November 28th, 2018

After a lovely visit with Ellen and Gary and after a fabulous Thanksgiving feast with Chris and Tiffany and family, we had an early morning departure from Mystic Seaport. As we motored away from the dock, I heard a strange crunching sound looked back at our wake and noticed that we were breaking ice on the river! Not a big surprise as the temperature was still in the low 30s. 

Saturday Nov 24th: We carried the current down Long Island Sound for several hours and it was a huge boost - at times we were going 10 knots over the bottom!Not much wind so we motored most of the way and picked up a mooring in Wilson Cove, Rowayton just as it was getting dark. This is Jeff's home town and we were happy to have his local knowledge going into the shallow cove studded with oyster beds marked by nearly invisible stakes. Most of the moorings just had winter stakes but we were lucky and found one with a pick up buoy. We knew it was meant to blow overnight and we wanted know the mooring would hold so we could sleep. 

Sunday Nov 25th: We awoke to a beautiful sunrise over Sheffield Island and got going -again we were able to take advantage of a favorable tidal current though less strong in this part of the Sound. We timed our arrival at Hell's Gate so we would carry the VERY strong current - we zipped along down the East River going 9 knots. Not much other traffic besides a few tugs and barges. Seeing the city from the river is always kind of shocking, especially when you realize how many cars are whizzing by on a highway that is only a couple feet above sea level. The prospect of sea level rise looks especially daunting here and parts of the shore looked like you could reach over and pull it off like pie crust.

Here we are in a marina on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River with the skyline to the east. We had  a nice leisurely dinner and breakfast ashore with Sandy and John two nights ago - and since then have been waiting for the wind to die down just a wee bit to make our next move down the Jersey shore - hopefully tomorrow. This afternoon we are taking the water taxi over to Manhattan to do a few errands and walk. Nothing like walking for hours in this city!

Next stop -Baltimore via the Delaware River and the C&D Canal.