At the canals....

Since my last post, I've made it to Castleton on Hudson, made some great new friends there, taken the mast down, and sailed up to Waterford, NY. I'm now less than 100 yards from the entrance to the Erie Canal and the trip west to Lake Erie, and Canada. 
I've also been busting my butt putting together the website, Facebook page and funding program for the tv show I'm doing about Cuba next winter - Cuba, Forbidden Paradise.
So if you've wondered where I was hiding, I wasn't...I was here, at the keyboard, just not on this blog. And man oh man, am I beat!
If you're curious about what I've been up to, here it is for you to check out - http://facebook.com/cubaforbiddenparadise, http://CubaForbiddenParadise.com and also http://kck.st/LKbOP7, the tinyurl for the funding website where, if you're so inclined, you can donate to 'Cuba, Forbidden Paradise' and get some really spectacular prizes, including a cameo appearance in the video, and your name in the credits as an Associate Producer. If you're not so inclined, then please like the Facebook page, share the funding link on your Facebook page, email it to really wealthy friends - whatever it takes! After all, you don't want to find me on your doorstep, begging for kibble for Aduana, and beer for me.
Well, perhaps some of you do, but you're in a minority I'm afraid!

Hooking up on the Jersey Coast...oh my!

Ok, you're thinking....just what has this goof done this time? Well, I got hooked up with a couple of lovely young things on my way up the Jersey coast....one was named Bonita, as in Tuna, and the other was Spanish, as in Spanish Mackeral. Yes, I had the fishing line out, because everywhere you looked, and I do mean everywhere, you'd see the water jumping and splashing as big fish (like the ones I caught) were chasing little fish. You could actually see the fish as they rolled at the surface - not one or two, but ten or twenty at a time. I've never seen the water so active! So I 'hooked' a couple of fish...what did you think I meant?
Aduana of course got really excited as I reeled these beauties in, barking and peering over the side of the boat as they came up to it. 
So - it was fresh fish for dinner three nights in a row, and mmmmm...was it good! 
Congratulations to my friends Wendy and Mike - they've just bought a new boat and are now nearly home in Toronto with it, having brought it up the Hudson River and through the Canal - in fact, only a few days ahead of me. 
I'm currently in Kingston, NY - beautiful little town. One more day to Castleton on Hudson, where the mast comes down, then the next day, into the canal system. I'll be taking a day out early next week to drive up to Boston to visit the crew at SAIL Magazine (you've been warned guys!), then it's 'west young man, go west', heading for Buffalo and Lake Erie...and home.

In case you've been wondering.....

...where I've been....I'm in Nyack, NY and have been working on my newest project. Check it out at Cuba - Forbidden Paradise and on my Facebook page. Please make sure you like and friend us on Facebook to help give this project new momentum. Oh, make sure you tell all your friends too...thanks.
Now, back to our regular programming...next post will be about two naked hookers I met while sailing up the Jersey coast....really! (he says, tongue firmly in cheek...)

On leaving Chesapeake Bay...

I'm guilty of forgetting that many of you aren't active sailors....so sometimes my posts don't make a lot of sense for some of you either from lack of sailing knowledge or not knowing the area I'm talking about. It's ok, my posts sometimes don't make a lot of sense to me!
Still....here's my route from Annapolis, heading for New York. Leaving Annapolis, we go north up Chesapeake Bay to the C&D Canal. At this point, you want to be watching the tide so you get the current behind you - it gets quite strong here.
I usually layover in Chesapeake City, then head out the next morning for Delaware River. The trick is to get the tide behind you, which then pushes you along as much as two to three knots faster. On a five knot boat, that means you can do the 42 mile trip in five hours, rather than 8 hours. Makes for a much easier day. Ask Doc about that!
The challenge of Delaware Bay is that there are a LOT of big ships - I've seen as many as a dozen in one day. As long as you stay to the side of the channel, there's no problem.
Delaware River and Bay are not pretty - it's just a part of the trip that you have to get by. At the south end, you come to Cape May, an attractive tourist town. One thing about it I don't care for though - they charge you to go on their beach. Coming from where I do, that's just wrong but of course, this is New Jersey.
From Cape May, it's north on the Atlantic to New York, 118 miles away. I make a point of picking my weather for this part of the trip. I've seen it get nasty out there - this is the North Atlantic after all. In fact, just a few months ago, a 38 foot sailboat was wrecked at the entrance to Barnegat when it hit a shoal. That ought to bring some memories back to Terri, right? Except that was Absecon Inlet at Atlantic City...another story for another time.
In all, this part of the trip, Annapolis to New York, can take from three to five days, unless the weather kicks up and holds you back, as it did two years ago when I was coming south - had to hang out in Manasquan for about a week, until high winds and 10 foot plus seas laid down.
Do I know how to have fun or what?

Cruisin' Cuba

Most of you know I've been to Cuba twice now - and you can catch some of the video action on SAIL Magazine at Paso Malo and on TheSailingChannel at Forbidding, Forbidden Cuba. You can also read several of my stories on Cuba at SAIL telling you what this amazing country is like. 
My current project involves returning to Cuba next winter to put together the video for a PBS television show, a one hour look at what it's like to sail, cruise and explore Cuba. 
The show will explore some of the aspects of Cuba we expect - we'll look at cigars and rum - may even smoke a cigar and sip a little Havana Club Anejo or order up a mojito. This will be a truly authentic look at Cuba and its people - not some fluffy production - and as such, there will be some nitty and gritty to it...kind of like me I suppose!
I'll be announcing the kickoff of the sponsorship program here in just a few days and I hope that all of you will at least be curious enough to take a look at it - and impressed enough to pass the information on to their own contacts. 
In the meantime, here are a couple of photos of Cuba to tempt and intrigue you...

Dominoes is big in Cuba - they play everywhere, this game is on the street

Rolling cigars...it's a manual process

 Ok, that's it for now....back to work everyone!