After an easy day of travel (except for my running aground at high tide in the New Jersey mud - operator error), we arrived at our anchorage for the night - a very pleasant place called Applegate Cove. There are a couple of other boats here but no houses. Unless of course you look right or left!
We left the Wharf restaurant early yesterday as it was again a long day ahead. There are lots of slow areas in the NJ Intercoastal Waterway so it took us almost 10 hours until we reached our destination of Sheltered Cove Marina.
Interesting sights along the way: waterways that made us think maybe we were in Venice, couches that made us think we were in WVa (sorry Scott :-)) and marshes that we had no clue were a part of NJ. Many thousands of nesting birds in the weeds of the marshes.
We passed Ventner City (of Monopoly fame???) and the many casinos of Atlantic City. Steve would not let me stop :-(
And strangely enough a small field of windmills. In New Jersey?? Who would have thought!
Now it was time to head into the marina. And the day was going so well. So we are at low tide with a wind that was likely blowing more water out of the large but shallow bay on which the marina was located. Soon we were reading .9 feet on the depth finder (which means we have 2.5 feet of water under the keel. Not good. We were basically making a path to the marina through the silt bottom (we draw 3.8 feet and the water was probably actually only 3 feet deep. But we persevered and made it. Good thing we had asked the marina in advance if there was enough depth for us ........
After a good night's sleep, our plowing of the channel was a distant memory. Bob said the temp was 58.5 degrees - what a change from a couple of days ago! I pulled out my jeans and sweatshirt and was ready to ride! Steve did his usual great job of scouting for a breakfast place - it was about a mile down the road so off we went.
Check out the menu of specials and prices - all of which included coffee! Are we really in NJ - land of the $2 to $6 per foot for dockage?? We spotted a pair of swans with a chick as we readied to pull out of the marina this morning after filling up our fuel tanks. Who would have thought we would be overjoyed to be able to buy diesel for $3.60 a gallon! This translates to $450 to fill our tanks - but we can now make it to the Erie Canal before needing more fuel.
Steve received credit once again for the plastic enclosures. Just because they don't quite fit doesn't stop him from innovating a way to keep some of the cool air out. The waters we traveled today were very large bays - but at most 10 feet deep. The New Jersey Waterway in general is VERY shallow. The guide books recommend that if you draw more than 4 feet - don't even go this way. Which is a shame as there are some really neat places along here.
So this is where we are: at the north end of New Jersey - 56 miles from the Statue of Liberty!!! If the weather holds as predicted, we make the final 30 mile run in the Atlantic to prepare to move on to New York Harbor. How exciting!!!
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