But first…New Jersey!
We celebrated our anniversary with perfect sailing conditions over to Keyport, NJ, where we anchored at the edge of a well protected Mooring field to get some good quality rest for a few days. It was a nice town with a waterfront park for picnicking and walking the dog!
We were low on supplies and there was no grocery store in the town so we decided to experience some local restaurants. The huge portions made for excellent leftover provisioning for our trip through NYC. We also picked up a wayward Higgy for the trip (a great friend from our University days who we hadn’t seen in years)! Well rested and semi stocked up, we were ready to tackle the craziness of the NYC waters. Primary goal: anchor beside the Statue of Liberty!
Sailing into the Upper New York Bay was exciting for everybody on board! As we came under the bridge, Manhattan came into clear view and we could pick out Lady Liberty herself! Higgy took a photo going under the bridge, saying that he thought it was the first time he had gone under a bridge in a boat. Little did he know, it would be the first of many! Kata was very interested in all the activity around…of which there was plenty. Radio chatter was abuzz and we had to listen carefully to know which big ship was going where, as jet skis and small sailboats zipped around us. It wasn’t nearly the chaos of Nassau, or even Stuart on July 4th weekend on our last boat, Tied. Nevertheless, it certainly required our attention and we were playing with the big boys in close quarters more than we were used to!
As we came into the anchorage we were racing against an incoming thundercloud but thankfully managed to drop anchor before the rain hit. We sat and ate lunch right by the Statue of Liberty and watched the packed tour boats go by for a while.
After lunch it was time to go up the East River through NYC. The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary and is subject to strong current flows. It’s important to time it right and go with the tide, as going through Hell Gate the current flow can get up to 5 or 6 knots. With that kind of push, we were making over 10 kts speed over ground…if we blinked, we might’ve missed half of NYC!
We ended the New York excursion by dropping anchor in Port Washington, which was the largest Anchorage/ mooring field we had ever been in…so far!
Leave a Reply