6:36 am -- I am awakened by a pounding at my door and Captain Ed yelling “Pat -- are you walking this morning?” I jumped out of bed.   Ed and I walked for an hour -- with a stop at Dunkin Donuts in the middle.

9:23 am -- The Navigator leaves Allens Harbor with no fan fare -- Weather is mild  -- overcast and all in all a great day to begin our journey.

11:21 am We are almost through Vineyard Sound heading to the open ocean -- seas are pretty rough.   We are averaging 26 knots per hour.

The big decision of the day is whether to shoot for Atlantic City on the open ocean or go through Long Island Sound and stay around Greenwich, CT.   Once we get out of Block Island Sound and into the open ocean we’ll see how rough the waters are --

12:49 pm We have made the decision to stay inside traveling through Long Island Sound -- the waters are very rough with lots of white caps.   As we pass to the west of Block Island -- we have an engine stall.  Captain Ed is not sure what is happening so he checks the engine room below and we go slow for a while -- the engine does come back but the question of why it stalled is unknown.

There are lobster traps everywhere so one of the many duties of the crew is to look for lobster trap markers and call out their location, i.e. “one o’clock or ten o’clock”, etc.   At one point I heard myself saying “Noon” until I realized that this system doesn’t care whether it is am or pm -- it’s just for location purposes.  I’m learning.

2:29 pm We are traveling through Long Island Sound -- right now the water is like lake -- much better than earlier.  We are expecting to stop in Stamford, CT.

Ooops -- we just got buzzed by a small plane -- this guy is way too close to the water -- he looks like he’s going to hit us --  he’s coming back again -- not quite so close this time.  Whew -- he’s gone!

But I digress -- I spoke to my cousin, Denny, Tugboat Captain Extraordinaire -- who just happens to be working in New York this week.  He recommended a marina for us to dock in tonight -- and will be calling back later with tomorrow’s weather report.  How lucky are we -- Captain Ed has indicated there might be promotion in my future due to my great contacts.

4:44 pm We are approaching Stamford, CT Harbor and what a beautiful site is the skyline of Manhattan off to our left.  It will be good to dock and get organized -- we need to unpack and make our beds.  We’ll be taking photos of our digs for you all to see.

9:35 pm We are in for the night at the Brewer’s Yacht Basin in Stamford, CT.  We had a very nice dinner at the Saltwater Grille.  My cousin, Denny, called back reporting that the weather looks good for tomorrow going south.  We hope to make Cape May, NJ.