patronus from the george washington bridge

First of all, I’m so excited (and a little intimidated) that we almost have 10,000 hits on our website.  We have lots of subscribers (THANK YOU!!!!) and even more people who are checking the website through Facebook; websites where I have links set up; and google searches.  Thank you to all our friends and family who are telling friends about us and posting about our trip on Facebook.  It is really helping!  My goal is to have 1000 subscribers, so if you haven’t signed up yet, please type in your email in the left margin (all the way at the bottom if you are on your cell phone) and hit “Subscribe”.  You will get an email when I post something new.

Our boat name, Patronus, is attracting fans already as we sail from place to place (no doubt in part because I ordered the name in the LARGEST font they make!)  Yesterday, a young woman (after seeing our boat from the launch in Port Jefferson) googled our boat name and signed up for our website because she loves Harry Potter, too.  We emailed back and forth and we now have some new Long Island friends following our journey.  Hi, Kenzi and family!!!  Tonight, after a 90 mile sail in gorgeous weather to Newport, Rhode Island, we passed a sailboat in the mooring field and the captain yelled to us, “MY POWERBOAT’S NAME IS THE GOLDEN SNITCH!”  I have a feeling we will have many more Harry Potter moments before the year is through!

entering newport harbor

As I mentioned, we are safe and sound in Newport harbor, my favorite place on earth (followed very closely by the Norwegian fjords and Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands).  Newport is considered the sailing capital of the world by many people.  When you enter the harbor, even on a Tuesday afternoon, you are met with the awesome sight of thousands of sailboat masts from one end of the harbor to the other.  The Newport Bridge, Fort Adams, the seaport/downtown area, and the stately presence of the New York Yacht Club and other mainstays of the gilded age round out the view.  When I look around, I see water, white clapboard buildings, and all the signs of a fishing town partially stuck in history.  The air here feels like home to me.  Even the sounds are comforting.

We left Port Jefferson at 0540 this morning.  We had the tides against us for about 4 hours, but they turned in our favor before Plum Gut and added up to an extra 3 knots by the time we hit The Race.  The boat is handling extremely well, even with the extra weight of a year’s worth of supplies.  The kids handled the long sail well today, which surprised me.  It’s been a long couple of weeks and a very busy start to the trip.  They slept late due to the rocking of the boat and the gentle rushing sound of the water outside the hull next to their heads.  When they woke up, they ate, played cards and mancala, read books, played house in their stateroom, and napped up on deck.  Just to remind us they are still kids/siblings, they threw in a little arguing and Porter managed to fall down and bump his bottom, resulting in some tears.

dinner at nyyc

After getting our mooring, we traipsed into NYYC trying not to look like a bunch of liveaboard vagabonds and took nice, long, hot showers.  We dressed for dinner and ate on the back lawn of the club, overlooking the harbor with a great view of Patronus.  I swear I will not bore you with a year of food descriptions, but the Lobster Mac and Cheese had so much lobster in it that we had trouble finding pasta to put on the fork with it!  And they had a buttered toast appetizer with fresh ricotta, pepper, and roasted red peppers that was out of this world.  Then again, put me at a table with bread, pepper, and cheese and you really can’t go wrong.

ready for the sunset flag ceremony at nyyc

After three hot days, we are finally in the city of moist, cool breezes, about to fall asleep with the hatches open, staring at the stars above us, listening to the pre-fireworks, and basking in the sounds of sailboat halyards clanking against their masts (but not ours.  Ours are properly fastened:)I will figure out a solution to our media situation in the next few days.  We are on day 3 and I already have 677 photos/videos, which I just loaded on to my computer from 5 different devices.  We need a better plan!  In the meantime, here are just a few scenes from the last few days.

first family picture of the voyage

our amazing family and friends wishing us farewell on our voyage

with mema and bestefar in pt washington

playing games under way

mindy and erica: pt jeff friends since 1986

reese and reenie in port washington

bryson meditating on the lido deck:)

erica and sue on danford’s dock. patronus in background

acupuncturist sue treating reese for an earache in pt jefferson

the moon and the sun in port jefferson

Just a quick check in.  We are safely moored just off the ferry landing in Port Jefferson harbor.  It was a lovely, nostalgic sail into the harbor where I first set foot on Stigandi, the sailboat on which I learned to love racing.  I have so many wonderful memories here: sailing, working at the Suffolk County National Bank in town, and eating “scrambled egg, bacon, and cheese on a roll. Salt, pepper, ketchup” with friends while watching the boats from the ferry parking lot.  So much has changed in town, but much of it seems exactly the same, like the Steamroom Seafood restaurant, where we ate dinner tonight.  More later, but it was a great night catching up with high school friends Mindy Morales and Mike Matz, and Cornell friend and roommate Sue Nissle.  Thanks guys for making our second day so full of excitement!  Our stay was even better with launch operator Martha, who was a joy and so very helpful.  And we met some fellow Harry Potter fans, who saw our boat name and googled us to find our website!  Check in all day tomorrow to see our progress on Spot as we sail to Newport in time for the 4th of July!  (click the link to the left to find Patronus’ location in real time)

Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails.”

Last year, we decided that one day, we might be disappointed that we didn’t follow this dream. So we took my dear Twain’s advice and found ourselves preparing to spend a year together. We would love one another while discoverIng new people and places and teachIng our children a love of our planet (especially our oceans:).

Thank you to everyone who helped get us to today, July 1st, our official departure. It was a great day, complete with fanfare at the dock and an entourage taking photos and waving from the George Washington Bridge! We saw friends from the marina as we traveled the Hudson River; caught the currents through Hell’s Gate; and were welcomed with open arms by our friends in Port Washington.

We are safe and sound on our mooring in Manhasset Bay. We hope each day this year brings as much love and togetherness as today. Sleep well. I am off to be rocked to sleep with my family.

(see our progress/location each day by clicking on the link in the left margin.)