Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Last of the New Jersey Coast!

Today is going to be our last day cruising the Atlantic as well as our last day cruising with Rita and David on Whisper.  I’m really looking forward to having the coast of New Jersey done and under our belt but not separating from Rita and David.  We’ve really come a long way together and become such good friends...running into each other off and on while traveling south and then hanging daily for 3 months in the Abacos and the entire journey from Portsmouth, VA to New York City, NY.  What memories we’ve made on our once-in-a-lifetime  journey….   J    L

our early departure!

Our plans are to leave at 6 am for various reasons.   One reason is so we can easily get our boats away from dock at Hoffman’s Marina,  where we’ve been for 3 days,  and through the RR Bascule Bridge.  There will be little or no current at this time due to ‘tides & currents’ and the winds are going to be nil. Secondly by leaving this early, we’ll be able to make it into New York City and both be ready for the incoming current….Happy Hours II up the Hudson River and Whisper through Hell’s Gate up the East River.  We were so eager to be leaving  the Manasquan River that we were both off the dock by 5:45 am!

flat ocean

Whisper on ocean

The Atlantic Ocean was  perfect today…even nicer than our last two ocean stretches…and they were near perfect!  The sun is shining, the water is flat, and the winds….well they are blowing out of the NW but light and variable.   Having winds out of the west to south would have really made our day!   I know all four of us were so glad that we broke the New Jersey coast into 3 days instead of the 20 hour over-nighter  that both boats did in the fall.  Even our trip into the NY Harbor was uneventful.  We only had two freighters to contend with.  One passed us on its way out into the ocean and the other came  barreling up behind us coming into NYC…we had sight of him every inch of the way until he passed us  These freighters are huge and boy do they move fast!    Once we were in front of the Statue of Liberty and the NYC skyline,  the water was busy, busy, busy, with all kinds of ferries…even the Staten Island Ferry.   Even the Hudson River was crazy busy.  These ferries zip every which way and must not have speed limits to follow!   Needless to say, we had a very lumpy, bumpy ride until we were well away from the city.

HHII & Whisper running the NJ shoreline!

out bound

in bound-just passed us!

Staten Island Ferry

Ferry in front of NYC

Whisper getting ready to go up the East River

Now that we’re in the Hudson River, the winds have picked up.  Of course the winds are still out of the north and driving 3-4 foot waves in our direction.  After 11 + hours and 74 miles, Chuck and I are tired.     We decided to call it a day.   We’re getting close to Nyack, NY and I found in my water guides a small boat club that has 4 guest mooring balls.   When I called the club, we were approaching the mooring field and the gal I had on the cell said a member would meet us and direct us to a ball.  This is great.  It gets even better!  The  mooring is free for 1 night and we could also shower free of charge at their clubhouse.  That sounds wonderful but we both were so tired, we decided to just stay on our boat and rest.

I thought grabbing the mooring with the boat hook was going to be very difficult in the rough water and wicked winds.  It turned out to be a piece of cake!  The ball had a float with a tall wooden antenna sticking  as high as the deck of our boat.  All I had to do was grab the antenna, pull it up out of the water, and grab the bridle which was attached.  In all our travels, we’ve never encountered such an easy and neat system.