We are now truly on our way home. We have started thinking of Long Island Sound as “almost home.”
We have a few more “requirements” to fulfill on our way home.
- We want to visit Manhattan
- We would like to anchor near the Statue of Liberty
- We would like to collect a few quotes for painting Canto as we head southward
We opt to launch our exploration of Manhattan from Port Washington rather than go to City Marina or elsewhere. Port Washington has a Stop-n-Shop where we can reprovision, and Safe Harbor Capri has nice grills, a covered veranda, and BBQ grills!
We leave Huntington Bay in a fresh northeasterly breeze, making it necessary to beat out with reduced sail, but that same fresh breeze makes quick work of our trip to Manhasset Bay.
Note: We arrive on Monday – Labor Day – and it’s great. The harbor taxi runs and is complimentary as part of the Safe Harbor arrangement; however, the day after Labor Day, the harbor taxi mysteriously fell into disrepair for the rest of the season. Hmm. This necessitated our launching our rowboat to get to shore. We didn’t complain though – the mooring is still gratis. It should also be noted that Safe Harbor Capri is not actually in Port Washington – it is in Manor Haven, which is beyond comfortable walking distance from Port Washington. So, without the harbor taxi to take us directly to Port Washington, we need to scope out other transportation. Fortunately, there’s a good circulator bus.
Manhattan
We row our Walker Bay into the Safe Harbor Capri marina and walk to a bus stop (near a bagel breakfast shop). From there, we take the circulator bus (NiceBus23) to the Roslyn LIRR (Long Island Railroad) and take that into Penn Station (Port Washington is the north-easternmost terminus of the LIRR). Our only fixed agenda is to see a Broadway Play. So, Angie buys us tickets for the musical Hadestown.
And wow – Manhattan is a wonderful place! We sort of just walk around before the play. We visit the Stephen Schwarzman Building of the NY Public Library. What a place! One should visit this building just for the building, but we also decide to visit the Treasures room. There’s too much to mention here, but we could easily have spent the entire day just in this one room. Winnie The Pooh has an exhibit here, complete with stuffed animals. Winnie the Pooh turns 100 at the time of this writing (October 2026)!
One of Thomas Jefferson’s original drafts of the Declaration of Independence lives here. And there’s so much more. We were sad and reluctant to leave this magnificent library, but we still had to walk to the The Walter Kerr Theatre for the 2pm showing of Hadestown.
After the show, we have a delicious Indian Food dinner, then detour to one of the Trader Joe’ses for some biscotti and other TJ essentials. Unbeknownst to us, lower Manhattan was hosting a drone show at the World Trade Center plaza to commemorate the 9/11 event. We are sorry we missed that.
Statue of Liberty
We leave Manhasset Bay on Thursday, September 10, planning to anchor behind the Statue of Liberty – the weather is settled. To make sure we were not embarking on a disappointing voyage, Adrian scraped through the USCG Notice to Mariners to make sure anchoring there on the eve of September 11 would be permitted. No notices disallowing it were found. However, one concern we have is that we will have a hard time finding an anchoring spot since tomorrow is September 11. We need not have worried – we were the only boat there, and we had a spectacular line of sight of the Statue of Liberty and of Manhattan! We did think we hit something with our prop as we drew nearer the Statue of Liberty anchorage, and throttled back and carefully idled in.
Since it is the eve of 9/11, two beams of light are illuminated in the location of the World Trade Center twin towers to memorialize that awful event. On the morning of 9/11, there is a boat parade. It is a rather solemn occasion.
Atlantic Highlands
We are looking ahead to our trip to Lewes Delaware, and Monday is looking promising. We decide to stage at Atlantic Highlands.
Leaving the Statue of Liberty, the engine is vibrating terribly! Remembering hitting something in the harbor yesterday, we fear the worst: bent prop, bent shaft, torn-out cutless bearing. We call Towboat US and put him on call (but stop short of asking yet for assistance). We call a diver in Atlantic Highlands to prep for a thorough check. But we motor on at just above idle speed.
As soon as we arrive at Atlantic Highlands, Adrian dives over the side, and the source of the vibration is immediately obvious. We find this on our prop, entangled in such a way that we could not possibly have disentangled it without diving. We call the diver and tell her she’s no longer needed, but she drops by anyway. She’s super-nice! And she’s a delivery captain, too! Donna Pepsny – ask me for her number if you need her. From our brief conversation with her, we’d hire her in an instant to deliver our boat or crew for us.
We are warmly welcomed at Atlantic Highlands Yacht Club. They have us over for a T-dock cookout, and we exchange burgees – Stingray Harbour Yacht Club is now mounted in their clubhouse. We would be remiss not to note that their drinks, mixed by Christine, are some of the best on the trip!
Onward to Deltaville
Leaving Atlantic Highlands, we leave in “windy and rough” conditions. We double-reef our main and deploy the mainsail, and then for a little extra punch, we use our engine to motor-sail comfortably (albeit wetly) out of Sandy Hook Bay against 20-25kts; however, once we round Sandy Hook, the wind is on our stern and we are able to run downwind.
Our trip to Lewes is like this until the very end, and Canto makes quick work of it. From Lewes, we catch the flood all the way up the Delaware, through the C&D canal, and into the Bohemia River.
We start seeing signs of a nor’easter brewing, and decide we want to be in Solomon’s Island for that, so for the next few days, we make haste down the bay (again, fortunate to have good wind) and pick up a Safe Harbor mooring at Zahniser’s. And glad we did! As it happens, the system for which we sought “Safe Harbor” grows up to make national news!
Very luckily, we didn’t lose our boom: it turns out a cotter pin had sheered off – probably somewhere off of Atlantic City during our romp down the NJ coast – and the clevis pin was flush with the boom’s tang. Close call! It pays to inspect your rig regularly!
Safe Harbor Zahniser’s is a very comfortable place for such a storm. We are on a nice, solid mooring, easy rowing distance from shore, and with lots of things to do. Pool, Snack Bar, courtesy shuttle, good grocery store within easy cycling distance.
We also make new friends: Allen and Linda on Wildflower (a Fountaine Pajot catamaran), who have us over for drinks, dinner, and conversation. We also (on a nicer day where it’s still blowing a gale on the Chesapeake) go on a hike at the Cliffs of Calvert State Park. Adrian finds an ancient shark’s tooth!
One thing we luck into is an open-house tour of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. They show us the research they’re doing on whale counting, dolphin population, oyster health, crab migration, and more. It is deeply encouraging that there are people out there monitoring and caring for our delicate marine environment!
Little Bay
We finally leave Solomon’s. We have the choice of hitting the bay at force 6 to 7 or waiting a day longer and motoring. We opt for force 6/7 and blast down to Reedville, seeing 25kts steadily, with gusts into the mid-30s. We see 4-6′ seas at the southern end of the Potomac! For the first time ever, our boom dips into the waves as we pitch, roll and heel, necessitating a thorough cleaning once we arrive back home. We arrive at our anchorage in Reedville just before sunset, having averaged 7.5 knots on the trip down, part sailing, part surfing. By the way, Monty – our Monitor windvane – earned his berth yet again, keeping us right on course despite the boisterous conditions.
On the final night of our Maine Cruise, we meet up with some Stingray Harbour Yacht Club members for an anchor-out at Little Bay. It is so good to see our friends after three and a half months! Harvest Moon, Legacy, Grace, Journey, and Canto. Journey has us all over for hors d’oeuvres – it is a warm homecoming!
