Halley sailing again

41 01.963N 73 30.650W

Radio silence for a while, but Halley has been sailing since the beginning of August. We took a break starting in early June to move out of our apartment in Cincinnati and put stuff into storage. We also got Eva and Axel situated in a charming old apartment that they are now sharing near University of Cincinnati where they both study. Chris pulled the load of much of that work while I was spending precious time with my mother in Sweden. My mother passed away peacefully on July 11 while I was still there - a great lady whose time had come and whom we will miss a lot.

Chris and I got back to the boat at the end of July. Halley had been docked at Port Royal in Beaufort, South Carolina, and was no worse for wear, other than a rusty water line. We headed north to get away from the heat and the hurricanes and to see friends and family up north. We trucked along for several 3-day/2-night passages and additional day trips - the US east coast is long - and finally arrived in New York City earlier this week. We dropped the anchor just north of Ellis Island and had an unbelievable view of the Manhattan skyline. It almost feels like cheating that we can drop the anchor and get that kind of  million dollar view at no extra cost.

We then continued up the East River along the (surprise) east side of Manhattan, under the Brooklyn Bridge, past the UN building and other landmarks. We braved the notorious Hell Gate with its at times vicious currents and were finally spit out unharmed into Long Island Sound. Photo ops galore and cool factor high. 

We’ve spent the last few days slowly making our way up Long Island Sound in Connecticut. We have friends in the area and family of Chris’ to visit. Yesterday was a super-chill Sunday with Werner Domittner (the second most important Austrian in the US), our dear old friend John Taylor and his sons John and William and girlfriend Claudia. We made a day sail to Oyster Bay, across Long Island Sound in a brisk easterly wind. Great conversations, good fun and for added spice, a line caught in the propeller on our way home. The starboard engine promptly seized up and that’s when we thank Zeus for having a catamaran with two engines… Yes, it’s a problem that we had to deal with today, but it didn’t ruin our Sunday sail.