New York to Cape May

After enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with most of the family, George and I headed back to City Island, ready to tackle the Jersey coast!  We made excellent time returning, so were back at Barron's Boatyard by 2:00pm.  This meant that the staff would be able to get the boat in the water, which in turn meant that we would be able to make an early start the next morning.  After running into a few minor glitches which took us in to the following day, we were, at last, ready to head out!

The next morning, at 0900, we slipped our lines and headed in to the New York waterway under sunny skies and a brisk, northwesterly wind!  We had a lovely, and lively, trip down the East River, past La Guardia Airport, Riker's Island and its prison, and finally, the impressive Manhattan skyline, spotting both the Chrysler building and the Empire State building in the mix!  We were also able to text my cousin Patricia, and she came out to the water as we made our way past her apartment to wave us good-bye!  The current carried us through Hell Gate, past Manhattan, all the way to the Financial District and finally to the Statue of Liberty, a distance of about 30 miles all told, starting at City Island, but with the current, we averaged 8 knots, so arrived at New York Harbour at about 1:00pm!!  The water was wild; very fast current, lots of wind, and lots of river traffic....mostly ferries and police boats with very few pleasure boats, causing big wakes in the narrow passages between Manhattan and Brooklyn that would hit us after the boat passed, and then bounce off the sides of the river walls and hit us again!!  Very exciting, but also impressive to see the city from the water!  I have included some photos for you, but as usual, I fear they don't do the scene justice, but will give you an idea of this somewhat unique perspective of The Big Apple!!

UN Building

Chrysler Building

Empire State Building

Brooklyn Bridge

Lower Manhattan from New York Harbour

and of course; the Statue of Liberty

Once out of New York harbour, we quickly and easily decided to carry on past Sandy Hook and take advantage of how quickly we had moved through New York, and the great west winds we were experiencing...10-15 knots with gusts to 25.  We started out with one reef in the main and a full jib, but decided, with the gusts, that might be too much, so pulled in most of the jib and raised our staysail.  This combination kept us at about 5-6 knots, so we knew we would be able to make Cape May by tomorrow noon, maybe even earlier!  We also were finally able to put the hydrovane to work again!  This was great, because although we were enjoying perfect winds for where we wanted to go, the water was fairly sloppy, so took a lot of energy to move around and hold our balance, so sitting and watching the hydrovane do the work was a nice break!!




Ooops!  Somehow managed to mess this up, so now there are two exactly the same videos...hope at least one of them works!!

The beautiful, sunny day made way for a clear, night with a full moon, so lots of 'natural' light as we made our way down the Jersey coast in the North Atlantic!!  About 2:00 in the morning we saw the 'glow' of Atlantic City, and about 5:00 am we passed it.  As we were still making good time, although at this point the wind had died down to virtually nothing, we decided to continue on to Cape May, as the North Atlantic Coast is very volatile here, and we knew the weather was going to worsen by the afternoon.

Atlantic City by night!

Sunrise on the North Atlantic

Sure enough, the clouds started to move in shortly after sunrise, and the wind picked up and swung around to the southwest, so was now on our port beam.  As we neared Cape May, the seas also started to pick up, so by the time we were at the entrance, things were pretty rough outside, and just to make it exciting, the river we had to go up for the harbour was ebbing, so we had the whole 'wind over current' situation too, which made for heavy water as we passed through the breakwaters!!  George handled it all with his usual aplomb, and before we knew it we were quietly making our way up the river toward the South Jersey Marina!  Despite the high current, we were able to dock quietly with no great drama, and were celebrating our latest accomplishment with a libation and some snacks about 2:00pm!!  In total, 140 miles and 27 hours of travel, with about 100 miles and 17 hours of sailing!!

We have been pleasantly surprised by the little village of Cape May!!  The marina itself is great, with good people and WONDERFUL showers and bathrooms!!  Whoo hoo!!  The laundry room even has a giant TV in it!!  The day we landed ended up being a fairly drizzly day, so we had a shower, ate a small supper, had a game of scrabble (I lost AGAIN!), and hit the hay about 9:00pm!

the view from our dock at South Jersey Marina, Cape May

The next day dawned sunny and cold, so after a relaxing morning of coffee and an easy breakfast, we headed off to the local marine store to see if we could pick up a few supplies.  This is a real 'big fish' fishing town!!  Lots of big fish boats in the harbour that take people out for sport fishing, coming back with mahi-mahi, sailfish, marlin, and tuna...some reaching 300 lbs!

We then headed back to the boat for a quick lunch, which included smoked tuna..delicious!!..and I headed in to town while George supervised the moving of our boat so we could make an early departure the next morning, as once again, we are moving with the weather window that was opening again overnight and would give us southwesterlys to push us up the Delaware Bay toward the Chesapeake.

Walking in to town, I was able to enjoy the victorian architecture that so many of the houses have here, and so many decorated for the upcoming Halloween, which is appropriate not only because 'tis the season, but Cape May is famous for it's haunted houses and ghosts!  I also watched the  local Halloween parade!!  A couple of school bands, three or four Cape May beauty queens and princesses, and LOTS of local goblins, zombies, witches and the like!!  George met me and we wandered around the little outdoor mall, which was about 3 blocks long, lined with victorian buildings and lots of fudge and candy shops, along with a healthy smattering of gift and t-shirt shops.

the Emlen Physick Estate (Cape May's original haunted house!!); complete with scarecrows

Sea Hag scarecrow

Lots of Halloween decorations!!

Oh No!  Is that the baby she is cooking? Or a lobster?

I've heard high school kids can be scary, but these guys take the cake!!

What the....?

Now THIS guy was spooky!!

This area was missed last year by Hurricane Sandy, so fortunately the town had nothing worse than some minor flooding in some buildings right on the water...the famous Lobster House had knee height water in it....and about a foot of sand left behind on the streets.  Nothing that a good snow-plow couldn't handle!  We are realizing that we are in the area almost exactly one year after Sandy struck!  Most of the damage was done on the North Jersey shore, near Sandy Hook, which we ended up giving a miss.  Even City Island was relatively unscathed, so we haven't seen any damage on this trip as a result of the storm.

Washington St. mall

Fall decorations on the mall