CapmWoody Heads North.....Way
North......in JANUARY ?? I never thought I'd make a trip like this, but the challenge was too much to resist. Take a yacht from sunny Florida north to icy New York in January. Situation was that this new boat is the new home for the new owner, Glenn Sherman and his family, who have been living on a houseboat for several years. They are now moving up to a real yacht and are anxious to move into their new home. This particular yacht is an Endeavour TrawlerCat 44 that was customized to handle the cold weather. It had, as I recall, about 9 heaters aboard and insulated plumbing and was set up for life in the cold, cold north all year round. Also, the cockpit was completely enclosed from the weather and could even be heated (somewhat). Without this weather protection, there is no way I would even attempt such a trip this time of year. Paul Bucher, a long time friend from Tallahassee joined me on this trip. We left St. Petersburg, Florida We pulled into East Rockaway Inlet inlet just
before dark. After finding a place to anchor, we had a hot meal and
retired to our staterooms and hid under a
pile of blankets. It was a good night's sleep. The next day we got our visit from the Welcome
Wagon. We were pulled over by the Nassau County Water Cops who didn't want our visit
to New York to be without a taste of the local attitude. After forcing us to detour
to the nearest Coast Guard station, they did their best to intimidate us in every way they
legally could, shot guns, big dogs, suspicious talk, even lying to us about what they had
observed going on at our boat and basically accusing us of being drug runners, but
stopping just a millimeter short of actually coming out and saying so. When they
were through having their fun at our expense, After being released we headed back out into the Atlantic through Jones Inlet and continued eastward along Long Island's south shore. We came back in at Shinnecock, made our way through the lock and stopped at a marina for the night. That night it snowed and Paul shoveled snow off the icy decks before we continued on our way. The Glenn joined us for the last few miles to Riverhead. Just short of the marina and our final destination we found that the river had frozen over. Glenn and Paul had to stand on the bows and use 12 ft 2x4s to break up the ice. The last quarter mile we literally inched our way through the ice, finally arriving at the marina just before dark. It was quite an adventure, this expedition into the great white north. My one and only experience in winter sailing up north. Overall a very enjoyable trip. I'd do it again. Return to CapmWoody Home Page Return to Cruising Page
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