North Star on the Great Loop Journey: New York, New York

Preparing for the trip

Captain Jerry has been making the final preparations to North Star, our 32 foot Cape Island down east trawler. We are anxious to leave our landlubber lives behind and begin our long awaited journey around the Great Circle. Join us as we travel 10, 000 kilometers: through the historic Trent Severn Waterway; the pristine waters of Georgian Bay; the North Channel of lake Huron; and hop from beach to beach on lake Michigan. We will visit Chicago and begin our trek along the rivers: Illinois; upper Mississippi; Ohio; Cumberland: Tennessee; Tenn-Tom Waterway and the Black Warrior. We will have transited through 68 locks at this juncture. We have chosen the inner route from Mobile Alabama to Tarpon Springs Florida and the shorter Ocheechobee Waterway to reach the East coast of Florida. We will skip over to the Bahamas to wait out the winter before heading North on the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway.
The 10 years of researching and planning are finally at an end and we invite you to come along on our adventure.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

New York, New York

Manasquan Inlet Bridge

We are anchored behind the Statue of Liberty thus have completed the Atlantic Ocean jaunt.
We left early this morning to catch the right tide but still managed to reach the Verrazano Bridge with the wrong current. This 35 mile stretch of ocean, from Manasquan Inlet to the Verrazano Bridge in New York Harbour, was the part of the Great Circle that I dreaded the most. As it turned out it was no worse than Lake Michigan. We had 2-4 foot rollers on the beam with some good 3-5 foot chop when we arrived in New York Harbour. The harbour is really busy with tugs and barges, ferry boats and ships. You have to stay alert.
Once you get used to the new motion of the ocean, you realize that it is not so bad. Neither one of us got seasick but we did take motion sickness medecine before we left.

New Jersey shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean

We are just relaxing so we can get up early tomorrow morning to catch at least two hours of the right tide. There is a 3 knot current to fight in the Hudson River when you are on the wrong tide. It will be a long day travelling at 5 knots.
We hope to be in Waterford on the Erie Canal by Sunday.