July 5, 2009

Ahoy from Namaste

How is everybody? Hope you are all well and enjoying summer.

New York! New York! Just like I pictured it. We left Solomon’s Island on Wednesday, June 24 and arrived in New York Thursday, July 2. The last two weeks have just flown by.
Before we left Solomon’s Island we had a lovely evening with friends, old and new, on Namaste. Franci and Bob from Barefootin’, Nura and Russell from Varuna, and Carol, Scot, June and John from Wanderer all joined us for dinner aboard Namaste. We had a great time trading stories and getting to know one another. It was a very special evening. Chris and I also celebrated our anniversary by giving each other kayaks and have been having a great time exploring creeks more intimately than we can in Namaste.

After we left Solomon’s island we anchored in Plaindealing Creek, Selby Bay and Mahogothy Creek. We made plans to meet with friends from 2 other boats, Barefootiin’ and Rachel, to meet on the Sassafras River on June 27th to position for a trip down the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to Reedy Island, then down the Delaware River to Cape May. From Cape May it is an overnight to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. And then a day trip into New York Harbor, up the East River through Hell’s Gate and into Long Island Sound. At Sandy Hook we called Chris’s brother and sister-in-law in New Rochelle, realizing we could make it to their neck of the sound by the 4th of July.

So a long story short, after nine days of sailing we reached Larchmont and joined our family, including Isaac and Chappell, Katie, our niece and Sam and Anne. We spent Friday on the water playing all day. We got out the kayaks, swam in the harbor, explored in the dinghy, sailed, swung from the halyard (some of us), laughed a lot, and ate wonderful food. We took the Namaste out for a short sail on Saturday the 4th and ended up taking a 6 hour sail, beating our way back just in time to dine at the yacht club and watch the fireworks from Namaste. A very good day!
We intend to do more of the same over the rest of the weekend. It is so good to be in one place and to spend time with family. While we miss and love those that we could not meet up with this weekend we are so happy to love the ones we are with.

Today we do a few chores and then play all afternoon with family. We have another beautiful day!

I think this time I will let pictures tell the rest of the story.

Have a great weekend!

Peace and Love