On the morning of Wednesday, May 31st, we found ourselves anchored in Sandy Hook Bay by Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. It was a foggy, cool morning. We left the boat at around 9:30 am to take Uncle Mike to shore to catch an uber to the Newark Airport. It turned out that the uber driver, Jack, was the commodore at Atlantic Highlands Yaught Club. He invited Justin and I to go racing with his crew in the evening.
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| Coming into the marina in Atlantic Highlands on the dingy |
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| Justin and Uncle Mike tying up the dingy at the marina |
Justin and I had breakfast on the pier at Sissy's Restaurant. By the time we finished, the fog had lifted and sun had come out.
Justin and I spent the rest of the morning walking along First St. in Atlantic Highlands and stopping in at the little shops. We checked out the local hardware stores, and we picked up a few groceries.
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| Justin carrying back groceries |
We had returned to the boat by 2:00 pm. Justin tried to run the water maker, but it would not work. Justin cleaned and lubricated the seal, and then the water maker worked.
We went back to shore at 3:30 pm. We stopped in at First Cup Cafe for coffee and WiFi. Justin left by 4:30 to go do the race and I stayed behind. The cafe held an open mike for the local high school students. So I enjoyed listening to these talented, young singers while I posted photos on facebook, updated the blog, and called family.
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| Open mike at First Cup Cafe |
Justin met up with Jack and met the crew of Great American Nude. There was about 30 boats participating in the Wednesday night social race. During the beginning of the race, the jib furler broke when they were trying to furl the jib after they had put up the spinnaker. In addition, the race was restarted due to a missing course marker. Due to the broken jib furler, Great American Nude decided not to do the second try at the race. Instead, they decided it was beer o'clock.
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| Justin on Great American Nude |
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| Wednesday night social race in Atlantic Highlands |
I met Justin at the yaught club and was introduced to the other members of the boat crew. Justin and I headed back to the boat around 9:30 pm.
We woke up at 5:00 am on June 1st, readied the boat, and left Sandy Hook Bay by 6:00 am so that we would reach Hell's Gate at slack tide. It was another foggy and cool morning (about 16 degrees Celsius before the windchill). Justin and I wore jackets, scarfs, and hats. I made tea to warm us up.
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| Myself leaving Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey |
Relying on GPS, radar, and navigational markers, we motored accross Lower Bay towards New York City in heavy fog. I took a 2 hour nap while Justin manned the helm. We passed by Coney Island (not that we could see it through the fog) and passed under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge by 9:30 am, entering New York City Harbour. We couldn't see the bridge until we were basically directly underneath it. We hugged the shore to stay out of the Ambrose Channel and to avoid the massive barges, fast ferries, and large ships transiting the harbour. We could hear the fog horns from the shipping traffic going off one after the other, but we couldn't see any other boats due to the thick fog. Both Justin and I stayed up on deck with our eyes pealed looking for navigational hazards in our path.
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| Justin while passing under Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and entering into New York Harbour |
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| Our chart for New York City |
Thankfully, the fog started to cleared at 10:00 am, revealing all the ships surrounding us. The sun had come out, and we started pealing off the layers of clothing. To our delight, we got to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
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| Justin who might be a little happy that the fog is clearing |
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| Some of the traffic in New York Harbour |
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| Myself in front of the Statue of Liberty |
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| The fog lifting to reveal the New York City skyline |
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| Myself in front of the Statue of Liberty after the sun had come out |
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| Justin in front of the Statue of Liberty |
While transiting the harbour, the US Coast Guard pulled up along side of us, asked us a few questions, and indicated that they wanted to board us. They inquired if we were traveling with the other sail boat in front of us. When they determined that we weren't associated with the other sail boat, they lost interest in us. I asked if they still intended to board us. The coastguard said that they were tasked with boarding the other sail boat, that they didn't necessarily want to board us, and that it might be best if we just hurried along out of there while they were busy with the other sail boat. So we did just that.
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The US Coast Guard when they pulled up along side us
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| The US Coast Guard moving on to the next boat |
We passed under Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge at around10:30 am. We traveled up the East River with Manhattan on our port side and Brooklyn and Long Island City on our starboard side. We passed Roosevelt Island on our starboard side.
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| Justin in New York Harbour |
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| New York City skyline from the entrance of the East River |
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| Myself in front of the New York City skyline |
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| The Brooklyn Bridge |
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| Myself in front of the Brooklyn Bridge |
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| Jus Dreamin, Manhattan, and Brooklyn Bridge |
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| Myself before going under the Brooklyn Bridge |
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| Justin just after we passed under the Brooklyn Bridge |
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| Empire State Building |
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| Our view of Manhattan from the East River |
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| Justin and I while sailing away from Manhattan |
We entered Hell's Gate at 12:00 pm, turning right so that Wards Island was on our port side and Queens was on our starboard side. The current was quite strong (3 knots) even though we only passed through Hell's Gate about 30 minutes after slack tide. Right when we were passing a large barge coming from the opposite direction in Hell's Gate, a large motor yaught decided to rudely overtake us on our other side so that we were three abreast in a restricted area known for strong currents and back eddies.
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| Chart of Hell's Gate |
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| Hell's Gate and the yaught that had overtaken us |
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| Justin who might be a bit more relaxed after passing through Hell's Gate without incident |
We continued up East River, passing between North Brother Island and South Brother Island. We motored by Rikers Island and LaGuardia Airport on our starboard side and the Bronx on our port side. We continued on through Long Island Sound with the sun shining and with the temperature at 36 degrees Celsius.
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| Cruising up the East River with the Bronx on our port and Long Island to our starboard |
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