Cape May to New York

Area where I had to pivot the boat

We left Two Mile Marina at a reasonable hour of 8;30.  The current wasn't too strong so we took the stern line off and it swung out, let the bow line go and I pivoted the boat 360 degrees and we were off down the creek back to the harbor of Cape May.  We needed to stop for fuel and elected to try and get into Harbor View marina instead of negotiating the restricted marinas nearer the canal.  Besides, the price was the same, $3.59 a gallon.

Harbor View marina (red roofs)

Getting into Harbor View was a little difficult since I was seeing water levels around 4.7 - 5 feet crossing the harbor.  We draw 4.5 ft.  Once close to the entrance the water is deep again.  We made it in (on an ebb tide) and got tied up even with the strong current.  167 gallons which means we're getting almost 2.5 gallons per mile going 6 miles per hour.  Any faster and we'd be reducing that by half.  Mary the speed demon gets excited when we hit 8mph.

Anchorage near the Coast Guard station in Cape May

We fueled up and using the directions from the dock guy went back out to the harbor on a different route.  Same result though.  We didn't ground but the depths were no different.  We headed over to the anchorage near the Coast Guard Station and stayed for a few hours so we could time the entry into New York at daylight.   We left the anchorage around 11:30 am.  As we went out the inlet the navigation software didn't come up so Mary had to drive while I tinkered with the computer and got it up and running.

Cape May after leaving the inlet headed north

We had talked with Pierre and JoAnn off of Odyssey4 earlier and tried to make contact with them on the VHF but couldn't reach them.  We headed off shore about 3-5 miles and running at 6mph we got settled in for a long night.

Atlantic City about 10 miles out 

There were 2-3 foot waves initially but they calmed so all we had were 2 foot swells all the way to Sandy Hook.  We passed by Atlantic City on the way and it was visible from at least 10 miles out.  We didn't want to stop there because of the approaching weather.  We figured it would just be better to get into New York before the rain and wind and not risk getting stuck in some place for several days.

If your dryer vent isn't hooked up ....

We chatted with a few other boats on the radio otherwise it was a sedate several hours.  Mary did some laundry even though I haven't quite got the dryer vent completely hooked up yet.

Gadgets all lit up

Once it got dark, it also became interesting.  The night was pitch black, and a dense heavy fog rolled in after midnight.  Radar became important as did the radio.  I talked with at least ten other vessels from tugs, and tows to ships and some 80' sailing yacht from France.  .

Jiggly radar picture with only 3 targets.

Luckily it was calm and the radar display was very clear.  The fog prevented seeing any running lights so radar was the only thing we could use to find other vessels.  7 targets was the most I had on the screen at one time.

Dawn off Sandy Hook

Around 5:30am it began to get light as we passed by Sandy Hook.  Made coffee and woke Mary up at 6:30 as we headed into New York Harbor. Yes, we were gawking at the skyline and big ships moving in and out just like a bunch of tourists.  Only down side is that we also had to drive the boat ... and not into anything.  We finally got a hold of Odyssy4 for a brief chat (they arrived before us and anchored near Coney Island).

Verrazano Bridge and the Narrows

  We went through the Narrows and under the bridge.  Impressive bridge and very high!

Then through the inner harbor which is incredibly busy with boats of all types scurrying every which way.  They do not slow down either.

Anchorage entrance runs right along the sea wall back .

We weaved our way through all the traffic and found the entrance to Liberty Park anchorage which is just behind the Statue of Liberty.  It was a rather narrow entrance but the basin is pretty big except this time there were some construction equipment there.  Also discovered a ferry runs in and out as well as a construction crew boat.  So it wasn't all that peaceful and quiet.  The holding was marginal, at least for us.  We dragged and had to try three times to get the anchor to set which it finally did by putting out 100 ft. of chain.  Luckily there were only two other boats in there at the time.


Once re-anchored, we settled in and I went to bed early.   I've concluded I am way to old to stay up all night.