We left Manisquan just after dawn on Friday morning, May 24 for our run to New York City. Seas were a little rolly, but nothing we couldn’t deal with. Instead of the hustle-bustle of the NYC Harbor anchorage, we turned off just before the Verrazzano Narrows bridge into Gravesend Bay, Coney Island. It was a very pleasant little anchorage in which we waited for the late afternoon tide. We even had a view of the edge of Manhattan. We raised anchor about 4 pm and were able to get through the East River and just into Long Island Sound before dusk. We found another quiet, new-to-us anchorage off Hart Island, near City Island.
We’ve repeated this twice a day movement through the Sound, because the tide and current just aren’t timely this week, but the Sound itself was very calm. We passed several clammers tonging just off Long Island.
From Hart Island we went to a neat little man-made harbor off Eaton’s Neck until 2 pm. The land here was all owned by the JP Morgan family, who dug out the harbor. It’s all still owned by the one family (though I’m not sure it’s still the Morgan family) and they pay taxes on the land under the water. The USCG has a search and rescue base here, but other than that, it’s all private land and while they allow anchoring, they do not allow anyone to go ashore. Apparently that’s sometimes a problem for local party boats, and a police boat sits at the ready at the dock to make sure everyone complies with the rules. While we sat there on Saturday of Memorial Weekend, several local boaters came in for the afternoon and that police boat made its presence known. Nobody went ashore. When we left Eaton’s Neck we went to Port Jefferson for the night.
Sunday, May 26 we got word that our son and daughter-in-law wanted to meet us in Mystic CT to spend Memorial Day together, so we got dockage at the Mystic Seaport Museum Marina. This is a small marina right inside the history museum. With the price of the slip comes free museum passes for everyone on the boat and their guests. We had to do this day in two hops, too, stopping first at Horton Lane Beach, off Horton Point, Long Island, before crossing the bay to go upriver to Mystic.
The fog set in as we neared the Connecticut coast line. We haven’t seen any fog for many months. Dan booted up the radar and I kept lookout as we crossed the ferry paths out of New London and inched up the river along with all the Memorial Weekend boaters who were heading home after a day on the Sound. We got to the Seaport Museum around 6:30 pm, and tied off at the seawall near the whaling ship Charles W Morgan. The Museum grounds close at 6 pm. It was pretty cool to have it to ourselves!
We walked to town to meet Will and Tam and our grandson Leo at the restaurant they chose for dinner and all of us drove back to the boat for a walk around the grounds and a little time catching up on the boat. On Monday May 27 they came back to the Museum to have lunch with us on board and then tour the buildings. I had some good Granny time with Leo - strolling the grounds while he napped - and his parents had a chance to explore a bit on their own. After Leo woke we all went aboard the Sabino for short harbor tour, with a guide narrating the history of everything we saw along the way. It was so good to see them and spend time with them! And what a fun splurge to stay two nights right inside the museum.
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