Saturday, June 16, 2012

Home at Last

Just a quick note to say that we officially made it home today. Dad was unable to sleep last night and decided to cast off from Oswego at 4 am, so we arrived in Kingston just after noon! A quick hello to friends and relatives later we packed the car and headed home to Ottawa. It feels a little strange to not be returning to the boat tonight, but refreshing to start the next chapter in all our lives.

Thanks again for reading! I will post some pictures of the last few weeks soon.
Nicole.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Nearing the End of an Amazing Journey!

Hi Everyone, We finally have internet again as we wait for our mast to go back up at the end of the Oswego Canal. We are so close to home! Our trip up the Hudson River was beautiful and quick. Outside New York City the countryside becomes very hilly and pretty. The river was brown and not so appealing for a swim after so much time in tropical waters.

We spent a few days motoring and dodging debris to get to Catskill where our mast came down. With the masts strapped well onto the deck we continued with Raftan up to Troy, where the Erie Canal begins. Traveling through the locks was a different experience from any other part of the trip yet. To get to Lake Ontario we had to pass through 31 locks! A whole lot more than those on the St. Lawrence River. Also, we experienced going up on most of the locks, which proved to be more tricky that going down. As the water fills the lock it swirls around a lot and we found ourselves being pushed onto the lock wall quite hard, so we were forced to exercise our arm muscles in new ways.

After three speedy days through the Erie locks we turned north onto the Oswego Canal. And 7 locks later, here we are at Lake Ontario once again! It feels so good to be close to the end of our journey. It's been so long since we were last here. Tomorrow will be our final day on this amazing journey as we cross Lake Ontario and make for our home port of Kingston, completing our giant loop at last. And so, this post will likely be my final one of the trip. (We may post pictures in a few days though).

I want to take this chance to say thanks so much to everyone who has been following us for the past 9 months. It has been a pleasure having a place to share our experiences and wonderful to hear that people have been keeping up with us all along. Having a project like this throughout the trip kept me more attuned to what we were seeing and I've enjoyed working on my writing skills.

I also want to say a HUGE thank you to my amazing parents, who have tolerated us kids being along on the journey for so long. None of this would have been possible without them and I will carry so many amazing memories of this trip with me for the rest of my life, all thanks to their bravery and generosity.

It's been quite the adventure, and so lovely to share it with my parents and Sarah and Jamie. Being in such a tight space was challenging at times, but we all weathered through together, and became much closer because of the all the challenges we've faced.

Through this journey I have gained a greater respect for people who travel the seas and live on boats on a full time basis. (I certainly couldn't live on a boat permanently!) There are so many obstacles in such an adventurous life, and the sea is such a changeable lady, but living this kind of lifestyle for a time has many benefits. Through the dangers and excitements of this trip I've learned many things, not only about myself, but about the world around me, and I will always cherish the experiences of the past 10 months.

I hope that Mom and Dad will continue to use the blog in their future journeys, whether long or short. But for now, this is it for me :) Thanks so much for reading and all the best!!
Nicole.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

New York City!

Arriving in New York City on Thursday was an eye-opening experience. Weaving our way around barges in New York Harbour, we coasted past the majestic Statue of Liberty and into the mouth of the Hudson River along Manhattan Island. I couldn't help but stare at the fabled New York skyline in awe. I have never seen or imagined anything quite like it. What a bustling, vibrant and beautiful place Manhattan is! It was the first time in downtown NYC for all of us.

Cruising past piers along the waterfront and the skyscrapers of the financial district, we watched as people made their morning commute to work by ferry or car. The most outrageous commuters came in on helicopters-which landed along a waterfront landing pad-and stepped quickly into black town cars complete with private drivers.

Docking at the 79th Street Boat Basin gave us wonderfully easy access to Manhattan. A waterfront path constantly busy with cyclists, runners and walkers ran past our marina and continued around almost the whole island. The first day, being tired from an overnight passage, we simply walked through a beautiful area with apartments, shops and restaurants to Strawberry Fields in Central Park. On a hop-on hop-off bus tour the next day we learned that this area was the Upper West Side or the "new money" district where people like Regis, Madonna, and Catherine Zeta Jones live.

The bus tours of downtown and uptown were an easy and effective way of seeing as much as we could. We rode the subway to Times Square and after being overwhelmed by the lights, stores and crowds, rode the buses around for most of the day. Our day of sightseeing also happened to fall on my birthday, making for a pretty fabulous way to spend the day! One of our tour guides was a classically trained opera singer between jobs who ended up singing an operatic rendition of "Happy Birthday" to me (to my embarrassment at the time).

The most memorable part of our whirlwind day was taking the night tour, which started beneath the flashing billboards of Times Square, went downtown, and crossed into Brooklyn. The view of the sparkling Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn was one of the most fabulous and breathtaking sights I've ever seen. Having not visited New York before, and my only knowledge being from the multitude of tv shows and movies set there, I was amazed at how clean and lovely the streets were. Everywhere we walked felt safe and there were always people on the streets enjoying spotless public parks and spaces, even in the middle of the night.

I am not sure what I expected to discover in NYC, but I am certain that it has successfully dazzled me with its splendour and vibrancy.

After a brief but memorable two days in NYC we are now on our way home again, traveling up the Hudson River. Visiting New York certainly renewed my enthusiasm from traveling, but it is unquestionably time to be getting home. We can't wait to get back, visit with family and friends and share all of these crazy experiences.

Tonight we are anchored about 25 miles upriver from the city and were happily reunited with Raftan! It's been so long since we were traveling together (December in the BVIs was the last time), but strangely it doesn't feel that long since always we followed along with their blog and were sometimes within a day or two's sail of them. It will be nice to sail together once again as we all make our way north towards home.

All the best,
Nicole.

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Thursday, June 7, 2012

Arrived in NYC

We arrived in New York City this morning after a great passage with good wind and no thunder storms. We are tied up at the 79th Street Boat Basin and plan to tour the city over the next couple of days.
Jon

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Sailing to NYC

We left Cape May NJ this morning and are currently sailing to NYC. We expected to be motoring so sailing at 4.5-5.5 knots is a bonus. We should arrive in NYC around noon tomorrow.
We look forward to meeting up with Patrice, Julie and the boys on Raftan tomorrow at 79th Street Boat Basin.
We will be spending a couple of days in NYC.
Jon

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Cape May NJ

Arriving back at the boat on Saturday after a wonderful week in Cape Hatteras (one that was over far too quickly), we left Annapolis Sunday and traveled to the top of Chesapeake Bay and through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. We intended to go through the night to Cape May at the mouth of Delaware Bay, but thunderstorms convinced us to anchor for the night. Monday we traveled the length of Delaware Bay to arrive at Cape May in the afternoon. The weather is not being cooperative for a passage to New York over the next few days, so it looks like we will be sitting here waiting for a favourable wind shift. It feels good to be on the last leg of the journey after a well-needed break in Cape Hatteras, but being stuck somewhere because of weather can also be frustrating (especially at this point when we are all anxious to get home). It is definitely hard to go back to such a small space again after getting a taste of living in a roomy comfortable house last week, but we are all coping as best we can. Getting to New York and doing some tourist stuff will be a welcome change and feel all the more rewarding after a little struggle along the way though.
It is hard to believe we're into June already! This year has certainly flown by. Strangely, after spending the winter in warm places it feels to me like it should be fall right now. The air here certainly has an autumn chill to it, though it is quite sunny and nice.
That's all for now,
Nicole.

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