Great Bridge,Virginia

We are now in Great Bridge, VA at the beginning of the Intracoastal Waterway.

After NYC we headed to Atlantic Highlands, NJ and met up with our friends Christine and Rob. The weather looked good the next day so we left early and headed south along the coast of NJ. We had a great sail beam reaching at 7 knots  for 10 hours straight then motorsailed through the night to round Cape May. We continued on through the day and ended in the Sassafras river after 37 hours under way. We did two hour watches through the night and it passed quickly.

We visited Baltimore and anchored right in the inner harbor one night and tied to a free wall the next so we could buy our charts for the Carribean at Maryland Nautical. We then headed to Annapolis where Staci's Uncle Jerry and Aunt Karen met us and took Staci and the kids to their house for a couple of days. I needed to stay on the boat because the Harbormaster would not let us leave the boat unattended overnight. That was an unexpected bummer.

Since then we just travelled south through the Chesapeake to get down here to trick or treat in what looks to be a good neighborhood.

Twin Lights

Lee cloth for Nick 

Lee cloth for Sam

Free wall in Baltimore, MD

Uncle Jerry, Aunt Karen and Mac

Cousin Todd's bike and wagon

Todd's Rocking Chair

New York, New York

We are visiting a place where there is so much to do we don't even know where to begin.  We are on a mooring at 79th street, which isn't calm waters but close to the action.

So far we have been to Central Park and the Museum of Natural History.  We will have more pictures soon.

This morning we had a big wake up call at 7:00 AM when another boat collided with ours.  Figures the one morning the kids were sleeping in.  

It was quite a sight for all with Paul and I running around deck in our underwear.  

Not much damage to our boat but the other boat played pin ball all the way down the mooring field.  The Coast Guard was on the scene soon after and is going to talk to us later.  

Nick is very excited for their visit,  he would like to join the Coast Guard when he gets older.

Smoochie Face

Waiting for the Museum of Natural History to open

This is the boat that hit us.

We travelled all over on the subway

Times Square

Inside the Growler Submarine at the Intrepid Museum

Aboard the Intrepid there were a lot of interactive exhibits

The space shuttle Enterprise is aboard the Intrepid

This is a 22' long Lego replica of the Intrepid

Back in Times Square these guys insisted we take a picture of them with the kids  then asked for  tips.

the Freedom Tower completed.

We sailed just a few hundred yards off The Statue of Liberty.

Newport, RI

We are in Newport for a while due to weather.  I (Staci) am not a big fan of waves over 4-6 feet in height so we are delaying our departure.  Paul is getting stir crazy but knows staying here is a wise decision. 
Samantha celebrated her 7th birthday yesterday on the boat.  Hard to believe she is 7 already. We celebrated with...of course Ice Cream!

Samantha at 18 months.  Nicholas is still in Mama's tummy.

Samantha now a big 7 year old.

Nantucket

We left Maine after visiting Belfast and Rockland one more time. We departed Rockland with the intention of sailing to Boothbay Harbor but once we got out past Burnt Island and into the Gulf of Maine we decided to just turn southwest and sail through the night to Gloucester, Mass. The weather was calm with a full moon so it was a very relaxed motor-sail and we arrived in Gloucester around 10:00 a.m the next morning. Once in Gloucester we decided to just take on diesel and pump out our holding tanks and continue on toward Boston.  We stayed one night anchored off Peddocks Island just outside Boston Harbor but didn't venture into the city because there is really no place to land a dinghy and the marinas were out of our budget. The kids would rather explore beaches and visit libraries anyway.

We then sailed to Provincetown  on the end of Cape Cod to wait out a little wind for a couple of days and then continued on to Sesuit Harbor on Cape Cod to visit my(Paul's) Uncle Mario and Aunt Judy. We stayed with them for two nights and had a great time. It was a real treat to stay at  their beautiful home and enjoy their  delicious cooking.

After leaving Sesuit Harbor we went through the Cape Cod Canal to Onset and then on to Hadley Harbor just outside Woods Hole, Mass. This is a great free mooring field put in place by the Forbes family for all to enjoy. It's an easy dinghy ride into Woods Hole where we visited the NOAA aquarium, the historical museum, and their library. Hadley Harbor is great for dinghy exploration and one morning I went out fishing and caught my first striped bass.

We then crossed Vineyard sound and anchored in Lake Tashmoo on Martha's Vineyard for a few days. We had a great time in Martha's Vineyard but unfortunately left our camera on a picnic table at the park. That's the second camera we've lost/destroyed. 

We are now anchored in Nantucket Harbor and it is beautiful. The weather has been great and we spent yesterday on a deserted beach. Today we are in town at the atheneum  (library). From here we will go back to Martha's Vineyard for a night, then onto Wood's Hole, and then onto Newport,RI for Samantha's seventh birthday.

Minot's Ledge Light outside Boston

At the East Dennis Memorial Library

Uncle Mario and us on top of Scargo Tower, East Dennis

Samantha reading to Daddy

Ship in a bottle exhibit in Wood's Hole

New T-shirts

Gingerbread houses in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard

Allegedly the most photographed house on Martha's Vineyard