Delaware City, DE (return trip)

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We were anxious to reach Delaware City on Oct. 15 where we planned to leave the boat for the weekend and visit with Stephanie.  We woke to a bright and sunny day for traveling the short remainder of New Jersey’s intracoastal waterway before hitting the big waters of Delaware Bay.  Delaware Bay is a very large body of water.  The eastern portion of the bay is so wide that you can’t see the shoreline on either side.  It’s important to traverse this bay with the right current since it can really impede travel time for a slow boat like ours if the current is running against us.  We expected to have a decent travel day and so we did. The waters for the first half of the day were fairly rough, but not too terribly uncomfortable.  As we reached the northwestern part of the bay (closest to Wilmington & Philadelphia), the waters calmed down some and we had a pleasant cruise from there.
Stephanie’s work is only about 20 minutes from the Delaware City Marina which works out perfectly for us.  This marina is located at the head of the Delaware Bay where it connects with the D&C Canal.  The dockmaster there is very helpful to cruisers by tracking all the weather patterns that impact bay crossings.  He has provided us with valuable advice on how to time our crossings with winds and current which is especially helpful with a slow boat like ours. 
Soon after we arrived, Stephanie came to pick us up.  We made a return visit to Lewinsky’s on Clinton (described in an earlier blog) and afterwards headed to Stephanie’s apartment in West Chester, PA . 

The  next morning, we dropped her off at work at 6:30 a.m.  so we could use her car for the day.  We spent time cleaning the boat inside and out and doing boat chores and repairs (oil change and repair leak in transmission cooler heat exchange).  That evening we were finally going to use the B&B gift certificate we had received at Jonny’s retirement party.  This was intended to give us a reprieve from life on board. There are some beautiful B&B’s in this part of Pennsylvania – the Brandywine Valley area, and this seemed like the perfect time to use it.  We found a charming inn called Faunbrook. 

That evening, Stephanie’s boyfriend, Dave arrived from W. Virginia and the four of us had dinner at a very nice restaurant in West Chester.  On Saturday, after a lovely breakfast where we chatted with some interesting fellow guests, we met up with Stephanie and Dave and  the four of us went apple picking!  It was a brisk fall day and the trees at the farm we visited were just loaded with apples.  We picked a bushel of them – five different types – and brought them back to Stephanie’s for feasting. 

With football games on TV, Lynn gave Stephanie a lesson in baking apple pies and between the two of them they produced a most delicious specimen!  In addition, they made cranberry bread and applesauce – enough to feed an army!

The next day, Stephanie, Jonny and Lynn headed into Philadelphia for some sight seeing.  With all the traveling that Jonny had done in his lifetime, he had never been to Philly (except for the airport). 

We had just a little time to be tourists as we were meeting Lynn’s cousin, Taylor-Lynn for brunch.  So we headed to the historic part of the city and visited Independence Hall and saw many of the beautiful historic buildings in the city.  It was another gorgeous fall day as we walked through town admiring the architecture and marveling at the important part this city played in our country’s history.

We ducked out of the cold for a few minutes to enjoy a coffee at one of the many cool coffee shops in the city.

We met Taylor-Lynn for brunch at a hip little restaurant in her neighborhood called, Noord.  It had a most unusual and delicious menu – the first time we had ever been to a Dutch restaurant.  We had a lovely time catching up on each other’s lives.  Taylor-Lynn’s dad was Lynn’s favorite cousin, Ronnie, who passed away suddenly  last year.  It was important for Lynn to see her and to have Stephanie and Taylor connect since they live so close to each other now.

From there we headed straight for Zendo where the three of us would spend the night.  That way, Stephanie would have a shorter commute to work on Monday morning and we could get an early start on the next portion of our journey home.   We had a most wonderful time (as we always do) visiting Stephanie.  We are so proud of the competent and charming young woman that she has become!

Stone Harbor, NJ

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We had quite an eventful day on Oct. 14.  We continued our journey south on the ICW in New Jersey leaving at 7 a.m. and passing through some absolutely beautiful areas.  Rows of waterfront homes were interspersed with broad vistas of undulating marshlands.  Even Atlantic City looked nice from a distance!  We saw  herons, ibises and an eagle atop a tall tree branch. This journey  (and other experiences we’ve had in NJ) truly dispels the oft stated disparaging remarks about the Garden State (mostly related to the NJ turnpike and Chris Christie).

The primary challenge of the ICW in NJ is the extreme shallowness in some areas caused by extensive shoaling.  By mid-afternoon, the tide was getting quite low and we were entering some of the shallowest parts of the passage.  We were being very careful to follow the most recent information on traversing these passages when THUD! we ran hard aground.  The captain, to his slight relief, had done nothing wrong – neither the charts nor the navigational buoys showed this present danger.  After futile efforts to free ourselves, we called Sea Tow who showed up minutes later and swiftly pulled us free.  He invited us to tie up at his marina’s fuel dock for the night after advising us on how to deal with the hazards further ahead.  He also noted that it was dead low tide with one area of only 3 feet that maybe we could plow through (we draw 4 feet).  But silly us – we didn’t want to stop that early, so on we went – until we hit the forewarned area and ran aground as predicted!  This time we would have to wait it out for a couple of hours until the tide turned.  We were hard aground in a beautiful sea of marsh land from which we watched a magnificent sunset.

After some moments of expressed frustration, our equanimity was restored and we managed to find amusing things to do to fill the time!  We tried to leave before sunset a couple of times but couldn’t get free until it was dark!  Fortunately, one of the few available anchorages was just around a few bends – the appropriately named, Shelter Haven.  This was a perfect little harbor for us – an ideal, protected cove just off the ICW lined with attractive homes (as much as we could see in the dark).

 

We anchored and settled in for a quiet night with a delicious dinner (pork tenderloin with whiskey sauce, mashed sweet potatoes and sautéed green beans with onions and garlic) that Lynn had started to  prepare when we were aground.  We went to bed very early (after the previous uncomfortable night) and slept soundly in very calm waters. 

Beach Haven, NJ

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Continuing our journey down the New Jersey coast, we started traveling at 7:30 on Oct. 13 just a little after dawn. 

We were traveling about a half mile off of the coast.  By doing so, we could pick up a favorable counter current and ride it down to Atlantic City.  It was fun traveling so close to shore.  We could clearly see the many lovely beach houses that line the Jersey coast.  We also passed the well-known Jersey coastline town of Asbury Park. Ideally, we would have liked to take this route all the way to Cape May but that was not to be.

As we approached Manasquan,  the wind picked up considerably and so did the waves.  Fortunately, we had a Plan B – to take the New Jersey portion of the Intracoastal Waterway which runs the length of the state.  We turned into the Manasquan Inlet and heaved a sigh of relief as the water and wind settled down considerably once we passed these interesting breakwaters.

We had read a lot about this section of the ICW and we weren’t looking forward to it.  It is known for its skinny waters and tendency to shoal.  But at least we had a second option so we could continue moving – this time on calm albeit shallow waters.

Although we were sheltered from wind and waves, the Captain (Jonny) had to be hyper-vigilant watching the markers that trace a very narrow route through most of the waterway.   We couldn’t rely on our electronic or paper charts ) because the extensive shoaling is a recent phenomenon.  We were able to use  Active Captain (a terrific crowd sourced navigation program that we have used extensively throughout the trip) to provide recent reports on shoaling and other hazards.

We followed the sinuous route past rows of attractive homes lining the shore on both sides.  It’s absolutely amazing how many waterfront homes are in New Jersey (far more than any other area we’ve traveled through). 

But it’s not entirely built up.  There are long stretches of beautiful marshland with birds and rushes and tidal pools that provide a serene counterpoint to the more densely developed areas of shoreline.

By late afternoon we started to look for an anchorage as we knew early on that there was no way we were going to make Atlantic City.  But anchorages are few and far between on this part of the  ICW.  We finally chose one in Beach Haven which is located on Long  Beach immediately off the ICW.  The charts showed 12 foot depths but when we poked our way in those depths had shoaled to only 6 feet.  But at this point we were out of options as the light was beginning to wane.

We settled into what we thought would be a good anchorage.  We were in a more open area than we usually would choose but the waters were calm and the wind was OK.  The shoreline was lined with what looked like newly built and very attractive homes.  We were thinking that they must be beach homes but as darkness fell, many of them were lit up and obviously occupied.

Lynn went all out (for boat cooking anyway) and made homemade eggplant parmesan and we had a delicious dinner that evening.  Jonny was exhausted but we wanted to watch the Democratic Presidential debates.  We thought for sure we would be able to get reception – after all we are in big NY/NJ market area.  But we couldn’t get reception so we resigned ourselves to watching two episodes of our guilty pleasure – Mad Men.  

Sandy Hook, NJ

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A significant milestone took place on Oct. 12 - we crossed our wake completing the official Down East Loop!  The Down East Loop actually begins and ends in New York City.   In between we cruised 2500 miles from June 12 to October 12.  Of course, we still have to travel all the way back to Florida and we are now  on our way home! 

We started this leg of our trip leaving Fairfield, CT at 8 a.m. on Columbus Day.  Our original plan was to get to City Island, NY which we were looking forward to visiting.  We took off on a beautifully sunny day with temperatures in the low 70’s.  It was perfect!  And we were especially happy that the seas were calm the whole day.  We made such good time that we were due to arrive at City Island by 1:00.  After checking the currents, we realized that they would continue in our favor all through New York City.  This was especially important as we had to travel down the East River and pass through an extremely turbulent area known as Hell Gate.  This is where the East and Harlem Rivers meet.  It is  known for being a very challenging passage especially if the currents are not in your favor and if the winds are kicking up.  In our case, the currents were in our favor and there was little wind  (and very little boat traffic due to the Columbus Day holiday).   So once again, we changed our plans and decided to go straight through NYC to Sandy Hook, NJ.

The passage through Hell Gate was turbulent with many conflicting currents and eddies.  It took the full concentration of the captain to ensure that we didn’t veer off course.  There is a blind  elbow turn of 90 degrees which can be pretty scary if a barge is coming from the opposite direction.  But we encountered no such problem.  We can only imagine what a wild ride this could be under different conditions!

 

The cruise down the East River was spectacular. 

We passed Gracie Mansion, the United Nations and cruised past the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building before reaching the mouth of the harbor. 

We cruised under each of the monumental bridges spanning the East River including the amazing Brooklyn Bridge.

We also passed the new World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty as we did at the beginning of our voyage.  

Arriving in and leaving New York City is the most wondrous of feelings and doing so in a boat is an experience not to be forgotten.

From there we proceeded down the New Jersey coast to Sandy Hook – a long, elbow-shaped stretch of land extending out into the Atlantic.  We found a good anchorage inside that elbow and there we set our anchor at about 5 p.m.  It was a long travel day, but a good one.  We could see some nice homes from our anchorage and only two other boats were in the area.  We settled in for a quiet evening.  The only excitement was the significant rolling caused by a passing ferry every few hours.  This subsided by 11 and we had a restful night aboard Zendo.