Date: September 16 to September 25 MILES TRAVELED: 252—Saugerties NY to Atlantic City, New Jersey Engine Hours: 44 Sailing Hours: 4 EXPENSES: Dinners/Entertainment: $86.00 Docking Fees/Moorings: $280.00 Diesel - Water – Oil etc: $51.00 Groceries: $20.00 Wine and Beer: 0 Laundry: $5.00 Misc: $35.00

From Castleton we left for Saugerties where we stayed the night in a very picturesque little anchorage. Local people told us about this gem and we were the only ones there. The next morning we motored to West Point and anchored across from the college in a small marina. Anchoring on the Hudson is an adventure by itself. Trains on both sides of the river, tour boats, barges and tug creating wake not to mention the current and tides. But the scenery was beautiful and just, as the Snow Birds had done in Toronto for our departure, the college put on a display of skydivers as a welcoming gesture. At least, we think they did it just for us!!!

New York-New York! What a city!

We arrived at the 79th Street Marina about mid afternoon, tied on to a mooring and walked in the direction of the city. At Broadway and 79th street, we took the subway and in 5 minutes we were on the Time Square. The place is overwhelming; people everywhere, noise, lights, yellow cabs, etc. We had our dinner right on the corner of 42nd and Broadway. $13.00 for a hamburger and $15.00 for a Caesar Salad! Jeffrey had a Manhattan a I had a Long Island Ice Tea. What else would you drink there? Our fun was not to last as again being moored on the Judson, especially in New York city, the same conditions as in West Point were present, but by "Summer Love" from Terre Bonne, P.Q. Small boat, 1 captain and 1 crew member, going to Cuba then Venezuela. What an interesting pair!!

Dancing in the rain!! - That's what we did for our encore in Manhattan. We walked and walked and both of us were drenched; we have never been so wet in our 20 years of sailing and I have never seen so many umbrellas. At one point I just stopped at one corner and laughed myself silly. Aside from sightseeing, there was a reason for all this; we were looking for Pocketmail that we never found.

Passing the Statue of Liberty was emotional as it proved to be the end of the first leg of the trip; for Jeffrey it was stressful because he was the one steering as we wound our way through the tugboats, passenger liners, the aircraft carrier Intrepid and so many barges! We finally made it to the Great Kills Yacht Club on Staten Island where we found our sailing companions from Sea Turtle 5 and the two other Canadian boats going the same way. There we spent a warm evening watching the sunset and reviewing our last 2 weeks. Great Kills is the place we have chosen to wait for the perfect non-storm to start our ocean voyaging; NW wind not too strong, waves less than 6 feet and off we go!

The Atlantic

It is not unusual to see several boats leaving together for unfamiliar waters. So it was that from Great Kills we left at 7 am along with 3 other boats bound for Manasquan Inlet. The trip was uneventful and the sea co operative. Manasquan Inlet is one of the wackiest busy little places so far. It is a fisherman's heaven. Large commercial fishing boats docked all around us. We were rafted in front of the Shrimp Box Restaurant consensus was that we should all stay for 2 days because of the weather. Diane enjoyed doing our laundry sitting on the boardwalk beside a beautiful sandy beach makes it much less of a mundane chore.

On Sunday the 24th the flotilla made up of 5 Canadians and 5 American boats left for Atlantic City. We sailed approximately 3 hours with the Genny only. For the last 3 hours of the trip the wind was on the nose and swells up to 6 feet. Not pretty!! At last we all arrived approximately 4 pm at the Trump marina. To our surprise, Rob and Kathy on Karob, from Hamilton had arrived the previous morning. They sail in all conditions, but because of engine trouble they were detained in Atlantic City where we all had dinner at the Trump Marina hotel and Casino. Today forecast: winds from the north east, 25-30 knots, seas 8 feet, rain and drizzle. Our philosophy: we would rather die of boredom than stress! It seems that along with most of the 10-boat flotilla we will spend 2-3 days here. I wonder if Donald Trump had something to do with this weather!!