Day 2 – New York Skyline – From Sea Level

This was the “big day” – and the weather was perfect – the trip through the harbor was without incident, the brief journey on the open ocean was uneventful, and the start of the waterway-treck along the barrier islands of Long Island – was rewarding.

The day started especially well through the efforts of PJ Adler and Jan Linskey – who had major roles in delivering their spouses, Peter Adler (a.k.a. “Ground Control”) and Pat Linskey, dockside at 5:45 – with coffee!  After a trip to top-off the fuel cans, we were on the way to transit the Throgs Nrck and Whitestone bridges, and pass through the infamous Hell Gate and down the East Side Drive.

There may be more info on all this later, but some lingering memories are:

• the lack of other river traffic at the early hour, which meant no wakes
• the joggers and onlookers who waved
• the boost from the current (that’s the whole idea!) for a high of 9 knots at one point
• the delight of seeing friends Enid & Gabe Ford at the new park below the Brooklyn Bridge – waving and taking pictures …. “It takes a village” that is so true – the beauty of going under the bridges – especially the Verrazano – it is really much larger than you would expect
• the “ominous” presence of the sea swells off of Coney Island and near the main shipping channel – these monsters were just ‘idling by’ … thank gosh that this was a good and calm day – otherwise it would have been miserable.
• the relief of getting in to the East Rockaway Inlet.  The relief was prompted by the 
• “CAAAROASH” of those benign ocean waves onto the rip-rap of the jetty as we entered the channel
• the run through the marshes south of our overnight location at Freeport – the winding channels make you think of  a scene from a thriller movie made in Louisiana – perhaps Swamp-Thang was made in Freeport after all
• the relief of having the excitement of this critical passage ‘over’ – now a new phase of this trip begins!