Location: New York, NY
Watch team 1 came on watch for the midnight to four and got to go through a little fog with a bunch of small boats coming out of Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Around 0200, we reached the TSS, aka the traffic separation scheme, which is basically what big boats use going in and out of busy ports. After we navigated the TSS (and the influx of sportfishing boats), our watch was miraculously over. Watch team 2 also had some fog, but thankfully it cleared up in time for them to bring us closer and closer to New York Harbour. Watch team 3 spotted a humpback whale as we neared the mouth of the harbor. Around 1130 we went under our first/tallest bridge, the Verrazano, and into New York Harbour Proper. As we were going under the bridge, we had Mr. Coschigano himself (Rocco’s Dad) bring us some delicious pizza and doughnuts. We have been seriously spoiled the past couple of days. After we collected our long-awaited pizza, we passed by the regal Lady Liberty on our way to the east river, where we had 7 MORE BRIDGES to go under. The next bridge on our tour was the Brooklyn Bridge, so I was raised up on the forward mast to get some birds-eye footage. As we motored past Manhattan, we gawked and were gawked at. Our bridge tour continued with the Manhattan, Williamsburg, Queensboro, Robert F. Kennedy Triborough, Roosevelt Island, Bronx-Whitestone, and Throgs Neck passing by Governor’s Island, Brooklyn, Roosevelt Island, Rikers Island, and La Guardia Airport and passing over the Queens Midtown and Hugh L. Carey Tunnels, putting us officially in the Long Island Sound! If going 13 knots in the narrow East River wasn’t a fulfilling day for us, almost as soon as we hit the spacious feeling long Island Sound, we raised the main, main staysail, forward staysail, and jib. We bobbed and weaved through the onslaught of sailboats and power-driven vessels to our anchorage in Northport Bay this evening. All in all, it was a jam-packed day filled with beautiful views, delicious food, lots of laughs, and some serene downwind sailing.