August 30, 2015  Day 71 New York Summer 2015

Veazey Cove, Bohemia River
Maryland

We had a leisurely morning at Penn’s Landing and enjoyed the waffles Joyce prepared for breakfast.  We left Philadelphia around 9:15 and headed back down the Delaware River to Delaware City.  We arrived there after 2pm and pulled up to the fuel dock so Donna and Amado could get off the boat and retrieve their car.  We also pumped out the holding tank while were there.  It is always hard to say goodbye to friends, and we do hope they will travel with us again!

We were on our way again to find an anchorage. We entered the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and tried to anchor at Chesapeake City. After three tries, we were not happy with the way the anchor was holding, so we left there and continued another hour to the Bohemia River.  We chose a cove called Veazey Cove that had protection from the south, and anchored for the night!

Since it was already 6:45 pm, we immediately turned on the grill to fix hamburgers for dinner.  We were tired from our long day and glad to be here.  We will probably spend more than one night here.

(We will post pictures of our weeknd soon!)

 

August 29, 2015  Day 70 New York Summer 2015

Penn’s Landing Marina
Philadelphia, PA

We were up early doing last minute preparations for our friends visit.  Joyce returned the rental car while Bill cleaned the outside of the boat.

Ft. Delaware on Pea Patch Island

Donna and Amado arrived at 1015 with their wonderful golden retriever, Baloo. They have traveled with us before and Baloo seemed to remember!

We were soon on our way to Philadelphia and enjoyed our four hour cruise.  We arrived at Penn’s Landing at 3pm and got settled in.  After docktails in the late afternoon, we walked to Farmacia, a nice restaurant that included outdoor seating.  This allowed us to take Baloo with us and also enjoy dinner off the boat!  We took a longer walk on the way back and enjoyed the architecture of some of the historic buildings. 

Enjoying dinner with Donna & Amado in Philadelphia

We had a very nice evening until some horrendous rap music started blaring near the marina and lasted until after 2am.  That made for an uncomfortable night sleeping!!

 



Having fun at dinner



Baloo was comfortable on the boat!

August 28, 2015  Day 69 New York Summer 2015

Delaware City Marina
Delaware City, DE

We got a very early start (0615) leaving Cape May for Delaware City, and it made a big difference. We were able to have the current with us the entire way. We did have 2 to 2 ½ foot waves for a while but nothing uncomfortable.  There were several tows with barges or tankers that we had to watch out for, but all in all, an uneventful ride.

After we got checked in at the marina at 1215, we picked up a rental car and ran several errands to provision the boat and pick up prescriptions.

In the meantime we had been on the phone with Donna and Amado, our friends from northern Virginia, trying to figure out a good time for them to spend the weekend with us.  Long story short, we all agreed that this weekend would work!

We got everything ready for their Saturday arrival. We were also able to make reservations to dock in Philadelphia on Saturday night.

 

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