Fireworks and Finally Underway!

Last night we took Dinah up the Hudson River to see the NY 4th July firework display (or "pyrotechnic extravaganza" which is a more appropirate description!). There were lots of boats on the water, of all shapes and sizes. Motor cruisers are far more common on these waters than sailing vessels, so when the fireworks finished we were rapidly left behind in very dirty water by hundreds of high powered gin-palaces! Then - in the middle of the mass exodus came a small yacht (maybe 20 feet) coming *the wrong way* ... being violently tossed around in the messy wakes of everyone else. They seemed to be enjoying the experience though!!!

This morning we evicted Bob and Louise, and made the boat ready for our trip. She is now unbelievablty tidy compared with 24hours ago!!! Jim and Tricia also came to see us off, ànd finally just around lunchtime Barry, Andy and I motored away from Liberty Landing and out past the statue of Liberty. Just under the Verrazano Narrows bridge we hoisted our sails and we've been making a nice steady 7 knots since then. The shores of NY and NJ are receding into the distance and we're on our way.

Position-wise we plan to stay around 40 degrees north and take the great circle route to the azores. At this kind of latitude we will pick up the gulf stream which will keep us in warm waters as well as speeding us on our way.

I'll report a position with every post so you can see where we are (you can plug the position into google earth for example). Right now we're at 40 29.61N 73 48.31W. As the days elapse you will see our longitude (the 73 degree reading) decrease as we make our way east.

Delighted to receive all your emails - keep them coming! Just try to remember - low bandwidth so plain text with no signatures pls!!!

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