Stonington, Connecticut to The Verrazano Narrows
We sailed out of Stonington at first light and headed down Long Island Sound. It was chilly, but a good day for sailing. We made it into Bridgeport that afternoon. As we found out, Bridgeport is not exactly the best place for a cruising yacht, but we met some very nice locals who drove us to a laundromat next door to a really great pizza place.
We had hoped to get to Sandy Hook by dark, but the wind was under 10
knots from dead astern.
It turned out to be a very nice anchorage. It wasn't near as
choppy as the upper harbor,
So far, the only meals on board had been soups and sandwiches. It was still pretty cold and we needed a hot meal, so Theresa whipped up a wonderful batch of spaghetti while I carefully opened a delicious bottle of Merlot.
Then it was "lights out". First light comes pretty early.
Gloucester to Stonington
Charleston Charleston to St. Augustine St. Augustine to Lake Okeechobee Lake Okeechobee to Clearwater Beach The Maine Cat 30 Starting Page |
At first light we
were on our way. The sailing was good, and got better as the day progressed.
Just as we were coming into the East River, we found ourselves running before a 22
knot breeze. It was our first time in so much wind and the boat handled extremely
well. We were soon scooting along at an effortless 9 to 10 knots, so Theresa took
the helm while I got out the video camera. As we rounded a bend in the river and
started reaching along, our speed began to climb. 
Theresa began to get a little nervous as the wind piped
up to 26 knots and the spray started to fly, but before long she was doing that familiar
catamaran scream of exhilaration as we sailed beyond 12 knots. We were impressed
with the boat and felt completely under control. We blasted along for about 30
minutes. The closer we got to New York City, the lighter the winds became and by
Manhattan we were motoring again.
