We left Cape May in beautiful weather with favorable winds, and sailed up Hudson River 24 hours later. Outside the dock of the yacht club at 79th street we took down the sails and found a place at the dock. The yacht club rents out bouys for $15,- pr. night, but unfortunately our boat was too heavy, so we had to stay at the dock and pay $80,- pr. night!!!!!!. We left the boat and had a great day in New York. We visited Empire State Building, had a great dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Greenwich Village and enjoyed the sunset from the World Trade Center.

The following day we toured Central Park, visited the Guggenheim museum, spent four very interesting hours at the Natural history museum and continued on to the Naval museum before leaving the yacht club to enjoy the sunset and the sunrise over New York from the bay outside Ellis Island. New York was a great experience, and the sunset from the bay was beautiful!

We left the bay 07.00 AM to sail with the current heading for Oyster Bay, Long Island. To have the current on your side sailing through Hells Gate does make a big difference. We did 14 N.M. in 90 minutes!

A friend of Arnies father and brother, Per Arneberg, had arranged so that we could stay at the Seawanaka Corinthian Yacht Club. We had a few great days here. The Yacht club let us borrow bikes so that we could get around, and everyone was so friendly and helpful. 

Saturday morning Pierce King came out with his daughter Alison, and her husband Mark and Lene. Lene had spent three wonderful weeks at their house in Philadelphia, and had no hurry to return to the boat.

Pierce, Alison and Mark stayed for Norwegian sweet rolls “boller” and coffee, and we had some really enjoyable hours together, before they had to head on home.

Soon after they had left, Per Arneberg and his son Per Alexander came by in their boat, and the rest of the afternoon was spent together with them. We were invited to their house for dinner the next day, but unfortunately we had to move on.

With the whole family together back on the boat again, we had a great sail up to Block Island. The weather was beautiful, and we got the wind after motoring for a few hours. The current was strong, and we did up to 10 knots at times! Great fun! We let the anchor go just before midnight and hit the sack right away.

We rented bikes and toured the island the next day. We were one out of two boats in the bay, and no tourist attractions had open for the season, but we were told that on July 4^th it could be up to 2000 boats in the bay! The weather was nice and we had a good bike ride and enjoyed a great lunch on the island.

Vineyard Haven

Marthas Vineyard was our destination as we hoisted the anchor the next morning. The same nice weather and a favorable current took us all the way to Vinyard Haven bay.

Sailing inside the islands from New York to Cape Cod Canal is really a treat.

As I tried to call on the coast guard in Vineyard Haven, Ginny (the daily leader of Gannon  & Benjamin wooden-boatyard) came on the VHF and invited us to come by the yard.  We took the dingy to shore as soon as it was inflated, and was met by lots of really nice people. One of them, David Stimson invited us home to shower and wash clothes and even to borrow their car the next day! David and Tamora have to boys, Nathaniel at 12 and Abraham at 16, and they are going to sail south to the Bahamas in October, so we had lots to talk about.

Abraham was our guide at the island the next morning. We let him off at school in the afternoon and went on to see Oak Bluffs and Edgartown on our own.

David and Tamora play Irish folk music on a pub in Oak Bluffs every Wednesday night, and with eight people in their little Toyota, Dave took us all there. We were in for a great treat! Many of the people from the boatyard was also there, and we had a great time.

On our last evening we brought the boat in to the boatyard to fill water, and had a great time having most everyone onboard to visit.

Andreas and Nathaniel was out sailing Nathaniels model boat all evening, and we did not break up till it was time for those who were heading for school and work the next morning to go home. We had had a wonderful time, and it was definitely not easy to say goodbye!

We took the boat back out to the buoy, and prepared to leave the next morning at sunrise.

We left Vineyard Haven in beautiful weather, bright and early, to go through Cape Cod Canal when the current was favorable. We motored through the canal, and sailed on to Scituate, a cozy little bay outside Boston.

Lene had borrowed three Henry Potter books from the Kings family, and today both Lene and Andreas were reading Henry Potter in English. It is incredible how much English they have learned in the few months we have been sailing up the American coast. We haven’t  had time for any regular schooling lately, but have enjoyed the fabulous education that automatically comes with talking to all the people we meet along the way.

As we arrived in Boston, we decided to stay at the Constitution Yacht Club. It is located down town next to USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned navy ship (200yr) in the world.

Tamora was going to play her fiddle at the Lilac festival in Boston that Sunday, and were determined to meet her there. The train took us out of town to the park area, and we had not been there for more than a few minutes before I walked right into her. Just in time to enjoy their last performance. We enjoyed the rest of the performances for a few hours until it was time for Tamora and her friends to leave.

As we were leaving the park we ran into a Norwegian family that lived close to the park, and before we reached their car they invited us home for supper. Ane Håbjørg and Carl Størmer had moved to Boston in November together with their two daughters Hannah and Sidsel, and right now they had Catrine, a friend from Norway visiting. We had a great evening together, and enjoyed their company very much.

Andy, Madelaine and Sumi Oldman was a family at the yacht club that was just now getting ready to sail their 35 foot wooden boat across to Europe in a few weeks time. They brought us doughnuts in the morning and let us borrow their car to do some last minute shopping, and we had lots of experiences to discuss. Andy had useful charts and cruising guides for the Nova Scotia and the Newfoundland area, and we had some experiences that they were interested to hear about. Sumi and Lene had a great time together and it would have been nice if we could have spent some more time together.      

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