40°43′34″ N 74°2′4″ W

Aug 3 – Newport Yacht Club – Jersey City

The next segment of our journey to the marina in New York City was relatively short – only 20 nm (about 3 hours travel time). We decided not to cast off until 10:30 in the morning because the next marina did not want us to arrive before 1:00pm.

I was a bit intimidated by the prospect of entering New York Harbor in the middle of the day, but Ed suggested “we cruise in like we owned the place” & I agreed that was a good strategy.

As we got closer to the Statue of Liberty we started encountering a lot of passenger ferries, tourist sightseeing boats & tugboats pushing barges. It was a bit hectic but the harbor is huge so there was lots of room for everyone.

Ed looked after the helm & I kept watch on our sides & behind us.

It was very exciting to sail past the Statue of Liberty.

There were also several boats (really) sailing in the harbor – now that takes some nerve….

We arrived at our marina at about 1:00pm. Unfortunately the marina was a total disaster! One quarter of the docks were missing, one quarter were sunken & the rest were rotting!

On top of all that, the marina had no breakwater so the docks (& the boats tied to them) were rocking back & forth like crazy. The motion of our boat was worse than what we had endured during the wind & rainstorm a few days before in Chesapeake Beach, MD!

I tried to contact the marina manager but all I got was her voicemail. I finally managed to reach the booking agency for the marina & convinced them to refund my credit card payment for 4 days of dock fees.

Bye, bye bad marina. I have stayed at a lot of marinas over the past month & this one was the absolute worst. I certainly did not want a horrible place like this to be Catherine’s introduction to our “new” boat.

Thankfully I managed to secure a dock at another nearby marina so we headed back down the Hudson River towards the Statue of Liberty.

The new marina we are at is in an awesome location with lots of restaurants & shopping across the street.

The screenshot below shows our location.

Our nearest neighbor is pretty cool too!

It had been a long & trying day & we had nothing to eat since our light breakfast 8 hours before so we dressed up as best we could & headed to a nearby pub/restaurant.

This place had cold beer & great food. The pub had a bit of an Irish theme & a sign on the wall in the bar caught my eye…

After supper we headed back to the boat for a well deserved rest & to hit the showers.

The skyline of New York City on the other side of the Hudson is pretty impressive at night too!

Tomorrow (August 4) we will explore Jersey City & reprovision the boat as the fridge & the pantry are looking pretty bare.

Cheers!

40°32′45″ N 74°8′34″ W

Aug 2 – Mansion Marina, NJ

We arrived at the Mansion Marina on August 2 at 3:00pm. The passage up from Barnegat Bay was pretty easy as the wind was on our stern & there was only a gentle swell on the water.

The photo above shows the Barnegat Light at the entrance to the bay – as we are headed back towards the ocean.

It’s a tricky entrance because the outer walls of the breakwater are submerged & generate breakers in the channel. This makes the water rough & does not allow any room for mistakes or you could end up on the rocks.

As we rounded Sandy Hook the sky ahead of us was darkening & we could hear thunder. We were still about 45 minutes from the marina so we started closing windows, etc. in anticipation of rain. The VHF radio also started to broadcast severe weather alerts for heavy rain & possible hail. Fortunately for us we made it into the marina before the storm hit & all we got in our area was a gentle, steady rain for a few hours.

The marina in Great Kills Harbor was ok but it did not have any amenities other than a single bathroom so we decided to leave a day early & head for New York. I found a marina that was across the Hudson River from NYC & fairly close to Newark Airport for our crew change on Sunday.

Cheers!