For about 3 or 4 months of the year some of the finest cruising and
boating to be found anywhere is in the north eastern United States:
Southern New York state; parts of the New Jersey shore; Connecticut;
Rhode Island; Massachusetts and Maine. We've brought the trawler
north from Florida for the summer with the plan of revisiting some of
our old favorite places here and perhaps finding some new ones.

For the last two days we've been anchored near the north end of City
Island, literally within a few hundred yards of where I purchased my
first real sailboat in the fall of 1971. City Island is an
interesting place. It is within the far north eastern limits of New
York City but has an ambience more reminiscent of New England. At one
time it was a major boat building center. As recently as the late
1970s it was possible to drive down the main street and observe large
sailing yachts under construction. There are also a large number of
sea food restaurants, some of which come and go, and some that have
been around for a lifetime. A restaurant called the Lobster Box has
been here just about forever and their menu offers lobster served in
23 different ways. Plan to arrive early on Friday and Saturday nights.
A lot of the old shipyards have been replaced by condo developments
but there are still large marinas and yacht clubs on both sides of the
island. Literally hundreds of boats are moored nearby and there is a
lot of water activity, even on week days.

Where we are anchored is particularly scenic, literally surrounded by
little rocky out croppings, tree covered islands and fine homes on the
distant hazy shoreline of Westchester County. It would be easy to
spend an entire summer in this one place but we'll be moving farther
east soon. Long Island Sound beckons with fine harbors on both the NY
and Connecticut shores. We spent many years living near the Sound in
the New Rochelle and Larchmont areas, both beautiful shore side
communities. Our boats were moored a few miles east in Stamford, CT
which is a major center of sail boat racing in Western LIS. It was a
good place to spend our working and child raising years offering easy
access to the water, good schools and a relatively easy commute into
New York City.

Moving east beyond Long Island Sound are other major boating venues:
Newport, Rhode Island; Block Island; Marthas Vineyard; Nantucket; Cape
Cod; Buzzards Bay; the Elizabeth Islands and more. Much more, too
much to discuss today but I'll post some updates from time to time as
we move east over the summer.

Anyone interested in following along can see our current location and
where we've been recently:

http://tinyurl.com/waynebspottrack