We were starting to get a little too comfortable at the Seaview House Marina, so Vinny kindly decided to kick us out. I still haven't watched the anchoring video and one of our heads (that's a toilet, FYI) isn't working, but oh well! we are OFF.
I've been stressing out over this first day's journey because it involves transiting the HELL GATE, which sounds...scary. Right? Matt was at the helm and I don't know for sure whether it was easy, but he sure made it seem that way. And then we were in the Harlem River. And some of the bridges were pretty low!
Don't worry, we didn't take out any bridges. We traveled around the north of Manhattan, made a right and headed up the Hudson. Before we left, we turned around and waved goodbye to the city.
Honestly I felt not a single twinge of nostalgia. Maybe if it had been the Brooklyn Bridge? But in any case we are all about forward momentum now. We headed north and crossed under the Tappan Zee or Mario Cuomo or whatever it's called these days. I've ridden my bike this far, so still not feeling particularly exotic, but this is only day one.
By about 3pm we found our evening destination, the Shattemuc Yacht Club, where we were due to pick up a mooring ball. Instead of flags or floats these balls have a ring that lies flush to the ball itself and is possibly impossible to scoop up with a boat hook. But no worries, Felix volunteered to grab onto it from the swim platform and we tied up. Next step would be to dinghy over to the club for some pool time, but - oh no! - we failed to notice that the dinghy was out of gas. Luckily we have oars.
At the club we were met not only by the friendly dockmaster Dey but also by Sebastian, Annabelle, Melanie and Olivia, who treated us to a wonderful lobster roll feast and also arranged for the July 4 fireworks to happen a day early :).
So long NYC, hello lobster rolls. I think we are on the right track :)