After leaving Wickford in Narragansett Bay, we stopped and anchored at a place called Horton Island Beach for one night before heading on Long Island Sound.

Northport, NY

We decided to stop in Northport, NY for a few days before staging at Port Washington to go through New York Harbor. Northport, a historic maritime village, is located on the north shore of Long Island and has an excellent anchorage, town dock and parks. Beautiful homes lined the hillsides which made for excellent walking and running. The quaint town area was loaded with shops and restaurants. While there, we visited the local brewery, Sand City Brewing Company, did a provisioning run, and took advantage of the day-time free dockage to hop off and do laundry and walk Sophie in the park. It was a great stop to rest and get some chores done before moving on.

Port Washington, NY and the Big Apple

We only stayed one night in Port Washington on our trip north because the heat was chasing us so this time around, we were glad to have a little more time there. Because of its location and close proximity to New York, Port Washington is a cruisers staging area for transiting New York Harbor southbound. The mooring field was full so we anchored just outside it.

While there, we decided we wanted to take the train into New York City because it had been ages since either of us had been and also so we could meet up with friends we hadn’t seen in a long time. Taking the train to New York from Port Washington was fairly easy and quite pleasant. We downloaded the MTA TrainTime app and were able to purchase boarding passes and see the schedule. The station in Port Washington was about a mile walk from the town dinghy dock. We were pleasantly surprised that we were able to take Sophie with us in her stroller. We visited New York on 2 different days. The first day we planned to spend the day there checking out all the main attractions: Grand Central, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, etc. and then meet up with my college room mate, Holly, and her family for dinner. While there, we also got to check out the “The Great Migration”, an exhibit of over 100 life sized elephants located in the Meatpacking District. The art installation is collaboration between Indigenous artisans, contemporary artists, and cultural institutions, all of whom work together raise money to fund human-wildlife coexistence projects. It was cool that we got to check it out while there.

We later met Holly and Eric and their 2 daughters for dinner at Jajaja Mexicana in South Village. We were excited to see Holly and Eric as well as check out an all-vegan mexican restaurant. Dinner was fabulous and the company even more so.

We took the train into NYC a second day so we could meet for lunch with Randy’s high school friend, Mustafa, and see any other sights we may have missed the first day. After hopping off the train, we walked through Times Square again and checked out some fabric shops in the Garment District before meeting Mustafa for lunch at the Bryant Park Cafe. Bryant Park was a beautiful green oasis in the middle of the concrete city. It was a lovely spot for lunch and for Randy to catch up with his friend.

Later in the week, we arranged for Holly and family to come visit us on Blue Turtle in Port Washington. After we gave them the nickel tour of the boat, we had lunch that they brought. Eric made the most amazing vegan Indian food. Seriously…Randy and I ate every bit of the leftovers they left us. It was awesome getting to spend a little bit more time catching up with them and we’re so glad we decided to stay there long enough to visit the city.

A day or two later, it was time to motor through the busy harbor of NY. This time, we were notified that the West channel of the East River was closed due to the U.N. being in session. We took the East channel route and made it through, however, halfway through we noticed a large amount of Coast Guard and other boats with armed men patrolling the area. We later heard that President Biden was attending the U.N. that day. Once we got past the Statue of Liberty, we headed toward the Sandy Point anchorage to stage for the next jump south.

Wickford, RI to Northport, NY  = 104 nm
Northport, NY to Port Washington = 23 nm
Port Washington to Atlantic Highlands = 30 nm

TOTAL miles to date: = 7,090 nm