Day 1 New York to Manhasset Bay ,Port Washington Long Island

Hi there Family and Friends,
We are on our way North for the first part or our trip to Maine .Our second part will be into Canada God willing!
We left Liberty Landing around noon to get the slack tide to go through Hells Gate .Its a part of the East River ( East side of Manhattan) known for its turbulent waters as several rivers converge there.
Being a Saturday there were quite a few pleasure boats out and about ,but not so many ferries. Canbe quite exciting avoiding those , as they go at a decent speed and you  want to keep well clear of them.
We passed a couple of big barges , but they don't pose any problem.They are slow and don't have much wake to deal with. It was fun going past La Guardia airport watching the planes take off and landing..Beautiful sunny day and a short ride of only 1 1/2 hours to our next destination.
However,  once we rounded the bend of the East River and entered the Long Island Sound we came up to a small lighthouse in the center of the Sound in an the area we later found out was called Stepping Stones  and Graeme chose to go right of it as there were many boats in the left side channel.We had seen several boats taking this right side  path but we soon realized after hearing a clunking sound underneath our boat , why it was called Stepping Stones !Fortunately we were going quite slowly and the boat continued to go although we sensed it sounded different!
Once into the Brewer Capri Marina ,we were met up our friends Linda and Roger who were there to welcome us.They had been at the Marina for several days to meet up with family and friends.

We decided we better find out what damage had been done to the boat when we hit  what we though must have been a rock.A diver appeared very promptly and said we were lucky as the damage had indeed been done by a rock It appeared to involve only the left prop and although both propeller blades  on that side were bent , but didn't look like they needed to be replacesd , just straightened. The service manager arrived also and suggested we get the repair done here probably Monday, when they could short haul the boat out of the water.They told us many people had been caught at The Stepping Stone area, and had done damage to their boats.The good thing is that this Marina has all the facilities and has a good reputation for servicing and repair work. Thank God it happened here and not some out of the way place! Reminds us , you must always be very vigilant especially in unknown waters.
So our one night stop will perhaps turn into three nights and we hope to make Sag Harbor on Tuesday or Wenesday at the latest.
Over and Out
Skipper and First Mate .