Day 123...Liberty State Park to anchorage near Matoloking Bascule Bridge

MONDAY, JULY 30, 2012

     Yesterday when we looked at the weather, it looked like today would be the best day for at least a week to go around New Jersey.  We woke up at 6:00 a.m., but we wanted to wait until the current changed in our favor so we hung around the anchorage until almost time.  We couldn’t wait any longer so we left the anchorage at 7:15.  We said goodbye to Lady Liberty as we entered the harbor.

     Of course we had to dodge the anchored tugs and barges as well as the ones that were underway as we approached the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.  So far so good.  The weather wasn't what the weathermen had forecasted, but it wasn't too bad yet.

     Well the waves keep getting worst and worse.  We were rocking and rolling and bumping alone.  It was ridiculous how awful it was getting out into the ocean.  This was supposed to be the best day to go.  We don't think we'll ever believe another weatherman in our lives.  

     I had already put Uncle Finn's light and the heavy conch shell on our bed so they wouldn't get thrown into the floor.  Then we hit an exceptionally rollie wave.  Everything near the port door was thrown around on the top of the cabinet or thrown into the floor.  How do you like the way Gary fixed our clock?

     The seas got a little better once we finally got out into the ocean, but there was no way it was going to be a comfortable day.  At least you can see the Jersey shore in the pictures today.  Remember the FOG was so bad last time that there were no pictures at all except the fog and fish ones. Of course, I've added another waves picture that doesn't look nearly as bad as they really were. 

      About 5 1/2 hours after we left the anchorage, we entered Manasquan Inlet.  We went from the ocean to almost no water at all.  Gary had to be very careful so we wouldn't run aground.  We saw as little as 1.6 feet of water.  We're amazed we were able to keep on going.

     I did get a better picture of the wall of the Point Pleasant Canal and ladder to replace the really blurry one I took last time.  The trip on the canal this time was much harder since we were going against the swift current.  Also this time we were rolling through the water with at least 6-8 boats in front of and behind us.  It was tough.  As we got to the end I had to take a picture of the scarecrow on the barge.  I'm not sure what they were trying to scare.  

 

      Good thing we were going to go farther before we anchored today.  The place we anchored before was taken over by a bunch of youngsters in tiny sailboats.  We missed all of them as we headed south.

      We went a few more miles to Mantoloking Bascule Bridge and pulled off the Intracoastal near some waterfront houses for the night.  We were exhausted after our ocean voyage.  We traveled 50 bouncy miles in 7 hours and 20 minutes.  Our total mileage is 2493 miles now.

   

Day 122...Haverstraw Cove to Liberty State Park

SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012

   Well, we were up at 5:30 a.m.  We went to bed early since there was no TV or Internet.  The sunrise was gorgeous.  We wanted to get an early start to catch the tide so we left at 6:55 a.m. 

     Guess what the weather looks like today.  Yep, you're right.  It's cloudy, cloudy, cloudy.  It looks like it could rain any second.  You can tell how dreary the day is by looking at the pictures.  The scenery was pretty standard for New York until we came to the Palisades.  The Palisades are a line of steep cliffs along the Hudson River.  They rise nearly vertically from the river to approximately 300 feet high and increase gradually in height to 540 feet.  Here's another picture of the scar on the cliffs caused by the 10, 000 pound rockfall from March of 2012.  

     This is a picture of the George Washington Bridge with the New York Skyline in the background.  See all of those black clouds.  We were speeding right along.  We hit 10.6 mph.

     Here are quite a few of the sights we saw as we continued down the river to the Statue of Liberty.  I took pictures of the Intrepid with the Space Shuttle Pavilion on its deck, of a restored sightseeing boat that waked us along with all of the other river traffic and of some of the interesting buildings along the shoreline.

     Hello to the Statue of Liberty again.  Hopefully we'll only be here for a day or so this time.  Today we traveled a yucky 40 miles in 5 hours and 24 minutes.  We have traveled 2444 miles so far.

Day 121...Pollepel Island to Haverstraw Cove, New York

SATURDAY, JULY 28, 2012

     We wanted to get to Cold Spring right down the river after the stores opened so after we got up at 7:00 a.m. we hung around the anchorage and read until about 10:00.  I actually worked on the blog while we waited.  I took one last picture of the castle as we left.  There is no telling how much it will deteriorate by the time we see it again if we ever do.  

     As we were leaving, Gary said he couldn't believe how close that boat behind us was.  I turned around to see who was following us and saw the dinghy right behind us.  I can't believe I'm so gullible.

     Can you believe I got such a good picture of the train?  What you don't know is that it is stopped.  The second one is of it as it starts to go north on the track that is right by the Hudson.

     The mountain across the river from the anchorage is Storm King Mountain.  The train at the base of the 1,340 plus foot mountain looks like a child's toy.  The darker strip from left to right in the closer picture is a road cut into the mountain.  I couldn't get a picture of cars on the road to show you how small they were since they were so high up on the mountain.  Storm King Mountain along with Breakneck Ridge on the opposite bank of the river form the Wind Gate that is the northern gateway to the Hudson Highlands.

     We anchored in the same spot as before and took the dinghy into Cold Spring to do a little shopping.  We found our way to the grocery store, drug store and post office.  Here are some pictures I took on the way there and back.

     We looked around for an economical place to eat in the tourist town.  We decided to eat at a bar on Main Street that the lady outside said had an award-winning hamburger.  She was right.  It was delicious.  When we came out there was a huge dog near the door.  His owner said that he was a one-year-old mastiff named BIG that already weighed almost 100 pounds.  I'm glad I don't have to feed him.

     As we got back to the boat we noticed that the clouds were getting darker and darker.  Good thing we got everything done before the rain started.  

     Before we passed West Point we were passed by a sightseeing boat with a bunch of  new or prospective West Pointers on it.  We definitely saw uniforms and short hair.

     As we passed under the Bear Mountain Bridge, we saw a hiker (the dot near the bridge tower) crossing the bridge.  We speculated that he or she was traveling the Appalachian Trail.  We had just watched a documentary about the trail recently.

       No more pictures.  The F-O-G came in so bad we had to slow down and stay out of the channel.  We were going to try to go a little farther than Haverstraw Cove, but those plans went out of the window when the fog came in.  We crept on to the anchorage in the rain and fog.  We were only able to go 20 miles in almost 3 hours in the bad weather.  The total now is 2404 miles.