Cruise to NE USA instead of CA?

There are a lot of good marinas in the NE besides NYC & Boston where dockage is very limited. I also suspect that the transit will be cheaper, and the cruising grounds are pretty good. Do you need to be in a big city? What is your criteria? Docking in both cities tends to be bouncy which is another good reason to go elsewhere.

It's actually faster to get to JFK & LGA from Long Island and Westchester than NYC (traffic). There is also Islip-MacArthur on L.I. Not sure about the airports in Connecticut and Rhode Island (probably Boston, Hartford, JFK & LGA), but that's easy enough to check. Great ports of call in the area are NYC, Hudson River, Sag Harbor, Pt. Jefferson, Montauk, Connecticut River, Thames River (casino), Newport, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Boston. Gardner's and Peconic Bays on L.I. are great for water-sports and gunk holing. You can get moorings at Sag Harbor, Pt. Jefferson, Nantucket and the Vineyard and can anchor out in probably 100 or more great, safe locations. An added plus is that the bay water is in the low 70's by mid summer. P.S. All of the places mentioned are accessible with technically never touching the ocean although some areas you'll cross are directly open to the Atlantic. Wow, don't I sound like the tour guide.

There's Westchester Airport in Purchase NY. From there its only a short drive to many Marinas in Rye and Port Chester NY, Greenwich, Stanford, and Even Norwalk Ct. From there its about 160 miles to Nantucket and some of the best cruising in America!

There are quite a few marinas in Mystic (we used to be at Seaport Marine, now part of Noank Shipyard), Noank, Stonington (friends kept an 84' Grand Alaskan at Dodson's), and Pawcatuck CT, as well as up the Hudson... Julius Petersen in Nyack and Haverstraw Marina in Haverstraw come to mind for bigger boats.

Well, at least I'm not the only tour guide. The fact is that once you hit NY there's a nice spot to hit (even for 85') about every 10 miles, give or take, all the way to Nantucket or Boston with no ocean inlets to deal with. The suggestion of doing the coast a month at a time is also a good one.

Although I don't pay the bills I'd have to assume the rates are comparable to south Florida in high season. On my run down the coast last fall I was often paying about $2 per ft. a night or less if that helps you. I would suggest that calling now you're going to get the published rate whereas if you call in April for May, June for July, etc. you may hear something entirely different given current circumstances, especially if your slip will be vacant on weekends.

I want to also Thank you all for the info. As I am from the West coast I am taking my boat up the East coast before bringing it back to the NW. We are currently in Savannah then over to Hilton head in a few weeks. Any special place or neet things to see or do?

Love the hush puppies @ HH. Make a swing over Beaufort,S.C. Very pretty little town with charming residents. It's where they filmed Cape Fear and the great Santini. Well worth a day or two. They're serious about their speed retrictions between the bridges in Beaufort so keep it way down. BTW, on the way over to HH watch for crab traps mid-channel.

When you've got a short season and expensive heating, you've got to make it when you can. That said, with transients and boat traffic in general most likely to be significantly down this year, those published rates here in the northeast may have some negotiation room.

Providence, RI (PVD) is centrally located and VERY easy to navigate.

We summer at Noank Shipyard. Nice folks but a LONG way from town. Mystic Seaport is pretty cool too.

Have you felt the water in California? At least the water here comes up from Florida. Theirs comes down from Alaska. Brrrrr. Truthfully though I haven't even tried going into ocean water here since I lived in Florida. That bath water spoils you. Got to the point where I wouldn't even go in there except in summer. Once had a cousin come down here from Maine in November and she went swimming. I froze just watching. Guess it's all what you're used to.