August 27, 2015  Day 68 New York Summer 2015

Utsch’s Marina
Cape May, NJ

Before departing the Golden Nugget Marina, we stopped at the fuel dock to empty our holding tank. Then we ventured back out into the Atlantic Ocean and headed south towards Cape May. We had another great day on the water with calm seas.  Again we are glad we waited so long last week for this to happen. 

We arrived in Cape May at 1:45 and got tied up in our slip.  We spent a quiet afternoon just relaxing. Bill took a nap and Joyce read a book!

We walked to the nearest restaurant, The Lobster House, for a seafood dinner.  This must be the height of tourist season because we had to wait thirty minutes for a table.  We had not eaten out in a while so it was a nice change!

We will leave at sunrise tomorrow to go to Delaware City, DE. The current will be against us so our 56 mile day will be a longer one.

August 26, 2015  Day 67 New York Summer 2015

Golden Nugget Marina
Atlantic City, NJ

We departed our anchorage at Sandy Hook just after seven o’clock and headed into the Atlantic Ocean for 92 miles to Atlantic City. Waiting a few days paid off and we welcomed the fairly calm seas with just 1-2 footers!  We bumped up our speed to shorten the day and made the trip in 9 1/2 hours.  We used some of our time underway to make contacts for more reservations, rental car, etc.

Most of the boat traffic was local fishermen either heading out to deeper water or casting their lines near our path.  We saw very few cruising boats. We were entertained by a group of dolphins though!

A large group of dolphins had fun diving near us!

We arrived at the Golden Nugget Marina at 4:30. Shortly after we arrived we saw other boats from Williamsburg. They were traveling together to New York from their club at Kingsmill. We spent a quiet evening and had dinner on board.
 

Tomorrow we will go back off shore and travel to Cape May, a shorter distance of 42 miles!



Approaching Atlantic City

August 25, 2015  Day 66 New York Summer 2015

At anchor
Sandy Hook, NJ



Leaving our anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty

Major ship traffic!

We said goodbye to the Statue of Liberty this morning when we left our anchorage at Liberty State Park.  We would usually go out in the Harbor and go under the Verrazano Bridge to the South Bay. However, this time we took a detour and followed the waterway along the western side of Staten Island.  Much of it was industrial and intended for commercial traffic.  Some of it was home to abandoned and derelict boats. All in all it was interesting and of course Bill thought it was fascinating!  We passed towns such as Bayonne, Elizabeth, Woodbridge, Perth Amboy before entering into Raritan Bay and eventually Sandy Hook Bay.

Tug Boat Alley?

We stopped for fuel at Atlantic Highlands Municipal Harbor. At $2.35/gallon we could not pass up the opportunity!  We continued on for another three miles and anchored at Sandy Hook.  We have been here before and knew we would be rocked by the wakes from the large and fast ferry boats, but we decided to tolerate it for one night.

We took time to make phone calls to get reservations or the rest of the week.  Tomorrow we will go to the Golden Nugget Marina in Atlantic City.  We have been waiting for the waves to die down on the Atlantic Ocean and tomorrow looks like a good day to run offshore.

August 24, 2015  Day 65 New York Summer 2015

At anchor, Liberty State Park
Jersey City, NJ



The beautful Palisades line the west side
of the Hudson north of the city

What a good day we have had.  We left Half Moon Bay Marina at 0820 and headed 37 miles south on the Hudson.  We did not have much boat traffic at all until we reached the New York City Harbor area, and even then it was not a problem.

This is our fifth trip through the harbor and we have not found it boring yet.  Seeing the World Trade Center, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan, and more is still very impressive from the water. And, all the while, we have many ferry boats, tows with barges, and other pleasure craft wanting their share of the water!  Oh, and we are trying to take pictures as we are cruising through all of this!



The World Trade Center dominates the skyline

Lady Liberty - always a thrill to see her

We are anchored at Liberty State Park, which is right behind the Statue of Liberty. It is amazing to know that every time we look out of the boat, we can see it!  We can also see the World Trade Center from here. We are in a fairly protected basin with land on three sides.  There are three other boars anchored here as well.  We arrived at lunch time and have had a good day just enjoying being here.  The cruise ship, Carnival Splendor passed our anchorage late this afternoon. We saw it earlier today docked at the pier in the city. We will be on that ship in late October on a cruise to Bermuda!

Anchored at Liberty State Park

We will leave in the morning and go to Atlantic Highlands Marina for fuel and then anchor nearby. 

Ellis Island



Carnival Splendor

August 23, 2015  Day 64 New York Summer 2015

Half Moon Bay Marina
Croton-on-Hudson, NY

After spending five nights at anchor in Half Moon Bay, it was time to go to a marina!  We were desperately low on water, and needed to get a few things done that required power. 

Our popular anchorage at Half Moon Bay

Our anchorage was quite the hotspot on Friday and Saturday with many small boats anchored near shore. There were also kayakers, paddle boarders, and jet skis on the scene.  Most of them left before dark and it finally quieted down.

We drove over to the marina this morning– all of a ten minute drive – and went to the pump out station first to empty the holding tank. Then we went to our spot on the dock and got settled in.  We are just staying one day.  We have been here on two other occasions and did not go into town this time.  Joyce did lots of laundry, baked bread, vacuumed, and fixed dinner.  We also relaxed by reading. 

Bill keeps watching the NOAA website and it looks like Wednesday and Thursday will be the best days to go offshore down the New Jersey coast.  We have been waiting for anything less than three foot waves, so we are hopeful!

The view from our dock at Half Moon Bay Marina

We will leave in the morning and cruise just under 40 miles to New York City tomorrow and anchor again.

August 19, 2015  Day 60 New York Summer 2015

At Anchor,  Half Moon Bay
Croton-on-Hudson, NY

We left our anchorage near the Rondout Lighthouse (which marks the entrance of the creek into Kingston) at 0730. We had partly cloudy skies all day but it was fairly calm. We did not see too many boats out today – just a few tows with their barges, and a few pleasure craft boats.



Saying goodbye to the Rondout Light
as we left our anchorage this morning

One of many beautiful homes in the hills along the Hudson



Bannerman Castle

West Point ("Beat Air Force" on the roof -
 it says "Beat Navy" on the other side)

More of the West Point campus

As always, we enjoyed passing West Point and admiring the beautiful architecture and the cliffs that surround it.  Our son-in-law is Army, so we took this one photo for him!

We arrived at our anchorage in Half Moon Bay, which is in Croton-on-Hudson. It is a large anchorage and fairly well protected from the south and east.  There were several boats here when we arrived but by five pm there were just three of us. Many of the smaller boats were just here for the afternoon. 

We have been studying the Atlantic Coast forecast for the weekend, especially the wave heights. The forecast is for three footers, but we have learned that is usually underestimated.  We are located about 30 miles north of New York City, so rather than get farther south, we have decided to stay here for three days at anchor and see what happens. 

Our anchorage at Half Moon Bay

We had chicken on the grill, and fresh corn on the cob for dinner.  We are just relaxing for the evening!

August 18, 2015  Day 59 New York Summer 2015

At Anchor, south of Rondout Creek
Port Ewen, NY



A calm Hudson River this morning

 

The wind started to pick up when we reached our anchorage



Calm as the sun was setting

We got a rather slow start his morning as we did not leave Albany until 0920.  We had the current with us most of the day, sunny sky, little boat traffic, and a light breeze.  That is until we were almost at our anchorage and the wind picked up, thunder and lightning were nearby and storm clouds could be seen in three directions.  We went ahead and anchored anyway and just waited. We were happy we dodged a bullet when it never reached us!

We had a light dinner onboard and are planning our next stop – another anchorage at Haverstraw.  It has been an interesting day of seeing everything we passed on the way north.  We are getting very familiar with this river!  We also traveled the Hudson in 2012 on the Great Loop and in 2013 on the Down East Loop.