to New York City!

We had a good time in Stratford CT. Brian arranged for an engine mechanic to do the final adjustments on our head gasket, while Aimee took the girls to town for hours of fun at the playground and library. Madelyn and Katja even joined in for an hour-long kids' music class at the library, which was a suprise for all. While they napped, we left the dock, filled both fuel tanks at the marina dock, and left to move on to further our trip westward.

For the past 2 days we have had rain, patchy fog, waves, and lots of wind. We're soggy and tired, especially Brian who has spent hours at our helm fighting to keep our course. Last night we found a protected anchorage at Sheffield Island near Norwalk CT. On land we could see a beautiful stone lighthouse: http://www.lighthouse.cc/sheffield/. Our anchor held strong in about 25 knots of wind all night.

Today we sailed all day in the rain, waves and winds (20-25 knots, with gusts to 35-40 knots max at times). Aimee snapped our staysail furling line, while trying to furl it in on a winch, and Brian was able to save it before it flapped around too much. Even with these challenges, we were able to go through the East River timed to flow with the currents, through New York City! Despite the fog and rain, we were still thrilled tourists, snapping photos of the bridges as we went under them, the skyscrapers, and even got a few fuzzy pictures of the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, the girls are too small to really appreciate it. They spent almost the whole day down below, and were troopers and still managed to play games, watch their favorite shows, and generally tolerated it well. Madelyn did tell us "I really don't like it when the boat goes over the bumps." After a warm dinner tonight, we feel cozy and are looking forward to all cuddling together in the aft cabin for a warm night's sleep.

We are tucked into a calm harbor tonight on Coney Island. Tomorrow we plan to go our final destination, somewhere in New Jersey, yet to be decided, where we will keep our boat for weeks until we leave for our bigger trip this Fall.