We woke up to another rotten weather report, but after yesterday, we didn’t really trust the weather predictions anyway. We decided to wait a bit in the morning to see which way the weather was going to turn; we were cautiously optimistic that we’d be able to move to New York City today.
We ate a good breakfast and then set out to do our walking in the morning. Based on our research, we knew that if we did make it to NYC, there wouldn’t be much opportunity to access the shore. Since yesterday’s dinghy debacle, we had been watching our surroundings and figured out that the walking path we were on the previous day, came right along the shore near where we were anchored. Through intermittent breaks in the trees, we could see joggers and walkers, so we knew the path would be accessible from the small beachy area on shore. So, we donned our water shoes, and beached our dinghy on the small beach and locked it to a large tree. We changed shoes and took the path along the waterfront and into the town of Atlantic Highlands.
In our travels, we are always looking for towns that meet our checklist of requirements for “the perfect retirement town”. Atlantic Highlands was doing a good job of “checking all the boxes”. It has a small-town feel, and everything is accessible on foot. One can walk to the waterfront, the marina (for boat storage), the post office, a decent grocery store, restaurants and shops, and ferry transportation directly into NYC (giving easy access to every form of travel). It definitely is worthy of more research, although we expect that the cost of housing and NJ property tax might be prohibitive for us.
After walking to the post office to mail a postcard, we decided we needed more “steps”, so Sidekick Sue randomly picked an interesting street from Google Maps to explore. There was a street that was perfectly circular, nested concentrically inside another circular street.
As we ventured over there, we figured out the perfectly good reason for these circular streets….. they circled around a hilltop…. which gave us a little extra workout for the morning. We found that we were actually on the street that was home for the houses that we could see up on the hill next to our anchorage. We completed both the inner and outer circles, marveling over the Victorian homes, restored to the finest detail. One of these homes, a large mansion known as the Strauss Mansion, has been turned into a historical museum maintained by the local Historical Society. Like many attractions, the museum was closed due to Covid.
After walking back down the hill, we decided to run to the grocery store again, as we have found it wise never to turn down the opportunity to stock up when there is a store nearby. Captain Mark carried a couple more packs of seltzer in his backpack back to the dinghy. When we reached the dinghy, the water had receded back, leaving a black mucky beach. We donned our water shoes again, and slogged through the muck to get our dinghy back out to the water to row back to the boat.
Throughout our morning wanderings, the rain had been “spitting” on and off, with no real commitment to a “real” rain. But by the time we got back to the Wayward Explorer, even the spitting rain had stopped. The forecast was looking clear for the next several hours. Another couple that had been lingering near shore in their dinghy, motored over to us to introduce themselves. They were also travelling up the east coast portion of the loop. They were from Indiana, and like us, they had a sailboat in addition to their trawler, but they live on the boats full time. Captain Mark and Sidekick Sue are not sure they are ready to make that kind of commitment. It was interesting talking to them because they were clearly taking a much slower pace than us. They were also waiting for the weather to clear before heading into NY, but unlike us, they were talking about waiting days… not hours. Perhaps we will learn a good lesson from them, as we seem to be moving through this trip at quite a clip. We suppose it is a different perspective when you have “no home” that you feel the need to get back to. Additionally, they had never spent time in New York City, so they intended to spend more time, first taking the ferry over to explore onshore, and then moving their boat over later. Having been to NYC multiple times, Captain Mark and Sidekick Sue were happy to just to admire NYC from a different perspective.
Since the weather was supposed to stay clear until early evening, and we only needed a couple hours to make the ocean crossing to NYC, we decided to move ahead, so we waved goodbye to our new friends and started off. As soon as we came around the point of Sandy Hook, we could see Manhattan again. Through a weird optical illusion, it seemed to take forever for the profile of the city to grow in size. But once we passed under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, everything seemed to speed up. Suddenly the city was looming over us, the Statue of Liberty was in front of us, Ellis Island to the left, Freedom Tower to the right. It was really overwhelming, and we were quite relieved that the boat traffic was relatively thin. We did have to stop and pause while two Staten Island Ferry vessels crossed in front of us. Once they were clear, we quickly darted across the channel (as quick as you can at 6 knots) and followed the series of channel markers that led to our anchorage next to Liberty Park.
The water in the anchorage was very calm and protected. There were two other boats there (one we recognized as a sailboat from Scotia NY that had been in our anchorage the previous night), and probably room for 3-4 more. It took us three times to set and raise our anchor before we were happy with our final position, equidistant from the 2 other boats that had arrived before us. Each time we pulled up anchor, we were greeted with the most disgusting black mud and pollution (plastic and trash) that we had ever seen in the water. But you couldn’t beat the location; we could see the back of Lady Liberty looming over the trees in front of us. Although Sidekick Sue had already reported that we had said goodbye to New Jersey, we were surprised to learn that the waters we were anchored in were actually Jersey waters, even though NY has territorial jurisdiction over Liberty Island, so she stands corrected.
As previously mentioned, we understood we would probably not be able to get to shore. We had read all the reviews of the anchorages in the harbor, and previous boaters all said the same thing. All the complimentary docks had been removed and if you attempted to park your dinghy, your equipment (oars, life jackets, motors) and the dinghy itself was subject to confiscation by the Park Service. Still not convinced, Captain Mark called the Park Service to ask where he could park his dinghy and they basically answered “nowhere”. They recommended the marina on the other side of the island, which we already knew would change $50 to tie up a dinghy and $5/foot/night ($180 for our boat) to stay for the night. Given that we knew bad weather was coming, and we are on the thrifty side (LOL), we didn’t want to pay for parking. Additionally, we had already toured Liberty Island years ago with our kids, so it wasn’t really a missed opportunity.
Still Captain Mark looked longingly at the shore. We were only 100 yards away from the park, and we couldn’t go there. Sidekick Sue was worried that Captain Mark was seriously thinking about swimming over to shore, when suddenly, today’s rain finally caught up with us, and we experienced a good old fashioned NY state thunder and lightning storm. It was pretty intense, rain so thick we couldn’t see the other boats around us, lots of thunder, lightning and wind. Luckily, it was enough to distract Captain Mark from any crazy swimming ideas. We used this time to make dinner and plan for the next day. Like the NY storms of our youth, it raised its fury and then passed as quickly as it had arrived, leaving the Explorers with a clear sky to enjoy the stars and the view of Lady Liberty over the tops of the trees.
