Safe after Sandy

Just wanted to drop a quick note to let everyone know that Rosa and her owners made it safely through Hurricane Sandy.

Rosa was taken out of the water at Solomon's Island, MD, and stripped as bare as possible before the hurricane arrived. Ted and Barbara spent the storm with family, and everyone made it through safe and sound.

After putting the boat back together again, they're now headed south as quickly as they can, aiming for warmer weather. If all goes well, they should be in the Intracoastal Waterway tomorrow.

Mallory

Shake down cruise, NYC to Mt Desert and back to Newport

If you can possibly manage to take a trip like ours, please do so.  You will be rewarded in so many unpredictable ways.

On leaving New York, we made our  way East on Long Island Sound, then on to Buzzard’s Bay, the Cape Cod Canal, and Down East to Maine. Rosa has been wonderful in all breezes, and we’ve sailed most of the 900 miles we traveled.   Her spinnaker brings her to life when there’s a soft wind at our back, and she’s nicely stable even in high winds and waves. Motoring has its uses though, and is especially valuable in giving us the freedom to navigate in strong currents (tidal and river).  Her cabin provides shelter at the end of the day, her anchor keeps us safe even in high winds, and her gentle rock lulls us to sleep.  In all respects our cutter Rosa dos Ventos has been a delightful maritime companion. 

Caring for our boat has taken more time (and money) than we’d expected, but each breakdown or mistake leads to a more thorough understanding of Rosa and her systems and the learning required to ‘right the wrong’ is extraordinarily satisfying. As we intend to live on (and with) this boat, we want both to care for her and to know how to do it.  Old friends John Hammond and the Mezzanottis (Richard and Carol) have provided amazing help.  Many new friends from marinas and from other boats have helped as well, and will be fondly remembered as we use and reuse the systems we now associate with them.

October marks the beginning of the next leg of our journey, and we look forward to determining how the change in emphasis changes us.  The summer and the coast of New England let us visit friends and familiar places (see below).  From now on, the coasts will be new to us and our friends much further from each other.  Each day so far has been full of fresh air, satisfying learning and good people.  Rosa is our home, and we have solved problems of computer access, windlass dysfunction, odor, GPS failure, fog, and leaks.  We eat really well, walk wherever we want to go (or use busses see Ted below), and certainly sleep well.  We do miss our Vermont friends, and hope they will stay in touch (and visit!).

Filters for new Spectra Watermaker.  As you will note Barbara starts with this image of her OBSESSION, and you are treated to this rather technical manifestation or our much loved desalinator (needed to match B's technical obsession with at least a bow to this complicated piece of technology that has made our lives better).

 



Ted at the helm of our dinghy in Newport Harbor, and later waiting for the #60 bus in Newport.  He got to know this route well as it was the way we got to West Marine and the DePaul Diesel... .


Motoring through the Cape Cod Canal for the first time

 

 Friends and family were welcoming along the coast of Maine, especially Nick and Cindy Clainos in Kittery (left),  Bob and Donna Hamill (below),

 

 

and Percy Grant and Nan Hunter (below sailing with Barbara).  We loved seeing Roberta and Larry Coffin (who were inspiring to us in planning our voyages),  cousins Nancy, Oscar and Mike Boyson, and Sandra and Martin Dominguez (see photo of his seafood paella).

 

 

 

Weather of all kinds passed over (squall above), as did vessels of all kinds (Bounty below).

 

It felt wonderful to arrive at our family home in Sawyer Cove with Ted and Rosa, having travelled by boat the whole way!  See 'Rosa' outlined on our chart plotter in Sawyer Cove. 

 

 

Walks on Isle au Haut (Ted at left, and Cadillac Mt (Barbara at right) stretched our sea legs and rewarded us with great views.

The view from our deck one morning at Tenant's Harbor was lovely,

and characteristic of Maine too.

 

A week in Europe in September completed all Ted's remaining professional obligations, and gave us a chance to walk around Brussels:

 

Now we are back on the coast of New England, and have spent a few weeks at Portsmouth RI completing some work (including both solar and wind systems) on the boat.  We look forward to cruising slowly South, to seeing many of you, and to posting more frequently!

Hop-O-Nose to Manhattan

Hard to believe we have been sailing for 50 days (a fact uncovered when Barbara pointed out  this morning thatI had just finished half the box of my Red Rose ((morning)) tea bags).  As you can see we are trying to catch up on our blogging.  As neophyte bloggers and bloggees there is a rather high activation threshold.  However, for better or worse... .  After stepping our mast we set off to transit down the Hudson and onto Long Island Sound.  The Hudson is a very busy thorofare and we were often dwarfed by the barge traffic. Navigating the river was an interesting experience since the tide is felt as far upstream as Albany. 

Mast stepped we started down the Hudson.  This large barge being pushed by the tugboat seen at the aft end is typical of the large ship traffic on the Hudson.  THEY HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY!

We encouthered many beautiful light houses on the river, usually on a point of land. This one was unusual for its island location. 

Mallory, MIT architect,  loved to capture images of these small cottages all along the lower Hudson, both old and new.

                               

One of many gravel elevators supporting the voracious appetites of NYC. 

West Point -- Beat Airforce

2 views of the main West Point Campus.  An imposing fortress.  Followed by a buccolic scene just down river on the opposite bank.

Bear Mountain Bridge just south of West Point, a pretty spot leading up to Storm King Highway which Luke and I did in a bike ride 4 years ago.  He failed to let me (Ted) know the highway was 5 miles of a rather rigorous climb.  The other side was a glorious down hill romp (much appreciated by the near-elderly!

First glimpse of Manhattan...

The crew checking out the city with a small "c" (for Russ T...)

We had a long reach down the Hudson.

 

 Captain and First Mate--your guess...

And nearer...

Big smile as we near the 79th Street Marina

Mallory aglow with the prospect of Manhattan,

The city from the poop deck,,,

180 degree views from the 79th street Yacht Basin.  We walked up through the  79th St  Yacht Basin Cafe  and right up onto the west end of 79th street.   A great way to visit the city.  Can't beat the hotel price (if you don't count the boat etc etc etc.)  Visited Barbara's sister Drayton who lives on East 78th street, a great opportunity to try public transport. The 79th st bus took us from the west end of 79th to within a block of Drayton and Wayne's apartment.

Ellis Island, through which nary a Grant nor Bovill passed.  

A moving experience to see the Great Lady from the water.

Racing up the East river on a flood tide to  make it through Hells Gate.  Mallory exercising her passion  for photographing bridges.  Even she was saturated in this regard by the end of our round Manhattan transit

A rollicking passage under the Brooklyn Bridge,

After a wild ride through Hells Gate at 12 knots (Rosa has a hull speed of about 7 knots) we dropped Mallory off at the Worlds Fair Marina (the existence of which we only learned of the day before) where the harbor master delivered her to La Guardia's Delta terminal 30 minutes after we dropped her off.  We continued on to the Long Island Sound.

Hop-O-Nose (mast up)

We were suprised by the lack of effective internet connectivity in many of the marinas we stayed at along the way.  We are finally in Maine and can start to post some of our experiences starting with Catskill NY, the location of the Hop-O-Nose marina where most of the sailing cruisers have their mast put up after leaving the Champlain Canal.  The following are images from the mast stepping, followed by our trip down the Hudson and our arrival in Manhattan.

This is Sean running the oldest mast stepping crane in the northeast.  Reputed to have been built in the 1890s for work on maintaining the Champlain Canal.  Sean played it like a Steinway grand.  It is driven by the tiny electric motor in the grey box just below his right arm.

Up she goes...

Highly trained and paid, technically sophisticated, experts calmly (well one of them doesn't look so calm) letting  our 1500 # mast  down on to the keel stepping plate.  The brains of the operation is in the background with a pink shirt.  John Hammond was good enough to help the uninitiated put their boat back together!

The brains (white shirt tan pants) and the brawn (blue shirt and shorts) settle the forestay in  place.

The captain connecting the complex electrical circuitry flowing out of the  base of the mass like Medusa's coif.

Barbara raised on the Bosun's chair for some fine tuning .

Barbara putting up the signal flag for drinks all around celebrating the successful mast step  after making some highly technical adjustments to the man-overboard gear on the backstay.

The girls enjoying a well earned respite after a busy day.

The boys (Russ Tracy-who actually knows something about transiting the canal, John Hammond-who actually knows something about sailboats and  Ted-limited in both domains) enjoying the end of the day,,,

Two lovely couples after a long days work,  However, I was surprised to learn that  my wife was a  Romney fan when she broke out her new T-shirt

Aloha Nui! to our closest of friends and partners in messing about with boats, than which there is nothing better...