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Monday, October 18 – Monday, October 25 We had wanted to leave on Sunday, but the winds were up. We toyed with the idea of going in the afternoon anyway, but did not. So on Monday morning we left Tide Mill before 7:00 am. It was a beautiful warm, sunny, wind free day. What a pleasure for me to be in familiar waters. We passed Huckleberry Island, where my Dad, Mom, Donna and I anchored all too many times. I remember straining my eyes using the binoculars to try to see the nude men on the island. We were told it was a men’s nudist colony but I never really knew if it was true, and I never did see anyone, never mind a nude man. And while we did swim at that anchorage, we never dared swim to shore. We approached Execution Rocks and Light House before 8 am, the Throggs Neck Bridge looming in the near distance. I asked the boys if they knew how the Light House got its name. They must have heard the story from me at least a dozen times, because they all knew the answer. I tried to picture, as I often did when I passed those rocks, how a man could be tied to a rock waiting for the tide to come up to drown him. It must have been awful. Under the Throgs Neck Bridge, then the Whitestone. I always loved going under those bridges. I’m sure I’d gone under them more than over them at one point in my life, but not now, having lived on the east end for so long that was no longer the case.
Naturally photos of the New York Skyline are a must while traveling the East River.
Under the Varazanno Bridge just after noon and Sandy Hook by 1pm. After we turned the Hook and got into the Ocean, we saw at least 50 people fishing from shore. The sea was flat and the day was glorious. So this is what all the night shift people do here on the northeast tip of NJ.
That was just the start of the beginning of the fishermen we saw in New Jersey. We passed Manasquan with several hours of light ahead of us. We knew the weather was changing for Tuesday and the ocean would not be pleasant. We decided to go as far as possible in the light. Cape May was our choice but much too far. By 4:30 we knew that the Barnegat Inlet was as far as we could get. We called several marinas and were directed to Barnegat Light Marina. By this time it was close to 5pm. I spoke to a young man who went back and forth from the phone getting answers to my questions. I’d told them we wouldn’t be there for at least another hour. He told me the number of the slip to take and the name of the vessel next to it.
Just after the sun set, our vessel approached the Barnegat Inlet . Thankful that a sport fisherman entered the harbor just ahead of us, I followed his route in. The inlet had some waves, but nothing compared to the one at Mattituck. (A few days later the same inlet had waves breaking over 12 feet high.) As we approached the marina a man shouted out to us where to go. I turned to the port and rounded the fuel dock. Suddenly the port side of the boat was almost against the pilings. I backed up hard. Let’s try that again. This time I got into the slip area but still the current was too hard. The tide was low and I was not supposed to go to far to the shoal on the starboard side. Someone was yelling don’t come in here. I tried to back into the slip as I turned the boat and almost had it, but I didn’t give it enough throttle and missed the opportunity. The man guiding us in, yelled, your gonna back in? I guess that was a noble attempt and not a good idea. My third attempt brought the bow close to the slip. I thought I was going right in. The stern was still sitting to the port. But again, I didn’t give it enough throttle and within seconds the stern was to the starboard. This time we had enough bow in the slip and the two men on the dock yelled directions and grabbed lines. The younger of the two reminded me that my wheel was still turned. That was it. I always forgot about the wheel. And we got into the slip. The older man (and owner of the marina) told me you can’t take so much time with a current like this. And I discovered what it was like to dock in a current of 3 ½ knots. On Tuesday, we stayed aboard and got
going on home schooling. Peter took
the boys on a walk for recess. On
Wednesday and Thursday mornings we did more of the same. Malcolm wrote: Yesterday afternoon we all got dressed in our foul weather gear and took a walk to the ocean to look at the size of the waves. When we got there, we saw a couple of fisherman and we saw the waves. The Coast Guard was practicing (on the huge breaking waves). We saw one of the fisherman catch a baby shark. He let it go. Then my mom, Logan and Harrison went up the lighthouse. I saw the baby shark swim away. Then my mom, Logan, Harrison came down and we went back to the boat and played Castle Risk. Today we all took a walk to the Coast Guard to ask if they knew what the weather is going to be like, but we ended up getting a grand tour.
Harrison wrote: We went to the coast guard station. We went inside a boat and on a boat. Inside the boat you play a video game to steer. We saw a titanic movie the next day.
I
thought it was the story but it was about finding it. The restaurant was serving a special of spaghetti and meatballs. Besides getting to see Survivor, the meatballs and sauce were the best I’d ever had at a restaurant. What a bonus. On Thursday it was clear that the sea was not going to calm down before Monday. So we decided to rent a car for Friday to go the Philadelphia.
On Saturday, we did things around the boat and on Sunday returned to Philadelphia. Before doing so we read one of Pastor John’s sermons and sang songs from an old VBS. In Phili, we went to the Constitution building and saw a great informative performance. There were lots of great hands on stuff afterward that helped clarify many things. There was an interesting movie/exhibit on the Bill of Rights and a great 3D display to describe the 3 branches of government. We also went to the Ben Franklin Museum and the planetarium within. Then we saw an IMAX about the finding of the Titanic. Before we left the town we drove to the river where we would have come if we’d come by boat. There we find a great marina and got their card and number for the return trip. Monday was still not right to leave. We did leave the dock to gas up, but returned to our slip for the night. Our fishermen friends told us it would be ok to leave tomorrow. We went to bed early in preparation for the next day’s departure. When we awoke we found many of the fishing boats did go out so we knew we could go too. |
We got to Hell’s Gate around 9 am.
A decision was made to go on the east
side of Governors Island and not pass by the Statue of Liberty in an effort to
save time and boat traffic.
Logan wrote: At Barnegat Light,
Malcolm, Harrison and I stayed inside for the first two days.
Our trip to Philadelphia on Friday
consisted of a duck tour where we learned the answer to most of the questions
about Philadelphia was Benjamin Franklin.