Greenwich, NJ

Archie and Jonny went for a walk in Cape May before we pulled up the anchor on Saturday, October 15 at 9 a.m. We are headed up the Delaware Bay and usually we do the whole trip in one day. But we are not in a big hurry to end our cruise this year so we decided to seek out an anchorage halfway up the bay along the Cohansey River.

It was a nice day - cool, with a little breeze as we cruised north on the wide Delaware Bay. There was very little boat traffic.  The breeze gradually increased as we entered the snaking Cohansey River.  The river continued its deep and winding path and we went around several twists and turns before deciding on an anchorage.  We chose a spot just outside of the little hamlet of Greenwich (pronounced “green witch” unlike the towns in Connecticut and England).

After lunch we dinghied in to explore the area. We tied up at a funky dock at a marina that had been badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy and never fully restored. This did not provide a very positive impression of the town we were about to see.  However, we were very pleasantly surprised by how lovely Greenwich, NJ is.  The homes lining the few main streets were historic, very attractive and well-maintained for the most part.

Almost everyone was gaily (or scarily) decorated for Halloween.

We wandered all through this town of just over 800 people marveling at how pretty it is. Many of the big trees lining the streets were in full autumn color and the streets were filled with the dried fallen leaves. I was delighted to shuffle through piles of leaves reliving one of my favorite childhood activities!

Greenwich was established in 1748 and its claim to fame is that it had its own “Boston Tea Party” type rebellion setting fire to shipments of British tea that were in the harbor. There are many houses from that era and several very “skinny” ones, likely only one room wide!

We stopped at a pretty shop selling locally produced crafts and chatted with the young woman who runs it.   She had grown up here and was very proud of her town and noted some of the historic homes for us to be sure to see.

As we walked back to the dinghy we passed what looked like a Christmas tree farm and also beautiful marshes along the water.

After passing a boatyard filled with derelict boats, we returned to where we were tied up and chatted with two fellows at the boatyard, decidedly different types from the young woman but equally friendly.

In the meantime, Archie found a friend to play with while we talked..

We had a light dinner and watched an entertaining Spike Lee movie until the connectivity became too bothersome and we went to bed on our last night at anchor.