S/V Delilah

A Blog to track the wanderings of the S/V Delilah, a 37-foot Tayana sailboat.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

NYC, Baby!

Monday, June 18
New York, New York
N 40 degrees, 47.369 minutes
W 073 degrees, 59.036 minutes

How do you stay in Manhattan for only $30 per night? Sail on up the Hudson to the 79th Street Boat Basin and pick up one of their transient moorings. That’s where we are today, following a 51-hour sail (okay, motorsail) up the coast from Norfolk.

Grudgingly, I apologize to all of you armchair adrenaline junkies who seem to think our last few passage blogs, and especially Joe’s blog, were the “best ever.” Does fearing for one’s life really make for great writing? Well, our last two long passages (up the ICW from Beaufort to Norfolk and along the coast to New York) have been fairly uneventful, even tedious at times. We did, of course, have more engine troubles along the Waterway, but having the engine stop cold at an awkward moment is becoming routine. I hardly swear at all anymore when it happens.

In Norfolk we said goodbye to our good friends on Carapan and Indra. Since April we’ve sailed well over a thousand miles with these boats, sharing meals and anchorages, swapping favorite sundowner recipes for dominoes lessons, and always planning where we might like to go next. We were sad to go our own way, but both boats were continuing up the Chesapeake to Annapolis, while we had planned a nice long visit with Tina, Ian, and Malcolm (not to mention their shower, laundry, and kitchen facilities). We picked a great time to visit, as there were all sorts of celebrations going on in the area, including a parade of tall ships and one of the best fireworks displays I’ve ever seen. We also ate countless pulled pork sandwiches at Doumar’s, and I had my first pedicure in 2 years (yes, I gave a healthy tip to the poor, smiling woman who worked on my calloused toes).

Weather delayed our departure a few days, and I don’t know how Tina and Ian felt about the house guests who wouldn’t leave, but I was thrilled to stay a little longer, visiting with Tina’s mom and awaiting the long-delayed arrival of Amanzi, who have suffered their share of adventures on the passage up from Cuba.

Kim and David arrived Thursday afternoon and helped us all celebrate Dean’s birthday, for which I had unselfishly baked a cake from scratch. Over the next 24 hours, they persuaded us to sail up to New York with them (Dean, having sworn for the 3rd time never to do another overnight passage, was pushing for a 3-day journey straight to Block Island).

Saturday morning at 7, we pulled up our anchors, and we ate Amanzi’s wake all the way here. Now we are supposed to be napping and cleaning our boats before we head into the city to see how fast we can spend the rest of our cruising kitty (all 47 cents of it). I am too excited to sleep. I swear the Statue of Liberty waved hello to me as we entered the harbor.

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