Long Awaited Update

Wow we have so much to cover here. It is not that we did not want to post but getting a good wifi signal has been our issue. This posting Jeannie has things also that she will post as well. We finally finished up the Hudson river and I have to say that it is very breath taking and to see all the different places that we have read about and that you hear about in your lifetime. Just looking back at the whole Hudson River is sometime to really appreciate. There is so much transition one sees going down the Hudson River. Seeing Bannerman Castle and West Point Bannerman was one that was very run down and falling apart but they now have a trust set up to restore it back to how it was built.

Then getting to go down the Hudson in a sailboat is a plus in my book. It is like every turn there is something new and mountains on each side. As we got about half way down the Hudson you start seeing tankers and tugs with barges going up and down the river. Talking to them was interesting on the radio as all were very nice and they told us where they wanted us on the river so they could pass us. The river is very wide and the current runs both ways because of the tide going in and out. When were done for the day we just usually looked for a spot to just pull off to the side as there are not many anchorages with a lot of protection. Some of the places we have stayed were very interesting and some were just oh hum, Jeannie had a niece that we stopped to see for a couple of days and spent time with Linda, her husband, Mark, and their daughter Amanda, in Thiells, NY. We got a slip for 2 nights at Haverstraw Marina. Mark picked us up and took us to their home. What a very nice home, so comfy and cozy and a beautiful big deck off the back. Both nights after Linda got home we would have cocktails on the deck, and Mark and Amanda would come along shortly. They treated us to dinner out the 1st night and then again for pizza the next night! I was able to do laundry and their neighbor, Scott was kind enough to see that we got to the grocery store! Linda cut Randy’s hair and fine tuned mine a little bit. The morning we left, Mark went and got fresh bagels for all of us to have for breakfast. At this point I want to say, Amanda, you are a very sweet young lady and continue to have fun in Volleyball! Just a last comment. Being on the Atlantic ocean has not been my favorite this far in our journey! We were caught in monstrous waves, and 25 kt wind and it was not pretty! I do have to say that the trip on the sea to Cape May was almost enough to forget the bad trip earlier, but not totally. I would never ever have done this without Capt Randy at the helm, as I was not much help during the night we braved the waters!
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Approaching New York is pretty awesome and going past it was something. When we got closer to the down town district the VHF radio was abuzz with coast guard security. As we had heard of a helicopter going down some place around the river. But something else we did not know was of the big UN meeting. As the East river was shut down and only letting certin ships through and then with a coast guard escort. Having neither one of us being to NY it was quite a site for us to see. Especially from the river looking back at it. As one of the things we all think about was the Twin towers, Well we were not sure where it was but long behold we got some pictures of the new tower going up. It was quite a site to see. As we were traveling down the river and trying to see everything you needed to watch the ferries going back and forth and tour boats. Then came the statue of Liberty. Ellis Island and the Battery. Seeing all of that and trying to read up on some of the history of different things was great. Something I hated in school. As we past all of that and our leg of the trip on the Hudson river coming to a end. Our Next leg was the Atlantic Ocean. We had to go down to Sandy Hook NJ and leave from there. That is the opening to the Atlantic in New York harbor, There were tankers and freighter anchored all over the place waiting transit or to be taken up river. Something we noticed was the freighters on the great lakes were bigger then the ones in NY harbor.
The trip on the Atlantic was to be 120 miles which is to Cape May NJ. Then that lets us go up the Delaware bay. Well not having internet to look at the weather we had to rely on our friend Bill back in Mi. We would call him and he would do our leg work for us and give us daily reports. Along with them and listening to NOAA on our VHF. We made the decision to go the next morning after we arrived in Sandy Hook. So Noaa told us that it was to be 5 to 10 Kts winds out of the south then switching east in the early morning. So we thought that is the time to go, and we did. Well we had so much and the wind came up to 15 kts. We pounded into the waves for about 30 miles and decided to pull into a port. That was Manasquan Inlet. There we sat for 2 days awaiting a wind direction change. Once again or weather man in Mi and NOAA, told us that winds were to shift to the north and once again 5 to 10 Kts, Well it ended up we had 25 kts out of the north and what a ride we had. We were both VERY glad to get into the next port as we had left at 2 am that morning. Jeannie was a real trooper as we both hugged each other once we dropped the anchor . As I was in need of much sleep. As our friend Bob that use to be our slip mate back in Mi called NOAA Not overly accurate assumption. Bob is so right. At that inlet which was Barnegat Inlet we met up with Simple Pleasure once again as we had met them in Buffalo when we took our mast down. As the weather pattern was not looking good, for the next few days. MutualFun had agreed to go out and see what the waves were like the next day. Well it was only less then a mile out in the Atlantic that we decided to turn around and come back in and rethink things. Well thanks to simple Pleasure and there idea we took the NJ Inter Coastal Waterway with them the next 2 days traveling the NJ- ICW. That was very interesting also. We draw 5 ft and lots of the depth was 6 feet. When we started out in this leg of the ICW we had to wait for high tide so it gave us a extra 3 feet just so we could make it past a few spots. We just kept thinking oh baby come on do not run aground. Which we never did. Our only night we spent anchoring on the New Jersey ICW we spent the night listening to 30 kt winds howling all night. The next morning once again we had to wait till high tide to make it past a few stretches. Simple Pleasure said why not you go first as you draw more and if you get stuck we can get to you, So off we went twisting and turning through the saw grass and praying for deep water. We made it finally to Atlantic City NJ on our 2nd day. There we got a slip at the aquarium marina which was just inside of the inlet to the Atlantic. The next morning it was a sign to leave as all the sailboats were heading out so Mutualfun followed suit. We pulled out just a little after 8 am to light North winds and gently rolling seas. The waves would pick you up and gently and down you would go. Much different then lake Michigan but it was a very nice ride down to Cape May NJ. We knew that we had a small weather window to get to Cape May so we arrived around 3 pm and anchored off the coast guard station. There you could hear the cadence of the young recruits as they were training. We knew that the weather was going to turn bad the next few days as once we anchored it was not long that many other sailboats were starting to stack up around us as the winds were to be 30 to 40 kts during the night. So between Simple Pleasure and MutualFun we decided to get a slip in a marina just past the first 55 foot bridge in the Cape May channel. Now when you have 53 feet of mast sticking up and a bridge clearance of 55 feet with the tide on the low end of 3 feet. It still gave me an uneasy feeling.

It was the Miss Chris Marina we stayed at, It is where the whale watching boats come out of. People come by the bus loads to board the boats and go out about 12 miles in search for whales. It is here we will leave for the next leg of the trip up the Delaware bay and through the C & D canal which joins the Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake Bay to each other.