Evasion...

This morning I woke up with an urge for "evasion"... I feel I dreamed all night about a trip we did few years ago with L'etoile de Mer.

L'Etoile de Mer is our 44 feet Motor Yacht. We bought her about four years ago in Plattsburg New York on the Lake Champlain, about 12 miles from the Canadian Border.
So when we sold the little Caribbean cottage that we owned on Billy Folley road in St Maarten and where we operated Splash Restaurant, we decided to take a break from the island for few weeks and to start a journey with L'Etoile de Mer for the purpose of bringing her closer to St Martin which is suppose to be her final destination.

With Captain Bill in command, we started the journey on a early morning and left the Marina in Plattsburg...

to begin the 10 hours trip down the Lake Champlain, with on our right the New York's countryside and on our left the Vermont's Mountains. The scenery were absolutely fantastic, and we finally saw the United States a very different way we were usually used to. Nature, Nature, Nature... and a lot of tranquility and serenity.

We passed some old building in ruin, so old that they were built in "real material", in dry stone like in Europe, and not in wood or other new synthetic plastic or vinyl stuff.

It was late September, so we had the opportunity to admire the start of the colors of Fall

The first night we docked in Whitehall, just below a very eerie house and a full moon... Brrrr (notice the weird orangy light on the entrance door...). Then the next morning we started cruising down the Champlain Canal linking the Lake to the Hudson River, and had to "clear" twelve locks. the first lock was the most scary as it was the first experience and was the Whitehall ones. After the third one, it was like we did that all our life.

Once we entered the Hudson River, we went through Albany

pass near the Hudson Light house, the Kingston Light house, then came close to some very unique Castle built on an island, all abandoned and in ruin, vestige of the British or Dutch colonisation.

Along the days we were cruising peacefully, for about 8 hours a days, 11 to 12 knots. We were surprised to see an old gallion in very good condition and still being renovated.

One evening we were running late... We had a sleep reserved in a Marina in Sleepy Hollow, just below the Tapan zee bridge, and the sun was going down. As we were passing Sing Sing prison and admiring a beautiful sunset, William decided to "test" the speed "skills" of the yacht and pushed on the gas level. Oh boy !!!... The boat jumped ahead and went right on plane !... We both looked at each other surprised that 25,000 pound could just go flying like that. Gas engines, not Diesel... So we were moving but we drained the tanks dry !!! LOL

We made it safe to the Marina, in the dark, but safe. The next morning we woke up and could see the Tappan zee bridge just above us.

We continued our journey toward the south and approached New York City. This was a very special moment as my love for this city is un-measurable. I never thought one day I would be able to go through the town by the water, netherless, on our own yacht. It was very foggy, and some thunder showers were menacing. We couldn't let our attention down though as the ferry traffic from Jersey shore to New York shore was extremely dense and intense... and they have right of way , plus they don't care. That's up to you to be careful and to not interfere with their course.

Then far away we started to see the silhouette of the Statue of Liberty. Very strangely the clouds and thunder showers dissipated, letting the sun imposing itself

And then , here she was...

We passed her by, and exited the Hudson River to the Ocean towards Sandy Hook New Jersey, with this special scenery in the background... Sad , though, that something is missing in the picture...

We went below the Verrazano Bridge, passing those big freighters that you have to watch out for, and turned around Sandy Hook. At that point we were in open ocean and the sea conditions were extremely rough. I freaked out a bit, and thought that all the nice dishes that we bought for our new upcoming restaurant were going to be broken, as they were stocked in the V-Berth...

L'Etoile de Mer handled it well, and none of the dishes broke. When we passed Atlantic City, the ocean was smother, but we had some very intriguing creatures swimming around us. I remember Bill saying they were "Mako"... Do you know what they are ?... Brrrrrr LOL

We cruise down to Cape May, cut across the Cape May Canal and went back north through Delaware Bay. Then cut across the Delaware - Chesapeake Canal to the Chesapeake Bay. We cruise it down to Harrington Harbour in Rose Heaven Maryland, then later on continued our journey to Norfolk Virginia, and the intracoastal water way to Coinjock North Carolina. Then we stopped and the boat stayed there, as on the return from that trip we opened Tabba Khady and since then we didn't had much time for vacation. It was a wonderful journey though, I am glad that I dreamed again about it last night, and that I had the opportunity to revive the memories.

L'Etoile de Mer was eventually sailed back north to Chesapeake Virginia by a private Captain, because of hurricane risks, and was stored in an enclosed garage, waiting for us to come back and continue this journey toward St Martin Caribbean.

May be that now we decide to close Tabba Khady, we will have time again for vacation and leisure.

There is a reason for everything...