The Big Apple by sailboat
- theblacksprayhood
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
"On our first afternoon we accidentally stumbled into a comedy gig with Amy Schumer as the surprise guest star...."
Arriving back in North Carolina was cold and uncomfortable because it seemed like the extremes in temperatures while we had been away - from tropical to freezing - had made everything on the boat stop working.
The heating, which had worked fine when we hadn’t needed it all throughout the Caribbean had packed up. The oven wasn’t working and only one of the hobs allowed a feeble flame that blew out every few seconds, so we couldn’t even cook or make a hot drink.
A cracked strainer inside the heat exchanger and head gasket had been replaced, which we were hoping had fixed our engine. But on its first sea trial with the mechanic, we smelt burning and had to urgently turn back. We also managed to briefly ground the boat on this sea trial as the depth reader had reset itself and some shoaling had built up inside the channel.
But the mechanic fixed the engine again and we slowly started to get things fixed over the coming weeks.
Before we left I drove back to the town of Beaufort and collected Chocolate’s ashes. He loved being at sea, so we will probably scatter them over the ocean, maybe when we are back in England.
We felt a great sense of relief to finally get moving. We made our way up the Neuse and Bay Rivers and anchored for the evening in Gale Creek accompanied by dolphins. It was a peaceful night and we were the only boat. As we were soon to realise, this was to be an ongoing feature as sailing here is strictly seasonal and the season starts after Memorial Day at the end of May.
We departed our peaceful anchorage between narrow banks surrounded with yellow grass and mostly bare trees. We crossed the wide Pamlico River and shook out our sails for the first time up the Pungo River. It was cold but the sun shone and the skies were blue.
The following day we headed down the canal between the Pungo and Alligator Rivers. Sticking strictly to the centre of the channel, and passing with baited breath under bridges, we motored along through the flat landscape.
We had to spend the following day at anchor due to gusty conditions across the Albemarle Sound, a shallow expanse of water that can get large waves in windy conditions. From there we travelled on to Great Bridge and spent the night tied up on the free dock.
The following day we travelled under the bridge and through the lock, arriving in Norfolk, Virginia in the morning where we were to be guests of the local Ocean Cruising Club port officers Greta and Gary.
We spent a lovely few days there with our hosts, who live in a community of sailors and they all gave us great advice on our passage further north - especially regarding the tides.
Our onward passage was to be several days passage out in the open ocean. We stopped first in Cape May and had huge waves behind us as we entered the harbour at night. Luckily these were immediately flattened as we passed between the breakwaters at speed with the tide behind us.
We spent a few days there waiting out strong gusty conditions for another weather window for a place that we were really looking forward to - New York City!
We didn’t have to worry much about tides in the Caribbean, but here you have to. Our first stop was in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, where we had managed to negotiate a cheap mooring ball with the local yacht club as it was out of season. But it was a shallow entrance and we had to wait for both a favourable current and high tide in order to get in there.
It was well worth it. The harbour was really well protected and given the low temperatures, we really appreciated having such a short dinghy ride to shore and then a short metro ride into Manhattan.
We loved New York. We saw the iconic Grand Central Station and on our first afternoon accidentally stumbled into a comedy gig with Amy Schumer as the surprise guest star.
We visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island by ferry and looked over the incredible skyline from the Edge viewing platform. I recommend standing on the clear glass platform and looking down at the streets just barely visible between the bottom of the skyscrapers if you enjoy the feeling of vertigo.
We strolled through the DUMBO area and took the ubiquitous ride on Jane’s Carousel and walked through the arches of Central Park.
From Sheepshead Bay, we moved to anchor at the Statue of Liberty and saw it lit up at night.
The following day we motored up the East River to Port Washington, just outside New York. This was an experience in itself, passing under Brooklyn Bridge, doing 10 knots at Hell’s Gate and passing the United Nations HQ and all the iconic Manhattan buildings from the water.
Our final stop in New York was in Port Washington where we were staged to head up Long Island Sound and back out to the East coast.
As we sat and enjoyed a warm blast of air from our heating and sipped a nice hot cup of tea, it felt like we had got back into the flow of this sailing thing.
Click the links below for the videos
Video1 EP 080 - ICW - Oriental to Norfolk.
Video2 EP 081 - We Love NY.
You can find our PODCAST episodes at the links below
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