CODA New York 2025 (13).

 CODA : Last day in Brooklyn, NYC

10 May 2025 

Sheepshead Bay Yacht Club, Brooklyn, New York 

Another day of travels with Stephanie in NYC.

Marc- Sorry to be a day late with this blog.  We walked 13.8 miles seeing the sights in NYC.  The best explanation is through the photos taken today.

I met a new friend while reading in the little park near the French Consulate.  He is called "Le Petit Prince".

We spent most of the day at the MET.

Interesting lighting in a new gallery.

I am a traditionalist and favor the Impressionist painters.

Monet

Regatta by Monet.

The Fishing Boat, Courbet.

Another great hall.

Egyptians.

Colorized.

The MET rooftop deck.

Gelato saved the day!

A special diary house in the park.

Sailing pond.

Look Sue new pickle ball courts.

We walked pass Macy's on the way to the train.

 

CODA New York 2025 (12).

 CODA : Brooklyn in NYC

9 May 2025 

Sheepshead Bay Yacht Club, Brooklyn, New York 

Marc-  Nice few days to visit with Steph while I'm here in NYC.  I took the B line of the MTA to the American Museum of Natural History and met up with Steph after her workday.  Solid rain most of the day.  Good day to do things inside. 

View from the mooring.  The grey buildings are an assisted living facility.

I have been reading this book by Theodore Roosevelt (a rather famous New Yorker) written in 1882 while he was a student at Harvard.

The American Museum of Natural History's a Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall.

(He does seem a bit larger than life in bronze.)

We do love the elephants (Mastodons and Wooly Mammoths too).

Steph and I coming back on the subway to Coda.

Overview from the subway.

Approach to the East River.

View of the Brooklyn Bridge from the B line train.

Brooklyn side view.

The sun did come out at last just as we were enjoying the dinner I cooked up in Coda.  More explorations tomorrow and Adam Whittier, our new crew member, arrives.  

CODA New York Arrival 2025 (11).

 CODA : Cape May to NYC

8 May 2025 

Sheepshead Bay Yacht Club, Brooklyn, New York

Sheepshead Bay Launch.

Marc-  We made it with a slight detour.  We actually arrived at 04:00 this morning, at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, where we turned in for two hours of sleep in a quiet Horseshoe Cove.  Our alarms went off at 06:30 to get moving in order to get into Sheepshead Bay on a rising tide.  There is in fact a shallow spot to cross in addition to a curve filled buoy channel.  The lowest depth seen was 8.4 feet and we only need 5.2 feet.  Weather was spectacular.

Brian at the helm.

Brooklyn is inhabited by many swans (who knew).

The Sheepshead Bay Yacht Club is very welcoming to transient sailors.

The clubhouse is an actual house with very large rooms.  Don't be caught walking out this gate without knowing the passcode.

Our first stop was this bakery across the street for breakfast.  Steph came over and joined us.

Up the street from the bakery is this combinations of shops.  Bait & Tackle, Plastic Surgery, and Deli & Grill.  The Deli & Grill is also a large market with an excellent selection about the size of Exuma Market in Georgetown, Bahamas.

They have something else in common with the Bahamas.  Hurricanes.

I found this cool stopover with help from Roger Wallace and Susan DeSimone.  Most of the neighborhood is very ethnic.  It all seems to work very well.  The Algerian Bakery and the Italian Market work well together.  I will stay a few day to visit with Steph, who currently lives in Brooklyn, and to effectuate a crew change.  Welcome Adam Whittier arriving by Amtrak from New Hampshire.

CODA New Jersey Atlantic Ocean crossing 2025 (10).

 CODA : Cape May to NYC

7 May 2025 

North Atlantic Ocean off of  New Jersey

Autopilot engaged off of Cape May.

Marc-  We have decided to do an overnight crossing of the New Jersey coast to take advantage of a weather window and arrive in time for high tide to enter the Sheepshead Bay Anchorage in Brooklyn, New York.  Departure was delayed until 10:30 this morning.  We needed to allow the stormy seas associated with the past several days of stormy weather.  Several boats went out and reported back 3 foot seas and a bright sunny day outside.  We were greeted by a pod of bottlenose dolphins as we exited the Cape May Inlet.  

Wildwood Beach

Sailing along the Jersey Shore.

Motoring along the Jersey Shore.

Passing Atlantic City.

Sun going down over New Jersey.

Barnegat Lighthouse

Shimmering sea at sunset.

CODA Mid-Atlantic 2025 (9).

CODA : Cape May: Bad weather forecast.

3 May 2025 

Utsch's Marina, Cape May, New Jersey

Coda punching through the Delaware Bay chop yesterday to reach Cape May.

Marc-  The weather forecasters agree that the next few days will be treacherous for traveling offshore up the New Jersey coast to New York City.  I rented a car and returned crewman Charlie Hillman to Vermont.  I hope to return to Coda soon with new crew.  The blog will resume next Tuesday 6 May.

Stormy weather is approaching from west to east.  Coda is at the blue dot at Cape May, New Jersey.  Best to hunker down and await fair weather coming later.

CODA Mid-Atlantic 2025 (8).

 CODA : Cape May: Mostly favorable weather continues.

2 May 2025 

Utsch's Marina, Cape May, New Jersey

Cape May has the largest concentration of Victorian homes in America.  It was America's first summer seaside beach resort.  It's where the railroad ended.

Marc-  We motor-sailed for 9 hours today to travel 62 miles.  In the canal we were lucky to do 5 knots.  In Delaware Bay we did 10 plus knots for several hours until the wind and the tidal current turned on us.  Lastly, we arrived at the first of two low highway bridges over the Cape May Canal.  Both bridges are rated at 55 feet at high tide.  Unfortunately 55 feet is only true at almost low tide.  We made it through, after waiting a bit, by inches with a board indicating 54 feet 3 inches.  We need 53 feet 6 inches to the top of the mast.  There are lights and a wind indicator above that.  

The staff at the Marina remembered us from the Fall trip and settled us in in due course. 

Sunrise on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal at 06:00.

Very pretty little lighthouse in Maryland on the Canal.

Our first siting of New Jersey was the nuclear power plant when we entered upper Delaware Bay.

The current was definitely in our favor here.

We saw 6 ships mostly at a distance.

Really hard to tell if we will fit.  You just have to trust the bridge height signs and know the height of your boat's mast to get through.

This is our I-pad showing the US Army Corps of Engineers color survey of depths.  Red is very shallow water and a no go. You can see a bridge at the top of the screen and follow the pink dashed line (the blue line is our route from last October) into the marina.  What you do not see is a large dredger that is dredging the harbor:  note the funny blue shape in the red area.

 

 

CODA Mid-Atlantic 2025 (7).

 CODA : Chesapeake City: Favorable weather continues.

1 May 2025 

Chesapeake City, Maryland 

City Center.

Marc-  Today was another day of very favorable currents and lite winds for 52 miles from Annapolis to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Army Corps of Engineers mooring Basin.  There are no actual moorings here, just open space for anchoring and some docks.  We chose to anchor since the end space at the free docks was taken (the only space with deep water at low tide).  It is much quieter anchored by the Army Corps. of Engineers base at the northern end of the basin.  It also makes it easier to see the Canal Museum.  Unfortunately we were locked inside the base when the museum closed.  I did find someone to let us out.  The base is staffed 24 hours a day.  Most commercial ships, tugs and barge traffic occurs at night.  

We recognized the boat in our coveted free dock space as belonging to a couple we had befriended from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.  I did discuss our plans with Captain Bill for reaching Cape May, New Jersey tomorrow.  The back up plan is to reach Chantey Creek,  New Jersey.  We also discussed foul weather possibly later in the week.  We may buddy boat tomorrow.

The coveted deep dock space.

Our quiet anchorage with the geese family.

Mural inside the Canal Museum.

Before steamboats there were mules.

The big picture of where we are just above the "Md." on the left and the far right hand upper corner which is New York Harbor.  There is no direct route only a zigzag down Delaware Bay and up the New Jersey Shore in the Atlantic Ocean.

Happy thoughts of ice cream.

The ice cream bench.  The Mint Chocolate Chip was very good.

A really nice antique toy store in town.

Pretty porch quilt. 

Almost every house in town has a porch with rocking chairs.