Northport, NY

When we woke up on Saturday, August 22 we were able to see where we ended up anchoring in the dark the night before.  We found ourselves in a quiet bay with some industrial buildings on shore and a number of hulking, half-submerged shipwrecks nearby.

We were concerned that the narrow channel we traversed the night before (and hit bottom) might pose a problem on our ability to exit safely.  So Jonny rigged up a depth gauge and took the paddle board over to measure the depths.  They were just fine. We had mistakenly veered off the channel during our nighttime excursion.  With that problem removed, we proceeded to lift anchor and took off towards New York City in order to catch the favorable current through Hell Gate. 

We cruised north towards Manhattan passing the Statue of Liberty on our left in New York Harbor. As we cruised up the East River we saw the beautiful NYC skyline and many of its iconic landmarks including the World Trade Center, the Chrysler Building, the United Nations and all those fascinating bridges!

We also marveled at the architecture of some of the newer (to us) buildings that make up that unique urban landscape.  

Hell Gate is a notoriously turbulent area at the confluence of the Harlem and East Rivers.  Currents run as fast as 5 knots and Zendo’s cruising speed is 7 knots.  So we have to time our passage with the current, not against it (which would clearly be a slog).  Our timing was perfect and we sped through the passage at the grand speed of 12 knots! 

We were now on Long Island Sound and our plan was to anchor in what was described as a quaint and charming town in Northport, NY on the north shore of Long Island.  We cruised up the Long Island coastline passing Oyster Bay, a beautiful spot that we enjoyed staying in during last year’s cruise.  But we wanted to visit someplace new so we proceeded onward.  We entered the lovely large bay where Northport is situated at 1:30 and found a great anchorage on the outskirts of its large mooring field where the shoreline was lined with beautiful homes. 

After relaxing for a couple of hours, we boarded the dinghy for a ride into town stopping to get gas for the outboard on the way.  As Jonny restarted the outboard for the short hop to the town dock, he pulled the cord right out of the engine block! Oh no! What do we do now, as he held the raggedy line in his hand?  The marina had no supplies for us to use to repair it so all we could do was return to Zendo.  Jonny’s first inclination was to row back but we were almost two miles from Zendo. Instead, he asked another boat at the fuel dock if they would be willing to tow us and they kindly agreed.

That ended our foray into Northport.  Jonny wouldn’t be able to properly repair the cord until we got to our next destination, the Branford Yacht Club in Connecticut.  We’ll just have to catch Northport on our return trip.

So we made the best of the rest of our evening with a delicious dinner of  sausage and peppers on the grill along with mashed cauliflower.  We had a quiet night reading and enjoying the beautiful setting with yet another gorgeous sunset.