New Jersey - New York

Wednesday , June 19 - Thursday, June 20 - In the morning we changed the motor oil on the Yanmar engine and I prepared meals for an overnight passage. We left Cape May at 12:30 p.m. and went into the North Atlantic Ocean. We pulled out both the mainsail and jib and were on a close reach starboard tack with 12 knots of wind. Kevin left the motor on low and we motor-sailed at 5.5 knots. A little later the wind shifted to put us on a beam reach and we picked up speed to 6 knots. We turned the motor off for an hour or more and had some nice quiet time! We passed by Wildwood Beach just after 1:00 p.m. and Atlantic City at 6:00 p.m. I took the 9:00 p.m. to midnight and 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. shifts and Kevin took the midnight to 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. on. It was a nice overnight passage, winds were low between 7 and 10 knots and the moon was bright making for good visibility. The temperature dropped to the low 60’s which made it close to cold but not bad. The wind shifted a bit and we used our mainsail to keep our sped up along with the motor. We turned into Sandy Hook Bay at 8:30 a.m and anchored near Atlantic Highlands Marina at 9:44 a.m. The total passage time was 21 hours. To our luck we anchored near the boat that passively aggressively wanted us to not anchor near him yesterday 🤣😎. He was down below when we anchored but later came out with his distance finder to measure our distance from him. I had already done that and we were over 90 yards from him. The marina has a large mooring field with nothing but monohull sailboats, it’s kind of cool not to see a ton of catamarans! ⛵️On the VHF the accents have changed from a slow southern drawl to a faster New York accent. After lunch we took Pepper to shore to see what we could find though we didn’t go farther than the marina. The temperature rose to 86 degrees during the day and we went back to shore at 3:00 for appetizers and dinner at the restaurant near the marina to try to get air conditioning, but it wasn’t as cool as we had hoped! We sat close to the bar and there was a group talking and the men sounded like Tony Soprano! We were able to see New York skylines off in the distance across the bay.

Friday, June 21 - We took the dinghy to shore and Kevin filled the spare diesel tanks while I walked with Pepper about a half mile to a bagel shop on First Avenue. It reminded me of the main street where I lived in Lake Hiawatha, NJ many years ago with various types of shops and restaurants lined up on either side of the street. As kids we would ask each other if you wanted to go to the “top of the hill” to the shops because it was literally on the top of a hill from the neighborhood. I used that expression well into adulthood until it started to occur to me there was no hills where I was living! The bagels at the bagel shop were still warm and were authentic NY bagels!! I bought a bakers dozen - 15! - and we each had one when we got back to the boat. We pulled the anchor up at 2:00 p.m. and pulled both sails out though there was only 5 knots of wind, another motor-sail day. We quickly brought the jib in as the wind was too low, but were able to pull it back out closer to NY. Within 2 hours we could see the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan off in the distance! It was so cool sailing up to the statue and anchoring behind it. We anchored at 5:13 p.m. Ellis Island is right behind the statue with Manhattan in the background, Brooklyn to her right and Jersey City to her left. Staten Island was across the river. The water was rough from all the ferries, power boats and jet skis zipping by. There is something so majestic about the statue that I kept wanting to look at it, it represents so much for our country.

Saturday, June 22 - We departed Liberty Island at 7:23 and went around the Statue of Liberty to the front of her. As we circled around Manhattan we went into East River and under the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan bridge, then Williamsburg bridge. Further up we passed the Empire State Building. On our right side was Long Island and we passed Brooklyn, La Guardia airport in Queens and Riker’s Island, home of the notorious prison. Amongst all of the buildings there were beautiful parks along the water on both sides. The current was very strong in the river and Kevin timed our departure so that we moved with it. As we went through an area called Hell’s Gate it pushed us along at 10 knots. This is where two sides of the East River (island in the middle) and Harlem River join together and cause a whirlpool current. Once we were past NYC the water was calm and it was quiet without all the ferries, motor boats, jet skis and planes flying over. We entered Long Island Sound around 9:45 with the Bronx to our left and Long Island on the right.
We anchored in Manhasset Bay by Port Washington, Long Island at 10:46 a.m. There are many boats within the sound, some docked, some on moorings and some anchored.
That night we were treated to a fireworks display that we could see from our boat.

Sunday, June 23 - in the morning I went to the grocery store while Kevin walked Pepper. There was a dinghy dock within a block of a Stop & Shop that was very convenient. I spent time texting my cousin Gretchen in Connecticut and Michelle (Sydney’s mother-in-law) on Cape Cod amaking plans to visit them and figuring out when we will be where based on where they live and schedules. For dinner we went to a little Italian cafe for pizza and calzone because when in NY you have to get pizza! It was ok but not stellar or typical for NY. The give away that it would not be great was no one in there was Italian, staff or patrons.Leggi altro