We have now been in the USA for six weeks and it’s been a while since we last posted a blog.  We thought we had better catch up briefly as we leave for GB on July 1^st and won’t be back on board for a month.

We ended up spending nearly 3 weeks in Atlantic Highlands as it was so comfortable and welcoming there and an ideal place to wait for Lindsay’s sister and brother-in-law to meet us.  We took the ferry into New York twice and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the city on foot.  The rest of the time we spent on the buoy kindly loaned to us by a member of the local yacht club and had some “down time” which makes a change from constantly moving on.  The town of Atlantic Highlands had everything a yachtie could wish for including a very large laundramat, a fabulous hardware store and an auto-parts store where the great guys behind the counter got to know skipper extremely well and started reading about us on this blog!   The scenery was great; views of NYC in the distance and the water around the boat was always teaming with fish with ospreys swooping in to catch their supper every day.

When our visitors arrived from Sydney we all had the treat of being picked up in New York by Lindsay’s cousin who put us up for the night on his luxurious motor cruiser berthed on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.  He then sailed it back to Atlantic Highlands so we had more wonderful views of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty over breakfast on board.

New Jersey with views of the new Trade Centre building:

We finally left our mooring early the following morning, June 15^th, and motor sailed back towards Manhattan and up the East River towards Long Island Sound.  We had more fantastic views of the city all the way and popped out into the Sound via the strong currents of “Hell’s Gate” which David had timed exactly right so that we had no problems there.  Our first port of call was Port Washington and, unusually for the US, a free mooring buoy in the bay.  This is an easy spot to reach by train from New York and was very busy when we went ashore for a meal in the evening.

Famous sights from the boat: