The sails were set as we headed across the Sandy Hook sound over to the lower bay the entrance of New York Harbor. A bright day ahead of us!!We passed by our first of many small like lighthouse structures that marked rocks..  It was decided that I would cook breakfast before we got to close. As we were getting   nearer to the narrows of the Upper Bay, we noticed lots of Coast Guard boats and Police boats, so we stayed clear figuring they were diving or something. Suddenly a Coast Guard boat approached our vessel and told us to head over to the boats and keep ourselves between them. They were conducting a Home Land Security safe harbor check.. Doing as we were told we started through the gauntlet . They were Coast Guard, New York Police and Environmental Police about 12 boats in all. As we got to the end they took our picture.. I guess we passed as they didn't come after us.. Good to know they are protecting our harbors..Still somewhat scary.. Up the bay we continued, till there she was Lady Liberty standing for all to see.. Carl had never seen her before so he was quite excited.. We stopped to look at her , gave her a toast , then we sailed all around her.. How many people can say they have seen all sides of her!!! Ellis Island was just off the starboard side. The skyline of Manhattan to the east, is something to see. Since I have been there many times and Carl didn't want to go ashore we headed up the East River.There we saw Pier 17 with it tall ships, a heliport with 7 helicopters on the pad. I took pictures but it may be hard to see, so look close. Next came the Brooklyn Bridge right next to the Manhattan Bridge (the Brooklyn is the stone one) and the fight up the East River. I mean a fight...This a narrow river with business Manhattan on one side and industrial Brooklyn on the other with a strong current against us. At full speed we are only moving at 1.5 to 2.00 knots... No where to pull out of it..We think this one building in the Empire State bldg but not sure, you tell us. The people in this area have no concern for other boaters!!They speed by causing a large wake that bounces off the seawall on each side and sends it back your way.. THIS IS NOT A FUN AREA!!! Ourselves and the trawler behind us are doing all we can to keep moving. We are being tossed around like old rag dolls..  I checked the tide chart and it said it would be slack tide soon, we can only wait..Carl's stress is high and he is not happy.. to say the least...Bella is a wreck once again.. When we turn into Hell's Gate I took a picture of the lighthouse at the entrance it's old stone... Hell's Gate is called that for a reason....Next we pass Rickers Island, that is one hell of a prison,, it's huge...I didn't take any pictures who wants to see a prison.. As we were leaving the city the water gets wider and the current gets less. The weather had said it would rain at 4pm and at 3:30 it did.. Not to heavy at first , then the sky's opened up.. With all the rocks in the area and no visibility, we pulled out of the channel and dropped the hook for the night...Carl poured himself a drink and Bella stops shaking.. As much as we loved seeing Lady Liberty and New York the town of many bridges, sailing here was not for us.. If we ever come through these parts again we will be sure to check the tide charts to make passage easier..Or we will find another way home.. This trip is one lesson after another....

Hey everyone how the heck are you?.. We are just fine, Bella however is not. She was so petrified   from all the problems at sea the other day ,  she just can't seem to relax.. I hold  her all the time and she is only happy when we anchor for the night. Today  at sea was pretty uneventful, really not much to report. That's how I like it... I have a question . How come the seagulls are so big here. I mean they are almost as big as a turkey.. Whats up  with that?.. Is it the weather our what? If you have the answer please enlighten me.. Anyway we dropped anchor at Sandy Hook , New Jersey and are getting ready to head into New York harbor tomorrow morning..Carl worked on the outboard motor with the stuff he got at Barneget light, while he had the time.We did enjoy the little prams racing around the anchorage. Plus it was a beautiful sunset with all the boats in the foreground.. So it is a quiet evening on the hook and I'm sure I will have more to report tomorrow. Have a great night and talk to you tomorrow..

I am happy to report that this was a calm day at anchor.. After all the day before brought to us, a day to regroup and  reorganize was just what the doctor ordered. We had stayed up late talking of all the mishaps from the day at sea, so we were in no hurry to get out and do anything. Over half the  day was spent just messing around the boat. At 3:00 pm we decided to go visit the town and see if we could find an anchor, chain and a few other things we needed. It was a long dingy ride from where we anchored and with our dingy not being that big, we thought we would try and dock up somewhere while we tried to check out the town. The first dock we hit told us we could dock for $20.00 per hour.. What are you crazy.. Do we look like we have money... Needless to say we moved on.. The guy at the 1st dock told us to tie up on the other side of the Coast Guard station wall, not a good idea..When it turned out we had no option , we anchored the boat where we had when we had to drop the sails and anchored the day before, then dingy-ed in .. We tied up to the wall at the end of the road and went ashore. The first dock we come to was able to give us a few things we needed. They had a small hose clamp and the petcock and fuel line for the dingy motor.  Carl found it outside on an old motor they don't use anymore. The owner Vince said it was ..FREE... We love free... The owner told us of a few other marinas saying they may have the anchor we needed. Off to the next marina where we meet Linda, she was wonderful only she didn't have what we needed either, same at the next dock. But talking to the people of this small town was great... They were all very friendly and tried to help. Linda told us where the bank was located so we could get some money, off walking we went. While walking the town of Barneget we saw large painted clams set here and there.. Pretty cool..,Plus it was the kind of clams I sold at the Shack.Piss Calms or Steamers, which ever you call them.. Good to know we are far enough north to get them. You can bet we will be doing some clamming when we anchor in calmer water. The current was to swift here, or we would have done it now...Arrived at the bank it closed at 4PM and the ATM was locked behind closed doors.. Don't really get that... It would seem they would make more money if you could get to it.. Just a thought..Across the street was the small market, and we needed a few things so in we went.. They only took cash , but they had an ATM so  I was able to get all I had come to town for. We had planned to stop at the little bar in town, but it turned out to be a restaurant, and we couldn't take Bella in so we had a drink out front before returning to the boat.Dinner was made then it was a short time till it was time to head for bed, back to the early mornings... Oh Joy...

To say it was a hell of a day at sea, would be putting it mildly!!! The day started out like any other day. We got up and high tailed it out of Atlantic City. Afternoon storms were predicted so we wanted to be at the next anchorage by then.  Cruising along the Atlantic Carl had asked me to take the helm while he looked at the chart, he needed to check the depth as waves were breaking in the distant . He said not to worry it was 8 ft deep there and we would be fine!!! He took the helm back and choose to try to steer around the waves only he didn't make it on time. We ran aground at 6 knots....As we hit the 25lb CQR (anchor) and 60ft of chain flew off the deck and into the water.. Waves 6ft high we breaking just behind our dingy and water was forced up our transom, over the stern and into the cockpit and cabin.. Water was coming in fast..The treacherousness sea had a hold of us.. Carl yells for me to pull the anchor.  I climbed to the front of the boat, no easy task with wave swamping our boat, but I wasn't strong enough to pull it. I yelled to Carl I couldn't pull it so we traded places. He couldn't pull it either so I got him his buck knife and he cut the anchor line. While all of this was going on the engine stopped...Waves were slamming us from behind, water was everywhere. I was sure we going down. Carl raised the jib sail.  When all of a sudden it was all over , the slamming of the waves and sail  had set us free. After it beat us up for a time , it let us go.. The motor wouldn't start.. Sails were set up we needed to leave the area fast....All of us had been terrified.... Bella and I were shaking...  When we were a safe distant away, we dropped anchor so Carl  could check out our prop. Carl got his wet suit on, tied himself to the stern and jumped in the ocean. All the line we had lost was wrapped around the prop. The chain and anchor had been cut away by the prop but line was wound in there tight. I handed Carl his buck knife and he went to work. It took about 6 or 8 dives and 20 minutes and he had it all loose. Once he was back on the boat the  aftermath clean up began. The chart book was drenched, we were barely able to touch it without it ripping. Water had gotten into the galley, the gangway and just about everything else. Back to swabbing..Underway again.. As we were nearing out port with only about a mile to go the skies opened up.. Yeah a trencheial down pour.... All of us got in our life jackets this time.... The waves got higher and it was very difficult to see..There were no other boats around us when it started but suddenly there were lots of them. Everyone running for cover in port.. The rain was starting to ease up as we headed in with rocks on both sides of the inlet.. and what do you think happened the engine quit.. Oh no not again.. Now we had to get the sails up fast and get moving so we weren't pushed into the rocks. Sails up and ready to take the turn into the anchorage area.. There were so many cones marking the area it was hard to tell where to go and we bumped ground again.., with the sails up..We spun around and broke free. Moving along a man yells from shore.. "Don't go that way "  We had full sails and we had to stop. So Carl ran to drop the main while I pulled in the jib sail..  Carl dropped anchor right there.. amazing how fast we can move..Finally the boat was stopped in a safe place .. Perplexed, Carl had to find out why the boat had a fuel problem again.. I wasn't to happy... Below he went .Two tow boats stopped by to see if we needed any help and we told them we were working on it and would call if we needed them. All of the fitting he had done before were fine it was the fuel filter this time.. He hadn't put them in with the right amount of gaskets so it came loose.. This time he figured out how to get them all on and says it won't happen again.. Hope it doesn't... Rain began to pour down again so we waited to pull anchor and get to the right anchorage..  Once at our final destnaion , we sighed a sense of relief.. As we sat in the cockpit an parade of long line fishing boats went by full of people.. We think it must have  been a funeral as all were flying black flags on there buoys .. Maybe someone was lost at sea. Once out they all sounded their horns and returned to dock..The rest of the evening was quiet as we set in the cockpit, had dinner and drinks and talked about what had happened on this day.. We were able to say we had worked well as a team in the dangerous situations that had occurred . No matter what happened today, I couldn't have made it threw it without Carl. Today we seat at anchor waiting for the seas to calm down, and  our next weather window.. Anchored in Barneget Inlet New Jersey with Bella resting on a pillow, with all  enjoying the beautiful calm place were at....And the adventure continues...