2015 Statue of Liberty Run

So last weekend we decided to take another excursion into NYC to sail to the Statue of Liberty and an overnight stay at Liberty Landing Marina.  The day started out dead calm, but beautiful.  We got out to Seas The Day and found... her covered with Birdsh!t again.  I'll spare you the details on the cleaning and scrubbing.

Eventually, we loaded up and headed out.  Vicky's colleague, Andrew, and his husband, Rafael, joined us.  They live in Manhattan and took the train down to Keyport Saturday morning.  Vicky picked them (and some sushi) up while I finished cleaning up Seas The Day and we headed out.  Andrew and Raf had brought along a fine bottle of campaign and while I don't normally drink while underway, with the sushi it was one of the most incredible spreads we've had on board (so yes, I did sip a little).

We found some wind and hoisted the mainsail and guessing that our bottom was just cleaned, we made a nice 5 to 6 knots without even trying.  We headed out across Raritan Bay towards the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Now the mast on Seas The Day is a bit over 50 ft, and the clearance under the bridge is about 250 ft, so there's plenty of space, but each time as we go under and I look up, well the perspective is a bit disturbing.  But we made it through and continued sailing into NY Harbor, looking at all the different ship traffic as we headed up along the belt parkway on the Brooklyn side.

The wind was behind us and about a mile or so past the bridge, I decided that rather than risking an uncontrolled jibe, we would do a jibe, sail across the harbor and continue on with the wind in a better position.  That was the plan.

It was not executed well.  For some reason... perhaps the fact that we were under mainsail alone, possibly because the current was behind us... I really don't know... but we ended up spinning around 180 degrees and suddenly in irons.  Not elegant and furthermore, we couldn't get out.  So drifting towards Brooklyn (and all the rocks along the parkway) we tried to get the mainsail in...

... and the winding rope came out of it's track.  (Sorry, I don't have photos of this.)  Fortunately, I had read that particular manual and took a winch handle forward and cranked the main back into the mast.  (Having a furling main is great most of the time... that was one time it wasn't.)  We then motored on the last mile or two to our marina.

I'm always amazed at the sheer volume and variety of boat traffic around the Statue of Liberty.

We arrived (helped by Liberty Landing's fabulous dock hand again), said goodbye to Andrew and Raf and got them headed to the water taxi back to Manhattan.  We then had a fabulous (if long) dinner at Maritime Parc (the restaurant attached to the marina office).  And we headed down to the end of the pier to photograph the city.

 It was a beautiful night.

The following morning (and late the night before) Vicky decided to tackle the remaining birds!t on the bimini cover, even at the risk of wearing away all the fabric.  She did a wonderful job and then decided to clean the boat as well.  I'll admit here that we had a bit of a disagreement.  Vicky can spend hours scrubbing a perfectly clean boat.  We don't see eye to eye on that, but it does sparkle when she is finished.  Our marina neighbors even noticed.

Finally, we headed out knowing that we had to get all the way back to Keyport, then to Delaware, so with the wind on our nose the whole time, we motored, taking a few min to grab a nice photo of the Statue in the morning light.

We then headed across the harbor, under the bridge and while heading back across the Raritan Bay even let Otto steer for a while.

Sailing with Jim and some great kids

I've been looking forward to this excursion for a few weeks.  I recently started a new job and this is the first chance we had to host someone from my new workplace.  Jim works with me in the inbound marketing group, but on hardware projects (I do software).  He brought along two of his kids and three of their friends.

 Rachael, Alena, Sara, Kristin & James joined us for the day.

We motored out of the KYC mooring field and since the winds were quite light, we set up our Spinnaker.  The colorful sail proved a popular backdrop for the requisite photo op on the bow.

We then settled down for some serious sailing.  The spinnaker pulled us along at 4kts (out of a 6 kt wind).  Rachel proved to be a great help in setting up the spinnaker and also in trimming it.

Alena, Sara & Kristin attend the local creative arts high school and were the ship's entertainment... sitting on the side deck and singing out over the bay.  (I have an iPhone video clip of this that I need to get on here somehow.)

We enjoyed a nice lunch from Mike's subs, along with some extras from Vicky and Jim.

We had plenty of time to enjoy the sun and take photographs.  Jim is also an avid photographer and he got a nice one of Vicky and I on our boat.

We sailed east along the northern part of the Raritan Bay.  As we got further east, the wind picked up and we had to douse the spinnaker and take out the jib.  We sailed on to the West Bank Light (one of the "spark plug" lighthouses on the bay that we have yet to visit).  Just before arriving, the wind picked up a lot and we realized the winding line for the jib was tangled, so we had to head into the wind and figure out how to untangle that... it added a nice touch of drama.  So we brought in all the sails and motored around the lighthouse, posing for photos along the way.

We then headed back to Keyport at a nice slow pace (using the mainsail).  Jim took the helm for a while.

The entertainment committee switched sides to stay in the sun and kept up the singing for a good while.  When they started dozing, I woke them and asked them to put on their lifejackets (yes, I can be a killjoy at times).

After we passed old orchard shoals, we turned the steering over to "Otto" and I noticed people starting to conk out all over the place.  

We had to set Rachel up with something more comfortable after seeing this...

Arriving back in Keyport, Vicky picked up the mooring and we headed right in to get some drinks at KYC and then dinner at Bertucci's.  

After dinner, Jim and crew departed for DE, and we met up with the Miller's at KYC for sunset.

Sailing with Hai Qing & Thomas

Last week we had Vicky's High School friend, Hai Qing (who lives in San Francisco) come join us for the day.  She brought along her husband, Thomas, and sons (Edmund and Norman).  Although we had equipped Seas The Day with all manner of anti bird items, I still went out early to ensure that Seas The Day was relatively bird evidence free.

It wasn't while they didn't directly congregate right were bird-be-gones or flags or other items were, they did manage to "thank" me for the use of the rear seats.  Some quick scrubbing and a rinse and all was relatively well right before the launch arrived with Vicky and her guests.

We had a nice evening sail getting back to the mooring ball just in time for sunset.

Blasted birds

The Raritan Bay is recovering from Sandy. 

I should be glad... I'm told the storm churned up the bottom (which is known to be somewhat "polluted") and that in turn killed off some of the more sensitive marine life.   As a result of the kill-off, the marine birds went elsewhere in looking for dining options, and (despite our one-time experience here) the KYC mooring field seems to have had a couple of years break from the "bird problem".

I can tell you that is NO LONGER the case.  The bay is recovering and the birds are back.  How do I know this?  Here's my evidence from two weeks ago...

The tern responsible for all this should be very glad that I don't like guns.

After the cleaning, we equipped Seas The Day with all manner of "bird-be-gone" paraphernalia... at least the stuff that is KYC-approved.  There's a large debate at the club over what types of bird deterrents are allowed with the "I want a quiet boat" crowd currently winning over the "I want a birdshit-free boat" bunch (supposedly, a high volume "dying bird" sound broadcast at Jet-Aircraft levels works wonders).  I'm told that if I switch to white canvas for my dodger and bimini, the birds will let me alone (evidently they like to see their designs) and I'll join the "I want a quiet boat" crowd.