On our journey from the USA to Canada we took the boys to see the thunderous Horseshoe Falls at Niagara. Magnificent.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Niagara Falls
On our journey from the USA to Canada we took the boys to see the thunderous Horseshoe Falls at Niagara. Magnificent.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Canada
We are taking a road trip to Port Hope, Canada to visit Nicola's relations and her mother who is flying in for three weeks.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Not always easy
Buoy 61. Spa Creek. Annapolis
Seraphim is being fixed: engine, dinghy outboard, heating, mainsail, bimini and life raft. It’s all here and it’s easy. On Monday 7th September, Labour Day Weekend, the equivalent of our August Bank holiday and the last perceived weekend of summer,
Seraphim and her crew took a buoy in Annapolis. After three very tough weeks which brought on the “we-want-to-give-it-up blues”, it all began to get better.
Friday 21st August to the end of the month.
Hurricane Bill came through, thumped the Canadian Maritimes and blew out. From our safe marina in the Catskills Mountains the Seraphims motored back down the Hudson River to overnight at 79th Street Boat Basin.
Early the next morning, with the strong (ebb) tide going our way it was south along the west side of Manhattan, taking in some more spectacular views. Passed Battery Park, around the tip of Manhattan - then Wall Street, up to the East Side, South Street Seaport, under the Brooklyn Bridge, passed the United Nations and to Hells Gate, which since John had timed the tides was exhilarating but not hellish.
A couple of hours out of Manhattan, our first stop was the enchanting City Island which seemed like a little England to us. A Fish and Chip shop and pubs which actually looked inviting, not the usual fake blahs. A place to stay a while but with Newport in our sights, it was onwards. An invigorating sail revived our energies jaded from anxiety over Hurricane Bill. It was then the weather radio brought reports of tropical storm Danny and the news radio reports of Senator Edward Kennedy’s death.
Danny was an unstable system and potentially much more unpredictable than Bill. I thought of JFK’s words, or a dodgy paraphrase there of, we don’t do this because it’s easy.
For Hurricane Isabel in 04 we did not move and hoped she would miss us, she remained on track right up the Chesapeake. A direct hit. (The full account is here under Hurricane Isabel in the Archives.)
A year later, in the UK we prayed hurricane Ivan would miss Moonshine in Grenada. Ivan stalled around St Lucia, zig-zagged, and turned towards Grenada. A direct hit. We now get out of the way. Newport, Rhode Island and the rest of Long Island Sound were abandoned as we returned to New York. Danny was upgraded to Hurricane strength. Two in two weeks, enough already.
The grey, rainy trip around NYC echoed our mood. Fortunately a buoy became free just after our arrival at 79th Street Boat Basin, grateful thanks to the God of Buoys. Pedro, the charming laconic dockmaster greeted us and took care of us. I had not realised the Boat Basin has featured in several movies such as “You’ve Got Mail.”
That evening a vital part of Seraphim’s engine water pump failed. After dark the dinghy outboard died. (The spare had been lost overboard) Enough already. We had discovered it was not possible to row against the 3.6knot current in the Hudson. It was not safe to stay on the buoy without a dinghy. In the dark and wrung out we took Seraphim alongside to the 79th Street dock where we were still rolled through the night by the wakes but onto uber fenders.
To bolster or rather bulk up our crumbling energies we breakfasted at Nicks (Broadway and 77th) on the finest Eggs Benedict’s, served by Angelica who even after forty years in New York retains her thick German accent calling customers “Darlink” and “Sweethaaart“. (Think the “goyles” in the Kitkat Club in Cabaret).
The Seraphims know the Garment District of Manhattan well, it is the area around the American chandlery, West Marine. I mentioned the incongruity of the location to Ed, the manager, who replied 37th and 5th have all you could need: clothes, marine shop, porn and psychics, and our canteen “Main Noodles” around the corner.
After too many visits to West Marine Jack insisted on visiting “Encore”, his name for Concorde. On display near the Hudson River next to Aircraft Carrier, Intrepid.
After a final visit to West Marine to secure a dinghy outboard and with a spare water pump holding the engine problem, Seraphim bid farewell to New York in the same early morning light in which we had arrived, three weeks before.
And the breakages continued.
The New Jersey coast is ugly in all ways. There are few harbours and the inlets to reach them can be treacherous. The ocean floor is twenty metres deep for at least five miles out which forces an ocean of water to pile up into confused, short waves causing the boat to slam down. Uncomfortable and exhausting at best. Our trip north had been a rare window of calm.
En route north to New York the weather had been benevolent, an overnight sail took us from Cape May to Sandy Hook. However the journey south in what was considered a good forecast, a north east wind, was gruelling. Only 100 odd miles seemed a 1000 perpendicular. The mainsail ripped. We don’t do it because it’s easy.
In a mere 15 knots the entrance to half-way point Atlantic City was perilous. The anchorage was untenable and we were forced into taking a place on a dodgy dock at Kammerman’s Atlantic City Marina.
In the evening, projected light displays cover the nearby casino tower blocks. From the gambling Mecca it was a slog onto Cape May where the anchorage is beside a Coastguard Boot Camp. Reveille at dawn, marching and more marching and taps at sundown.
Weeks earlier, in 90 degrees in early August, waiting for weather on our voyage north we took in Cape May’s seaside town. It's an $8 taxi away from Utches marina which is 20 minutes by dinghy from the anchorage. The taxi driver boasted of the “old” Victoria houses, all artfully decorated to lure Bed and Breakfast guests.
Leather skinned dragons who reminded me of the Iguanas in the Bahamas guarded the beach and demanded $5 per adult. The lizard eyes fixed on us. Our polite request for a 10 minute paddle with the children was met with a $10 “tag” fee or a no. I hoped what wasn’t already shrivelled soon would be. On the bash south from New York we did not leave the anchorage.
Finally the end was in our sights but the crashing and rolling as the Atlantic ocean clashed with the entrance of the Delaware River produced some of the worst conditions we have experienced…until we entered Baltimore. Scores of motor boats regardless of the damage their wakes caused, powered out into the Bay leaving yachts thrown around and children and loose items sent flying . My contempt for stinkpots sank to new depths.
We don’t do this because it’s easy.
We anchored in Canton, a suburb of Baltimore, with a huge Safeway and a West Marine within five minutes and a playground within 10. Easy.
The nearby Inner Harbour in Baltimore has a great deal to see if you are willing to pay $15 to park the dinghy for 5 hours, or the yacht at $1.25 per foot overnight. (Evidently the buses from Canton are cheap and frequent, but extra hassle with children.) After a brief explore and a visit to Hilarie, a fellow Solomons Island Hurricane Isabel survivor, the Seraphims were left out of sorts to find we had a court summons for illegally parking our dinghy. 18,000 miles and several capital cities, this was a new one. A spotted “yuf” (possibly related to the Cape May Dragon) and his pal Goofy drove up on a golf cart, the Department of Transportation ... Spotted yuf was indifferent to our complaint, however, Goofy came up with the bright idea of just pay $1.25 a foot for our 8 foot dinghy, that would be cheaper … Good bye Baltimore. The expensive Aquarium, the Maritime Museum, Science Museum and all could wait.
Taking a buoy in Annapolis was like coming home. It claims to be the sailing capital of the East coast (as does Newport, Rhode Island.) And there beside us was the Heart of Texas, cruisers whom we had last seen five years before in Luperon, Dominican Republic when I was ten days pregnant with Jack.
Here we are in Annapolis where it is easy.
Seraphim is being fixed: engine, dinghy outboard, heating, mainsail, bimini and life raft. It’s all here and it’s easy. On Monday 7th September, Labour Day Weekend, the equivalent of our August Bank holiday and the last perceived weekend of summer,
Seraphim and her crew took a buoy in Annapolis. After three very tough weeks which brought on the “we-want-to-give-it-up blues”, it all began to get better.
Friday 21st August to the end of the month.
Hurricane Bill came through, thumped the Canadian Maritimes and blew out. From our safe marina in the Catskills Mountains the Seraphims motored back down the Hudson River to overnight at 79th Street Boat Basin.
Early the next morning, with the strong (ebb) tide going our way it was south along the west side of Manhattan, taking in some more spectacular views. Passed Battery Park, around the tip of Manhattan - then Wall Street, up to the East Side, South Street Seaport, under the Brooklyn Bridge, passed the United Nations and to Hells Gate, which since John had timed the tides was exhilarating but not hellish.
A couple of hours out of Manhattan, our first stop was the enchanting City Island which seemed like a little England to us. A Fish and Chip shop and pubs which actually looked inviting, not the usual fake blahs. A place to stay a while but with Newport in our sights, it was onwards. An invigorating sail revived our energies jaded from anxiety over Hurricane Bill. It was then the weather radio brought reports of tropical storm Danny and the news radio reports of Senator Edward Kennedy’s death.
Danny was an unstable system and potentially much more unpredictable than Bill. I thought of JFK’s words, or a dodgy paraphrase there of, we don’t do this because it’s easy.
For Hurricane Isabel in 04 we did not move and hoped she would miss us, she remained on track right up the Chesapeake. A direct hit. (The full account is here under Hurricane Isabel in the Archives.)
A year later, in the UK we prayed hurricane Ivan would miss Moonshine in Grenada. Ivan stalled around St Lucia, zig-zagged, and turned towards Grenada. A direct hit. We now get out of the way. Newport, Rhode Island and the rest of Long Island Sound were abandoned as we returned to New York. Danny was upgraded to Hurricane strength. Two in two weeks, enough already.
The grey, rainy trip around NYC echoed our mood. Fortunately a buoy became free just after our arrival at 79th Street Boat Basin, grateful thanks to the God of Buoys. Pedro, the charming laconic dockmaster greeted us and took care of us. I had not realised the Boat Basin has featured in several movies such as “You’ve Got Mail.”
That evening a vital part of Seraphim’s engine water pump failed. After dark the dinghy outboard died. (The spare had been lost overboard) Enough already. We had discovered it was not possible to row against the 3.6knot current in the Hudson. It was not safe to stay on the buoy without a dinghy. In the dark and wrung out we took Seraphim alongside to the 79th Street dock where we were still rolled through the night by the wakes but onto uber fenders.
To bolster or rather bulk up our crumbling energies we breakfasted at Nicks (Broadway and 77th) on the finest Eggs Benedict’s, served by Angelica who even after forty years in New York retains her thick German accent calling customers “Darlink” and “Sweethaaart“. (Think the “goyles” in the Kitkat Club in Cabaret).
The Seraphims know the Garment District of Manhattan well, it is the area around the American chandlery, West Marine. I mentioned the incongruity of the location to Ed, the manager, who replied 37th and 5th have all you could need: clothes, marine shop, porn and psychics, and our canteen “Main Noodles” around the corner.
After too many visits to West Marine Jack insisted on visiting “Encore”, his name for Concorde. On display near the Hudson River next to Aircraft Carrier, Intrepid.
After a final visit to West Marine to secure a dinghy outboard and with a spare water pump holding the engine problem, Seraphim bid farewell to New York in the same early morning light in which we had arrived, three weeks before.
And the breakages continued.
The New Jersey coast is ugly in all ways. There are few harbours and the inlets to reach them can be treacherous. The ocean floor is twenty metres deep for at least five miles out which forces an ocean of water to pile up into confused, short waves causing the boat to slam down. Uncomfortable and exhausting at best. Our trip north had been a rare window of calm.
En route north to New York the weather had been benevolent, an overnight sail took us from Cape May to Sandy Hook. However the journey south in what was considered a good forecast, a north east wind, was gruelling. Only 100 odd miles seemed a 1000 perpendicular. The mainsail ripped. We don’t do it because it’s easy.
In a mere 15 knots the entrance to half-way point Atlantic City was perilous. The anchorage was untenable and we were forced into taking a place on a dodgy dock at Kammerman’s Atlantic City Marina.
In the evening, projected light displays cover the nearby casino tower blocks. From the gambling Mecca it was a slog onto Cape May where the anchorage is beside a Coastguard Boot Camp. Reveille at dawn, marching and more marching and taps at sundown.
Weeks earlier, in 90 degrees in early August, waiting for weather on our voyage north we took in Cape May’s seaside town. It's an $8 taxi away from Utches marina which is 20 minutes by dinghy from the anchorage. The taxi driver boasted of the “old” Victoria houses, all artfully decorated to lure Bed and Breakfast guests.
Leather skinned dragons who reminded me of the Iguanas in the Bahamas guarded the beach and demanded $5 per adult. The lizard eyes fixed on us. Our polite request for a 10 minute paddle with the children was met with a $10 “tag” fee or a no. I hoped what wasn’t already shrivelled soon would be. On the bash south from New York we did not leave the anchorage.
Finally the end was in our sights but the crashing and rolling as the Atlantic ocean clashed with the entrance of the Delaware River produced some of the worst conditions we have experienced…until we entered Baltimore. Scores of motor boats regardless of the damage their wakes caused, powered out into the Bay leaving yachts thrown around and children and loose items sent flying . My contempt for stinkpots sank to new depths.
We don’t do this because it’s easy.
We anchored in Canton, a suburb of Baltimore, with a huge Safeway and a West Marine within five minutes and a playground within 10. Easy.
The nearby Inner Harbour in Baltimore has a great deal to see if you are willing to pay $15 to park the dinghy for 5 hours, or the yacht at $1.25 per foot overnight. (Evidently the buses from Canton are cheap and frequent, but extra hassle with children.) After a brief explore and a visit to Hilarie, a fellow Solomons Island Hurricane Isabel survivor, the Seraphims were left out of sorts to find we had a court summons for illegally parking our dinghy. 18,000 miles and several capital cities, this was a new one. A spotted “yuf” (possibly related to the Cape May Dragon) and his pal Goofy drove up on a golf cart, the Department of Transportation ... Spotted yuf was indifferent to our complaint, however, Goofy came up with the bright idea of just pay $1.25 a foot for our 8 foot dinghy, that would be cheaper … Good bye Baltimore. The expensive Aquarium, the Maritime Museum, Science Museum and all could wait.
Taking a buoy in Annapolis was like coming home. It claims to be the sailing capital of the East coast (as does Newport, Rhode Island.) And there beside us was the Heart of Texas, cruisers whom we had last seen five years before in Luperon, Dominican Republic when I was ten days pregnant with Jack.
Here we are in Annapolis where it is easy.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
West Side Story
NYC 79th Street Boat Basin is run by the ever helpful Pedro. Located on the Upper West Side it’s a great place from which to explore via bus, subway, or to just hang out locally. Outside the marina a wide tarmac path is in constant use by runners and cyclists. James was just missed by several high speed bikes.
And whilst on the subject of high speed, the current through the mooring field is fast- up to 3.6 knots. see the picture of it running past the mooring buoy.
On a windy day it can make boarding Seraphim with the youngsters, extremely tricky, a rock and roll challenge.
Before hitting the city streets we often took a walk along the river in the wooded park, a gentle introduction to the bustle. Having conducted a survey of the playgrounds in southern Spain and the Balearics, the boys conducted a similar quest in New York covering six in Central Park and all those within a 10 minute radius of the 79th Street Yacht Basin.
Plus the Toys R Us Ferris Wheel at Times Square, the Natural History Museum the Planetarium and finger painting at the Manhattan Children’s Museum.
Exploring mixed in with catching up. A friend, Tim, took us to Central Park Zoo and the old fashioned carousel. We also pick-nicked in Central Park with cousin Alexander and Nick near their Upper Eastside apartment. There is a great rivalry between the Upper East and Upper West sides, both presuming superiority.
And the games continued in the Tribeca district in an ultra Vanity Fair loft conversion owned by Devrin and Jane, parents to Ocean and baby Nico. Jane and I worked together, across the Atlantic, for six years at Pearson Television International, it was a great opportunity to re-connect.
Other NYC treats included tours on open top buses, NYC haircuts, breakfast at New Wave and Zabars, outstanding burgers at Nicks (77th and Broadway) and sushi by the ton. All these feastings were paid for in long walks through the city streets.
Big Apples
For groceries we hit Fairway a supermarket boasting itself “like no other." True. It stocks everything packed tightly- as are the customers squeezing through the aisles, not a place for strollers. The Zabars Deli market is another crushed, eclectic shopping experience.
There’s A Place For Us
Dinghy-ing to the dock or sitting with a glass of wine on the aft deck contemplating our Manhattan skyline I mulled over which of the Riverside Drive penthouses, with patio gardens I would like.
On our first mor
ning I heard “Let There Be Love” on the radio. It was rather charming to return to the streets of NYC with that in my ears. A bit less energetic than the pace set by the Jets and the Sharks.Walking around New York is about walking in and out of film locations: Annie Hall et al Woody Allen, dozens of Scorsese-De Niros and scores of others. Up another block Lisa Minnelli belts out “New York New York“.
Around another corner is the “When Harry Met Sally café in which Meg Ryan performed “that” scene. The Friends café Central Perk was not there for us. It only existed on a set. But it is set in the south of Central Park, near Columbus Circle.
John had his outing to Wall Street, but, saw no slicked back Michael Douglas.
Whilst there we briefly took in the building site which is Ground Zero. It felt a deeply sad place, what with the eighth Anniversary coming up and listening to the radio reports of the on going in fighting about the site. The relatives have been promised that a Reflecting Pool will be ready by the 9th.
Up on the subway from the Financial District to Saks 5th Avenue for Jo Malone scent and cream, my essential luxuries. A little sprits’ of rather special scent sets a girl up for a day on high and low seas with high and low children.
I Feel Pretty Oh So Pretty
As we were preparing to leave NYC, John “lost” the new weather radio so we made an unexpected dash to downtown West Marine. Passing shop after shop of flashy and floaty evening dresses we eventually found roughty toughty West Marine in the centre of the Garment District.
Our plans to head north to Long Island were postponed as the path of Hurricane Bill turned towards New York. The forecast was for it to curve east and away but our previous experiences in Isabel and Ivan dictated safety, so we set off up the Hudson River. Initially I was livid that the first hurricane of the season, our third, should take this northerly path and blow out our plans, but, the trip turned into an unexpected pleasure. It is a beautiful river along which we passed WestPoint, the US Military Academy and further on the Hudson Highlands and several of the great Estates, palatial homes with acres of woodland cut down to provide grand vistas.
For the worst of the thunderstorms we were tucked up safely at Catskill Marina, and even witnessed the Tri-centenary Parade. Catskill is a mixed blessing of two towns. The Haves and Have Nots. Army recruiting posters are out in force, but it’s pretty and full of cat statues, or "catues" which decorate the village and are auctioned for charity at the end of each year.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Hurricane Bill passes well off to the east
Hurricane Bill is passing us well off shore to the East heading towards New England and the Canadian Maritimes. However, although Bill is losing strength. New York City harbour area is on a flood watch from the storm surge.The Seraphims are safely tucked up in the Catskill Marina, over a hundred miles inland up the Hudson River.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Storm in New York City
Fully laundry-ed and provisioned the Seraphims were ready to explore Long Island Sound. The night before we were due to leave a violent lightning storm hit New York. It was shocking. A bolt crashed down next to Seraphim. It was a strike to a nearby building but the electromagnetic pulse destroyed all the instruments on the brand new yacht anchored next to us. (See picture).
Several other boats dragged anchor in the rain storm. John was prepared for one to be swept onto us by the strong current. Fortunately they were able to re-set their anchors.
The storm was over in twenty minutes moving on at thirty miles an hour to cause damage else-where in the city, knocking down over one hundred trees in Central Park.
Click below to see a short video we took of the storm approaching.
The next morning, Ken Barbour, a meteorologist we met in Palma emailed us a warning that Hurricane Bill was going to cause trouble in the North East in the next few days. John reviewed our plans and saw that in the event of a close hit from a hurricane, Long Island and the New York harbour area is subject to severe storm surge. To be safe we are heading one hundred miles up the Hudson River in company with catamaran “Catacaos.”
Follow Hurricane Bill at the Noaa website here.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
And now for something completely different
We are loving New York and re-adjusting to a faster pace after the solitude and laid back ways of the Bahamas (above) in the Spring.
Staten Island Ferry
Wall St
Times Square
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