Wednesday June 8: Kingston, NY

We left our anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty about 10 am yesterday. The picture from last night of the statue didn't turn out so great so you don't see it :-( - we were kind of disappointed that we didn't have a better view. Next time! Ellis Island was on our port side as we headed up the Hudson River. The internet is VERY slow but I will put additional pics on picasaweb if you are interested in seeing other sites as we traveled through New York City.

Saw some interesting things along the Hudson yesterday: the Amtrak trains that run along the eastern bank (Steve and I rode one from Cleveland to NY and spent3 days there with Rebecca - really fun time!), the West Point military academy and surprising to us: huge mountains and cliffs!! We really had no clue how fun this part of the trip would be as I guess we were not expecting to be in the mountains.

We didn't leave at the crack of dawn even though we planned a long almost 80 mile day. We didn't understand why but the guidebooks said a tide runs up and down the river twice a day and if you catch the current at the start of the Hudson River, you can ride the current upstream all day! Which is exactly what we did. Average speed for much of the day was 10 mph - 2 mph over our usual speed. Turns out that the Hudson River is not a river at all but an estuary - "arm of the sea" - as we learned in the museum today.

We ended up finally reaching our destination about 7:30 last night. It was a restaurant with a dock: eat there and docking is free - what a deal! Food was great and I didn't have to clean up :-) Downside: freight trains going by all night and since there was a road, train whistles all night. You could almost touch the train from the boat! Regardless, off we went about 6 am - saw the sunrise again ......

Only went 16 miles today to Kingston so we would have some time to relax before another long day tomorrow. Saw a number of fun lighthouses. We arrived in Kingston at 10 am and first thing was to take the mast down before the day reached it's expected high of 92 degrees. The clearance on the Erie Canal is lower than we can make with the mast up - so down it went. Then a quick bike ride around town to see what was around.

Couldn't resist the "stick you head in a hole" right next to the boat :-) Steamships on the Hudson (from New York City to Kingston and back) were a big thing - some of which were built here in this city.

At the museum, I tried out the chart table in a typical sailing vessel - roomier than ours! Steve tried his hand at the helm of one of the river steamships and then saw the poster that made him wonder why they never went on a steamship while visiting New York when he was a kid. What a deal on the price!

Tomorrow: up again at the crack of dawn to catch the current and off to Waterford - the first stop on the Erie Canal.

Monday June 6: New York City

Yesterday we left Manasquan Inlet about 10 am to check out how the ocean was and since it seemed pretty good off we went. It wasn't that long of a run to Sandy Hook where we anchored for the night but we fought the current for part of the way and especially at the end as we turned east and south to hook into Sandy Hook. And it's name is a good one. It's basically a very large hook of sand! The current was running about 2 mph against us so our usual speed of 8 mph turned into 6 instead. I felt like I should get Steve to paddling to help out! After leaving the Manasquan inlet, we basically went up along the Jersey shore. The shoreline from the water is very different, once again, from the other places we've passed. No high rises here like in Florida but still beach 99% of the time. The anchorage at Sandy Hook was right in front of another large Coast Guard station as well as a large ferry landing. We couldn't figure out who was riding a ferry to here as it seemed to be just a big sandy area.

As we approached the opening to the New York Harbor, Steve spotted something on the shore to the right and decreed it was the old parachute drop ride at Coney Island. He has memories of this of when he was a kid and the family would make a trip or two to New York City a year (his mom grew up in Manhattan!). Coney Island amusement park was a favorite stop. Anyway, I didn't believe it (looked too tall to me - I thought it was a construction derrick but then in my defense we were quite a ways away yet). Anyway, bottom line is that it turns out he was exactly right! Check it out at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachute_Jump We passed under the Verazano Bridge - another great bridge. Lots of traffic on it!

Other sights on the way in: the Staten Island Ferries, the Statue of Liberty (we'll see her with lit up tonight - hopefully the pics will come out) and Manhattan itself. We will be able to get closer pictures tomorrow when we start up the Hudson River.

One last picture today: Steve has done it again. Ruined any chance of my being able to order crabcakes at a restaurant and be happy with them. He had picked up some crab from Wiso's in Delaware City and decided today was a good day to try making them. None anywhere will ever compare ..... they were delicious :-)

Monday June 6: Sandy Hook, NJ

Just a quick picture of what appeared on the horizon yesterday afternoon: New York City!!! We are anchored about 16 miles south of the entrance to the harbor and will be going in today to anchor behind the Statue of Liberty. It's supposed to be a sunny nice day (not like yesterday) - will put up pictures later after we are anchored. WOW - New York City!!!

Saturday June 4: Applegate Cove - New Jersey

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!!!

Friday June 2: Somewhere in New Jersey!

Three days = three states: Chesapeake City, Maryland, Delaware City, Delaware and now New Jersey!

What a day! The trip down Delaware Bay (about 60 miles) was quite interesting but very long. Steve first had to go back to the seafood market in Delaware City and take a couple of pictures. The guy who owns it is quite interesting and started his business after being a crabber for years and years. Anyway, he has quite the unique collection of 'things' in his driveway :-) (This is the same place with the crab picture with Steve.)

The winds were predicted to be 10 to 15 knots, changing to 15 to 20 later in the day .... but they would be pushing us down the bay. It was kind of wild when we first entered the bay as the tide was still coming in and the winds trying to push it out. Makes for some interesting waves. My first thought was - this isn't very good - as Steve put up the steadying sail. But it helped us not rock so much and once we made the turn at the top of the bay and picked up the outgoing tide, it was a great ride!

There was a really neat lighthouse at one of the shoals about half-way down the bay. Saw a number of boats pass us and two very large tows going up the bay but otherwise it was pretty empty. Only the tows were going north as it would have been a very unpleasant ride going into the waves. Delaware Bay is the last really long trip of open water so it's nice to be across it. When we were getting close to the south end, there were thousands of small dead fish in the water - not sure what that was all about.

Finally - the entrance to the Cape May canal - and how pleasant it was to be off of the bay. There is a huge Coast Guard station here along with lots and lots of sport fish boats since there is very easy access to the Atlantic from here. (I'll put a map up tomorrow that might help explain where we are.)

Saw a weird boat on our way to our anchorage. Steve thinks the poles are pushed down into the river bottom and then the crane can work on the bridge, dock or whatever is being built. Sounded good to me!

So after this long day (we couldn't leave Delaware City until 11 am due to the timing of the tides), it's now about 7 pm and the anchorage we had picked out turned out to not be so good. Shallow and very bad holding for the anchor as the wind was still blowing at 10 - 12 knots. That means plan B goes into effect - except we didn't have a plan B!! New rule: always have a plan B :-) We ended up spotting a restaurant about a mile further down the canal with a dock. Steve checked with the manager and he ok'd us spending the night if we were eating dinner there. So a winner on both counts: dinner out and a dock for the night. Steve had a Voodoo something or other that came in a small bucket - did I say it was a long day???