Cape May, NJ (return trip)

We had to leave our Brigantine anchorage by 7:30 on Thursday, September 19 to take advantage of the tides on the ICW in New Jersey.  We were heading to Cape May and had to continue on the inside passage which is very skinny (shallow) and is essentially unpassable for us at low tide.  The sky over the Atlantic City skyline was beautiful that early. 

It was an interesting passage in that we went through several New Jersey coastal towns with their waterfront houses tightly packed.  Some of them were built on top of their boat houses making for an interesting look from the water. 

The highly populated areas were interspersed with beautiful open marsh lands.  

The journey required hyper-vigilance on the part of the navigator due to the sinuous and very narrow track we had to follow most of the day.  Jonny found a special app that provided up-to-date information on the safest route to take that showed the areas of greatest shoaling.  If we had followed our usual routing tools we would have run aground.  Running aground would mean being stuck for hours until the tide turned. I was actually surprised that Jonny had me navigate for a couple of hours while he napped. I understand better now why it’s preferable to travel on the ocean side whenever possible.  Although the ride might be a little rougher due to ocean swells, it doesn’t require the vigilance that the inner route requires, especially in the southern part of the state.

As we left Wildwood we could finally start to relax as there were no more shallows and we had made it through before the tide changed.  We arrived in Cape May by 2 p.m. and heaved a sigh of relief as we anchored by the Coast Guard Station there.

We hung out for awhile before taking Archie in to shore.  Usually, when we are in Cape May we make it a point to go to the Lobster House’s excellent fish market. But we were headed to Delaware City the next day and would be seeing Stephanie and Ryan on the weekend so there was no need to stock up on fresh fish. Instead, we just dinghied to a closer site and gave Archie a short walk.  There is fish market there as well but it was already closed for the season.

We had some flounder in the freezer so we ate that for dinner and had a quiet night on anchor.  We’ll be doing the long slog up the Delaware Bay the next day to get to Delaware City and and the comforts of a marina for the weekend. 

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Brigantine, NJ (return trip)

On Wednesday, September 18 we continued our passage on the ICW in New Jersey. We usually travel on the outside on the ocean, but the wind was much too strong to be out there. We left our Glimmer Glass anchorage in Manasquan by 7 a.m. to take advantage of the favorable current. 

The weather was quite blustery all day. We expected rain throughout the day but we were lucky because it held off until the end of the day.

It was a long day of travel through many of New Jersey’s shore towns.  It’s quite remarkable to see the hundreds of houses lining the shores in this part of the Jersey shore.  There was very little boat traffic which made traveling much easier. 

A lot of the ICW goes through open marshes which are very peaceful and evocative. But the open waters can be deceiving. The route we must follow is often very narrow and it’s really easy to run aground in the shallow waters.

By the time we arrived at our mooring in Brigantine (thanks to our MTOA pal, Glenn Westervelt), the wind had picked up considerably.  I had trouble getting Zendo properly positioned so Jonny could tie up to the mooring.  Fortunately, we were out in the open with no other boats or barriers to get in our way.  After a few futile tries, we were finally safely secured. We could see the storied Atlantic City hotels from our mooring. 

Along with the wind we got some rain as well.  Archie didn’t seem to want to go into shore so we actually skipped taking him  in - a very rare occurrence!

I made meatloaf, fried potatoes and onions, and green beans for dinner. We started watching a new Netflix series called The Gentlemen which is kind of fun.  We went to bed pretty early because we were going to have another early morning departure the next day as we head to Cape May.

Manasquan, NJ (return trip)

On Tuesday morning, September 17 I had my usual Spanish lesson so Jonny took Archie for his morning walk.  By 8:45 he pulled us from our mooring while I was still in class and headed for Manasquan, NJ, our destination for the day. Cruising through the East River is always interesting with its numerous ferries and other crafts zipping by.

The skies were overcast but it was warm and we had an uneventful trip down the East River going under the array of bridges that cross it.  I’ve skipped the usual NYC landmarks in this entry but they can be found in the blog for all nine years we’ve been taking this route.

My favorite is always the Brooklyn Bridge. I learned so much about its fascinating story when I read The Great Bridge by David McCullough several years ago.

We were amazed to see half a dozen open water swimmers in lower New York harbor with kayak and boat escorts!

Our calm cruise changed pretty dramatically once we left New York Harbor and got to Sandy Hook. Cruising down the New Jersey coast we had 3-5 foot waves with short periods between them the whole time. Poor Archie was absolutely glued to my side while I clung to the edge of the settee as we rode through those bouncy waters. Jonny had to be hyper-vigilant at the helm to adjust our tack to minimize the impact. We were very glad that we dissuaded Addie and Lange from visiting us for this stretch as it would have been awful for them. 

At one point Jonny went below into the cabin to get something and reported that it was an absolute mess from all the rocking and rolling. 

We finally arrived at the Manasquan Inlet and as soon as we got through that very challenging and rough inlet, everything calmed down considerably.  

When I went below I discovered that the saloon was strewn with anything that had been on a counter or shelf, one of the heavy chairs had slid across the room and the galley floor was covered in all the pots and pans that had fallen out when the oven door was thrown open.  I picked up as much as I could before going back up to the flybridge as Jonny hailed the bridge tender at our favorite Glimmer Glass anchorage.  We got in and set the anchor by 4:10.  What a day!

After a short while we dinghied in to shore where we beached the dinghy and walked into the pleasant town of Manasquan which was starting to get decked out for Halloween.

We headed up to Joe Leone’s Central Market to select some goodies from this Italian specialty shop. Our purchases included homemade mushroom ravioli and taralli biscuits.

Back at Zendo Jonny rewarded us with Boulevardier cocktails and we had the leftover cabbage and sausage casserole from the night before. We watched a couple of episodes of Suits before hitting the sack by 10. But not before checking out this beautiful full moon.

Next stop is a Brigantine anchorage near Atlantic City, this time on the ICW since the seas are expected to be even worse than they were today.

City Island, NY (return trip)

We usually try to get an early start when we can so after Jonny took Archie in for a walk, we left by 7:20 on Monday, September 16 to continue our cruise, this time heading for City Island, NY.

It was a nice calm day on the water with very comfortable temperatures.  For lunch we had leftover cold pizza which was still delicious!  We arrived at the Harlem Yacht Club without incident by 2:30 where we picked up a mooring,  We like staying here but haven’t for the last year or two because it’s a moorings-only yacht club and we had needed access to a dock the last couple of times we were in City Island.  But we like the Harlem Yacht Club with its friendly launch service and its traditional bar. Unfortunately, on this Monday the bar was closed.  

We took the launch into City Island to give Archie a walk and to do a little grocery shopping.

Strolling along the main drag, City Island Avenue, we passed some of the familiar sites.

There’s a nice park where Archie can run off-leash and it was there that we played frisbee with him so he got some good exercise.  From there we walked to Dominick’s, the local market, where we bought a few items in this small, but fairly well-stocked grocery.  

With the cabbage we had sitting in the refrigerator for awhile, I made a new recipe - a casserole with cabbage, Italian sausage, and onions with a bread crumb Parmesan topping that turned out to be quite tasty.  Because I used a whole cabbage and a whole pound of sausage we had so much leftover that we froze half of it and still have enough in the refrigerator for another meal.

We had a quiet night aboard Zendo watching a couple of episodes of Suits before going to bed to read. We’ll be having a few long days to get through New York and down the New Jersey coast to take advantage of calmer seas before they are predicted to pick up.  Next stop - Manasquan, NJ and our favorite Glimmer Glass anchorage.

New Haven, CT (return trip)

As he always does, Jonny, who gets up earlier than me, took Archie in for a last walk around Stonington first thing on Sunday, September 15. 

When he returned we got ready to continue our travels and took off by 8:25 bound for New Haven. We need to keep moving and have longer travel days so we can be in Baltimore by September 24 where we will be volunteering at the Trawler Fest there.  Our destination for the day was the Pequonnock Yacht Club where we stayed on the way up.  

The day was sunny and nice but the seas were a little rolly causing us to have a very simple lunch of hummus, carrots and crackers so I didn’t have to  spend much time in the galley. It was a long day of travel and the seas started to pick up as the day wore on.  But the sailboats were certainly happy!

Once we entered New Haven harbor things settled down.  We arrived at the yacht club by 4:10 and grabbed a mooring.  

Our friend Ted Grave and his girlfriend Nancy were going to pick us up at 5 to have pizza because what else do you eat when you are in New Haven but pizza!  We know Ted through MTOA. Over the years he has generously offered us his mooring in the Thimble Islands and also got Jonny a great deal on Zendo’s solar panels.  His latest gift was an assortment of practical boating supplies since he no longer has his trawler.  This time Jonny wanted to go to Modern Apizza since we usually go to either Pepe’s or Sally’s. These are the three pizzerias that New Haven is so famous for.  Fortunately,  the line in front of Modern was not as long as the line for the other two. We sat in one of their cozy booths and tried unsuccessfully to narrow down our order.  Jonny and Ted wanted a double anchovy pizza. Ted insisted we try their clams casino pizza. I had heard that their all meat Italian Bomb was the bomb. Nancy is a vegetarian who wanted a mushroom and onion pie. And because they are in season, we thought a tomato pie would be appropriate.  So instead of deciding, Ted ordered all of them! We had so many pizzas that they had to place a table next to our booth to hold them all! We easily rationalized our decision knowing that we would take a lot home with us to eat over the next couple of days. What a feast we had! Jonny and I liked the double anchovy, the Italian Bomb and the clams casino pies the best. 

Ted jokingly (I think) suggested we go for ice cream afterwards but, needless to say, we politely declined. He drove us back to the yacht club and we climbed into the dinghy for the ride home in the dark under an almost full moon. I wrapped  up the leftovers and put half in the freezer and the other half in the refrigerator for the next day.

That evening we regretfully called Addie and Lange, who were planning to come for their annual trip for my birthday, to tell them that the seas are expected to be pretty rough over the next week. It’s uncomfortable enough for Jonny, Archie and me when the seas are high much less for guests who are not used to it.  We recommended they postpone their visit, though it might be challenging to find another time because they are off to Nepal for 10 days.   Hopefully, they will be able to join us sometime in October when we’ll be on the Chesapeake Bay. We are all disappointed because it’s been an annual tradition but we’ll keep our fingers crossed.