Day 41 - Arrival in New York

Dec. 28 - Departed Chesapeake City on the C&D Canal at 1300 catching the outgoing tide down the Delaware River to sea. My new ETA for Liberty Park Marina in Jersey City was 0900.

This was our last offshore leg along the Atlantic coast ending at the sea buoy, Ambrose Light, marking the deep water approach into New York Harbor.

I intentionally planned our arrival at daybreak . We passed the sea buoy as the the sun came up. From her we followed the bar channel to the bridge.

Passing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, I felt a sense of accomplishment and relief. I couldn’t help but think of the things that could have slowed us down, but did not; mechanical problems, customs issues, bad weather, Panama Canal delays, etc.

Entering New York Harbor at daybreak was special. FREEDOM had been our home for almost a month and a half. With the last week of cold weather, thoughts now turned to moving off the vessel and into a warm hotel. We were there.

We passed the Statue of Liberty where FREEDOM

will go into service on 1/1/08. With the start-up date in mind over a month ago, I had estimated that the shortest possible transit time would be 40 days, if all went perfectly. This is based on a average speed of 10 knot (about 12 mph) 24/7. San Francisco to New York via the Panama Canal covered 6550 miles. and we arrived in 41 days.

- After thoughts to follow....