This is just a quick update to stick a pin in the Google earth map.  Leaving New York City we travelled back around the bottom of Manhattan, and then up the East River which squeezes and swirls between Brooklyn and the Bronx before it popped us back out into the relative peace of Long Island Sound.  The pretty bays scattered along this coast are lined with the most amazing summer homes of some of America's seriously wealthy.  J P Morgan himself used to commute into the city by yacht from here and some of the other houses were built by families with such recognizable names as Roosevelt and Chrysler. What astonished us however are the number of huge houses....hundreds, or even thousands of enormous mansions all along the shoreline.....who on earth are these people?  I thought the Great Gatsby was long dead and gone but someone is still living in his shoes.

 

Further along we tucked around into bays and small islands that make up the eastern end of Long Island.  Although still a popular holiday destination here the pace of life begins to slow again, and it feels like New York is a million miles away rather than just under a hundred.  We are currently moored up off Shelter Island, a wonderful unspoilt haven where we have linked up with some friends who swap the sticky summer heat in the city for the peace and shade of their summer cottages.  It is immediately noticeable that we are back in sailing country, the anchorages are again full of masts rather than the engine roar of the sports-fishermen.  Bamboozle is surrounded each day by kids (not always entirely in control) of their little optimist dinghies as they learn to sail as part of the ubiquitous "camp". 

 

We plan to spend the weekend here, not only because it is lovely but we also and have a few dinners planned on board to thank people for their hospitable welcome to back to Shelter.