Harry took watch from 10 pm to 1 am at which time Sarah woke up and got a refresher on how to watch AIS and radar as it had been several weeks since we last sailed through the night. This time however it was different. Due to the heavy fog, it made no sense navigating from up top in the cockpit since we were wholly dependent on our instruments - most notably radar and AIS. where the chart plotter and radar display's were visible from down below in the cabin. It wasn’t advantageous to stay outside for night watch since the fog was so thick, nothing could be seen. Sarah contemplated asking Harry to remain awake during my watch since Sarah didn’t feel confident that I’d keep us from running aground or into another boat. Sarah realized Harry needed some sleep so reluctantly she began my night watch and hoped that our instruments would keep us safe. It wasn’t until Sarah was waking Harry around 4 am for his watch that the fog began to lift. On the way south, we’d followed the highly illuminated Jersey shore, bemoaning all the lights. But after 18 hours of moving through fog, Sarah was never so happy to see lights on the Jersey shore and to see them from a safe distance of two miles. By 6 am, we were at Ambrose Channel - the busy shipping channel to New York City just as torrential rains fell so Harry turned the boat southward until visibility improved and the showers had passed. By 7:30 am, we were heading northwest towards NYC but the anticipated strong 15-20 knot NW winds had arrived which together with an ebbing current meant our 5 knots of speed was reduced to about 3 knots over ground. We crawled our way up to the narrows and the Verrazano Bridge and around 9 am, we decided to anchor to await favorable currents and to catch a few hours of sleep.
Upon awakening at noon, we set off under sunshine and blue skies and a strong NW wind but with a flooding (favorable) current that pushed us past the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan while dodging tugs, tankers, and ferries. Sally and her fiancé Luis waved to us as we passed north up the East River as the 6 knots of current propelled onward. We couldn’t imagine trying to traverse NYC against such current. Once through Hell’s Gate and as Long Island Sound was in sight, we unfurled a partial jib and sailed to Oyster Bay for the night finding great protection from the NW winds.
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| Amazing views of Manhattan |
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| A picture from Sally and Luis as we pass nearby |
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| 6 kts of current through Hell Gate |
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