We spent the last few weeks provisioning & otherwise preparing to head south, along with a few days up in Vermont to celebrate Benj’s birthday!

We’re off!  We made a speedy trip down Long Island Sound to NYC on 9/12, our 21st trip thru – now beginning our 11th cruising year.

Of course, we couldn’t pass thru NYC without thinking of the horrible tragedy 20 years & 1 day ago…  One lessor-known story of that day was the largest maritime evacuation in world history.  Twenty-four minutes after the first plane hit, virtually every mode of transportation in and out of Manhattan was temporarily shut down – except by water.  Within just 9 hours, nearly 500,000 people were evacuated off Manhattan by a variety of boats.  While the majority were transported by ferries, nearly a hundred tugs, fishing vessels & private vessels of all types & sizes pitched in as impromptu flotillas.  Here is a link to a documentary short narrated by Tom Hanks:  The 9/11 Boatlift

After NYC, we had a pretty decent window for the 114 miles offshore down to Cape May, NJ.  While a bit bouncy at times, it felt good to have the longest offshore leg over with. Tomorrow we’ll head up the Delaware River to Delaware City, then transverse the C & D Canal into the upper Chesapeake, where we’ll slow down for a week or two to enjoy the Chesapeake down to into Norfolk.