May 25 – June 11, 2024; 14403 nm and 1909 days after departure from La Rochelle

With our anchor winch back to life we were highly motivated to finally get going again. Especially having such an impressive city like New York to look forward to. The first day we had only a short trip to Rock Hall MD. A precious little waterfront town right on the Chesapeake Bay with many marinas and very welcoming to sailors. The anchorage was free as well as docking the dinghy. But even more impressive was the generous offer of free bikes. How nice was that? Especially compared to other towns where renting a bike cost about 80 bucks a day. Being spoilt like that we stayed two nights and explored the village and its surrounding on two wheels. A fun and comfortable change from all the walking we usually do.

“Still Pond” was a beautiful anchorage halfway to Chesapeake City. Unfortunately there was no access to shore due to giant private properties which include the shoreline. That makes me think of a quick in between conclusion regarding the East Coast: So far the East Coast did not at all appear as a poor neck of the woods. Quite the opposite. Wealthiness was a constant companion on our journey. Huge estates with impressive mansion (and often direct access to water) were showing off their beauty. That was for sure a treat for our eyes but limited now and then the possibilities to stretch our legs or explore the nature.
Chesapeake City on the other hand was another cute little town situated on the working commercial Chesapeake-Delaware-Canal with easy access to shore. We liked the tranquil harbour anchorage and enjoyed a stroll through the village with its 19th-century architecture houses.

The tide made us leave in the morning to leverage the -for us favourable- current heading east to enter the bay of Delaware. It was a long day (65nm) as we had decided to go all the way down to the entrance of the Delaware bay, to Cape Henlopen State Park. Here we had hoped to explore the nature before we would head to the big city. Unfortunately the bad sea state and the far away dinghy dock stopped us from going ashore. The anchorage was rough and the ride ashore would have been more than a mile. Not that much fun with our rather small dinghy, packed with 3 people and running against waves. It would have been a wet ride. And… don’t forget, the water did not look very inviting and felt -en plus- super cold!!! That’s the way it is sometimes, ain’t it? Anyway, due to the weather situation we had to stay another night before we could finally start the overnight trip to NYC.

And then on June first at sunrise, we got the first spot on Queens skyline! How lucky we were to have perfect weather conditions to enter the Lower New York Bay. The visibility was fantastic too and at around 11am we dropped the anchor right in front of the Statue of Liberty!!! Yippeeeeeee we made it!!! It was a great feeling and we were as well a liiiitle bit proud!!! Anchoring in front of the Statue was great for a couple of hours but definitely not for longer. It was a very busy and therefore rolly spot. Ferries and other boats passed by every minute and made Altimate rock like a baby in a cradle, just not as comfortable. As the only reasonable/affordable anchorage in NYC was under construction we had decided to sail to Port Washington, Long Island to explore the city from there. About two hours of our Big Apple arrival we jumped on the speedy East River current which let us almost fly the 20nm up to Port Washington. Thanks to the magic carpet we arrived in the afternoon, perfectly in time to celebrate our arrival at a nice bar with a cold beverage. And then, we were ready to explore the famous big city😁!

We had 6 full days to explore the giant city. I can assure we used that time to the fullest! Every single day we walked at least 15km (9,3m) through the city. For us it was the best way to experience the spirit of the neighbourhoods of NYC. The weather as well was just perfect and supported our traveling at a slower pace. Of course we have seen the major sights like Time Square, Brooklyn Bridge, 9/11 Memorial, The High Line, SoHo, Little Italy, China Town, Central Station … but the most impressive for me and us was the fact that NY was so green and thus made it easy for people to escape the city within the city and enjoy some nature. And I’m not just talking about the huge famous Central Park, which was of course already amazing. No, there were soooo many other parks spread throughout the whole city. Offering areas to do sports, to sun bathe or just linger as well as offering playgrounds for kids and sometimes even big game areas for playing tennis, football, basketball, volleyball…you name it. That made it possible for locals as well as tourists to easily get out of the hustle and bustle spots whenever one needed it. We loved that too and spent probably more time enjoying the quieter areas than the more hectic ones. One of the newer (opened May, 2021) and very cool parks was “Little Island” at pier 55 at Hudson River. That was an artificial island and a public park within Hudson River Park. The park officials described it like that: “Little Island’s distinct exterior is supported by concrete piles. On top of the piles, 132 concrete “tulips” make up the structure of the park. Each tulip’s shape is unique and has a different weight load capacity to hold the soil, lawns, overlooks and trees. The original Pier 54 piles remain to provide habitat for aquatic life.” Indeed kind of difficult to imagine when reading the description but in reality it was a very unusual and terrific construct, which happened to be a beautiful green park upon the water. We loved it.

After about three days our – well at least mine – bodies were adapted to our long distance walking habits. My legs weren’t complaining anymore, the pain had disappeared and in the evening I was only just tired and not completely exhausted. Even the last 15 min walk from the train-station back to the dinghy dock didn’t seem like a torture anymore (after a 45 min train ride being stiff from sitting). I was adapted!!! Yeah! Coming back to Port Washington was actually also quite nice for the nights. A complete change of scenery. Port Washington was a picturesque, vibrant community with a population of only about 33000. (In Manhattan I read, the population density is around 70,826 people per square mile 😉.) A pretty clear little town with beautiful parks, beaches, tree – lined residential streets and its Main Street offered more or less all we needed. A tranquile place to come back to relax for the night. The only small downside of commuting every day from Port Washington(PW) was that we couldn’t enjoy NY at night. We had to be back before 9pm as the last taxi-ride to Altimate was at 9pm. The mooring field in PW was quite big and therefore the ride ashore pretty far so we were happy to use the comfortable and included shuttle service. To be honest I was quite happy about that excuse. Being around so many people and all the hustle and bustle all day was enough for me. Couldn’t really have imagined to explore NY’s nightlife on top of that. Am I getting old? No, I guess I am already old🙈!

On Friday we had arranged to meet our former -best teacher ever- and friend, Jordan, from Austin/Tx, where we used to live before moving onboard Altimate. He happened to visit his family in New Jersey the same time we were there. Such nice coincidences to meet old friends – I liked that! While we met up with Jordan, Luis decided to explore Brooklyn a bit closer and headed to Coney Island. In the late afternoon we were all back on Altimate.
And then we had to face the sad fact that it was already our last evening with Luisito. Instead of going out, what we had done the last days, we preferred a bbq evening on Altimate to enjoy our -for a while- last family dinner. Another last breakfast the next morning, a last walk together to PW train station and then it was again time to say good bye. I always do hate that part! I know you know but still!
Fortunately we had lots of things to do to get us distracted. Laundry, groceries, cleaning up Altimate, the usual stuff. On Sunday I was looking forward to meet another friend of mine from Austin, Sugayo. She and her family moved to New Jersey a few years ago. Of course we had to catch up while we had been in NY area. We had a fun girly day including shopping, eating Dim Sum and of course at lot of chatting. Thank you friends for the nice days – Sugayo and Jordan!!!

Tick in the box for the big city of NY. Now we were ready to head further north. And off we were.