11/11/13. Goodbye NY , Hello Barnegut Bay

As you can see, Stanislove, a Russian Jew, did a fabulous job with Tim's unruled curls and they became fast friends as he has been living in the US for the past 15 years and his English was quite good. Norm will be disappointed that Tim couldn't recall any Russian phrases.

Went to dinner at Fort Defiance in Red Hook, for Tiki Night. We are happy to report that this great local corner bar, which Kelsey happens to work at, has come back after Sandy's destructive visit.

 No one can remember the name of the exotic drinks we were served, along with the delicious noodle entrees, but it was great meeting many of the kids friends who soon became our friends too. On the way home we stopped off at Sunny's Bar, a local hangout for Red Hookers since the early 1900's, just imagine! We heard some local Bluegrass music and commented on how even though we were in Brooklyn, NY, it almost felt more intimate than Portsmouth, NH.

Kelsey and Bryan arrived at the Red Hook dock to bid farewell at 0600. Unfortunately our alarm clock never sounded so we awoke at 0630 and hustled to depart. The anchor came up clean without city debris which we were worried about since the charts showed we were above ruins. What enthusiastic hosts they have been for the last few days, thank you thank you, especially for leaving me your warm cozy LL Bean slippers!

We sailed out of NY harbor with a NW wind and an outgoing tide. We were flabbergasted at the number of fishing boats catching perhaps the last fall weekend of being on the water.  Luckily the sun was shining as the wind chill was hovering around 30 degrees. We arrived at Manasquam Inlet about 1300 making good time so we hung out waiting for the tide to get high, trying out all the fishing goodies we bought on the Vineyard.

Traveling through Point Pleasant Canal we went through 2 bascule bridges, bridges that hinge up on one side as you can see in the following picture, and 3 lift bridges. It was nice to breathe a sigh of relief once we cleared the canal..... little did we know what was lurking ahead. We traveled maybe a mile and ran aground at Curtis Point in Barnaget Bay, clearly Sandy has adjusted the bottom in these waters. Tim was able to ease us off in no time at all..

We arrived at Cartagena Lagoon, Brick, NJ at sunset plowing through the mud hoping not to hang up on undiscovered Sandy debris.

We were able to dock across the street from our hosts, Carlota and Lou Vale friends of Tim for the past 25 years. They are both gourmet cooks and we shared fabulous meals and great beer. We met neighbors, Ron and Lucy, Ron is a retired marine policeman, who is a sailor who shared lots of local knowledge and related apps with us.

We attempted to depart at high tide the following morning but the NW winds had blown the water out of the bay. We got stuck in the mud and the muck from the shoaling due to Sandy? We spent a couple of hours trying to pull ourselves loose with the anchor, unsuccessfully. We got lots of chores done waiting for the tide to rise it's 4" and then it started to go down again before expected, so we mobilized quickly  and finally with a huge effort, busted loose just before sunset.

 I am happy to report that my back has recovered, but unfortunately we have exchanged the back brace to Tim, as hauling the anchor repeatedly has taken it's toll. I hope we haven't waited too long to take this adventure!

We motored 4 miles to our current anchorage where we are toasting our challenging getaway!