot catamaran with his kitten, Dr. Aramide (French for Kevlar), he had done a straight shot up the coast from Florida to New York. He dropped anchor in our harbor and we went ashore to have dinner at the Tiki Bar at the Marina Café (where we had gotten married almost 6 years ago). After dinner we went back to Matthew’s boat to play with the kitten and enjoy some sipping rum before coming back to our boat to pass out (it does take a few days to recover from offshore multi-day runs).

Staten Island celebrating our return – or July 4

The cold front is moving in today and it’s generally nasty weather. So we’re down below, cleaning the boat, packing up things that need to go home (round one that goes immediately and round two of ‘later’ – lots of negotiation as to what goes in which pile). We’re down to three beers, leftover pulled pork and some veggies that will make a final dinner of quesadillas tonight as we watch a movie while the next set of squalls run through.

Next up – a summary of my thoughts on this adventure and what it’s like to go through re-entry….