Staten Island, NY

As usual, Jonny woke up by dawn this Saturday, June 9 and because we were in such a lovely calm anchorage, he decided to take the paddle board out first thing.  

When he returned, we got ready and by 7:30 we pulled up the anchor and set out for our cruise up the New Jersey intracoastal.  It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the 70’s.  The ICW along this part of the Garden State is lined with comfortable well-cared for homes, many with a Dutch Colonial design that reminded Lynn of her New England roots.

We cruised by a collection of traditional and beautifully restored cat boats similar to the Atlantic City cat boat we owned before our trawler. 

When we reached Manasquan, we headed out into the Atlantic again for the run up to New York.  It’s always inspiring to see the NYC skyline over the horizon!  Our cruise into New York Harbor went very smoothly.

We were heading to the Great Kills Yacht Club in Staten Island which provides great rates to people who are part of the American Great Loop Associstion.  Although we are not doing the complete Great Loop, we are doing a significant portion of it and we had done the Down East Loop two years ago.  One of the first signs of our welcome was this family of swans.

As we came up to the dock at Great Kills we were met by several of its members and fellow cruisers who tied us up lickety-split.  John, our host explained  how everything worked and was most gracious in welcoming us.  This is one of several small yacht clubs that line a perfectly protected harbor in Staten Island.  Afterwards, we walked up to the yacht club’s bar to have a beer and explore the comfortable facilities.

We were docked next to Marilyn and John on their North Pacific named BlueGoose.  We had met them at the St. Petersburg Boat Show where we were all volunteering at an MTOA ( Marine Trawlers Owners Association) booth this past winter. They kindly invited us over for a drink and we had a nice visit comparing notes on our upcoming journeys.  

Afterwards, we returned to Zendo where Jonny made a nice dinner and we stayed up late watching The Remains of the Day.

Barnegat Bay, NJ

The weather forecast continued to be favorable for us to travel up the New Jersey Coast on the Atlantic side on Friday June 8, but it meant that we should leave very early as the seas pick up throughout the day.  So we left our Cape May anchorage at 6 a.m. to take advantage of the calm seas.  

Jonny wanted to see if we could make it all the way to Manasquan which would mean at least an 11 hour day.  Our other options were to go to Atlantic City (too close) or go in at Barnegat Bay, but that inlet as it is not an easy one to maneuver.  We always have to have a plan B especially when we’re cruising on big waters like the Atlantic.  

We ended up having a great day with calm winds and following seas and the current was in our favor for most of the day.  It was sunny and warmer than the day before.  We cruised past the Atlantic City skyline and continued heading north.

But as is often the case, the seas started to pick up later in the afternoon with enough white caps forming that we started to seriously consider pulling in at Barnegat Bay.  Of course, we passed the the Barnegat Lighthouse, an important beacon in this difficult inlet.

Jonny continued to be a bit hesitant until he decided to call SeaTow to get local input on entering the channel there.  He discovered that the channel had been recently dredged and we had an incoming tide.  This was enough to persuade him to go for it.  It was quite choppy heading into the channel but once we got inside everything calmed down considerably. 

We wound our way into the bay through a circuitous route and in extremely skinny waters.  Jonny had to be hyper-vigilant as he navigated our way through very confusing markers. But once inside, we found a perfect anchorage at Berkeley Island near Tom’s River.  The town had created a lovely park that nearly surrounds a protected little bay.  The park had a long pier, a launch ramp and a sandy beach. And we were one only two boats that anchored there for the night. 

Cape May, NJ

We departed Delaware City Marina at 7:30 on Thursday, June 7 with Lynn at the helm.  Due to a following current, we quickly cruised down the 

Delaware River.

As we were told at the briefing meeting the previous afternoon, the forecast for crossing the Delaware Bay to Cape May was the best that Tim, the dockmaster, had seen all year.  It might also be that his marina was fully booked that night and he needed to be sure there was space for everyone!

We cruised down the Delaware Bay in a following sea.  The weather was sunny but quite chilly.  We both had to keep adding layers to keep warm.  We made great time, however, and the current didn’t turn against us until the last hour of our journey.

Along the way, we passed the Ship John Shoal lighthouse as well as part of the shoal it was protecting us from.

The current continued to slow us down as we entered the Cape May Canal where we made our way up to the funky dock of the little Miss Chris Marina to buy fuel.

After that we headed to our pleasant anchorage off of the Coast Guard Station beyond Cape May, where we could hear training exercises from the Coast Guard for the rest of the day.  Although we love visiting Cape May, we decided to forego it this time.

Lynn continued updating the blog from the Philly visit which she was finding to be increasingly frustrating because she couldn’t get it loaded because 1) we had a poor internet connection as 2) there were too many photos.

In the meantime, she also made a new pork tenderloin dinner recipe with a warm spice rub that turned out to be quite good! We enjoyed it with this view of a beautiful sunset.

That evening, Jonny did some more trip planning and due to an excellent of forecast of calm seas, we decided to leave the next day at 6 a.m. and see how far we can make it up the Jersey Coast.

Delaware City, DE (return from Philly)

Sadly, we had to depart Philadelphia after a wonderful week with Stephanie. We left Pier 3 Marina at 7 a.m. on Wed. June 6 for the relatively short trip to Delaware City Marina.  We left with the ebbing tide which has a very strong current which increased our speed by 2 knots and we arrived promptly at noon.  Georgio, as usual, was very relaxed, this time camped out in the aft deck sink.

Jonny spent the day doing boat chores including changing the oil and engine zincs.  Lynn spent most of the afternoon summarizing our 7 days with Stephanie and doing a load of laundry. Keeping busy with chores helped her to overcome the melancholy she was experiencing after having to say good-by to Stephanie.

At 5 p.m. we attended dockmaster Tim’s briefing on conditions for cruising the Delaware Bay to Cape May on the following day. He has access to cool online tools that show currents, wind speed and other necessary factors influencing this day long passage.

Happily, conditions looked ideal; he said they were the best he’d seen all year.  (Of course, that might have been influenced by the fact that his marina was totally booked the next day and he needed us to move on to make room)!

Jonny also spoke to Tim about the possibility of keeping  our boat at this marina over the winter which could be a convenient place with Stephanie only an hour or so away by car. We are thinking of leaving Zendo north for the winter so we can spend our winters in Miami and our summers on Zendo cruising in the northeast.

That evening, we took advantage of the free crab ball coupons offered by the marina and the local restaurant Crabby Dick’s.  It was our first time there and we were pleased with its beautiful setting overlooking the waterfront.  

We sat outside and had a drink and appetizer.  Later we walked back to Zendo where our dinner consisted of the leftover pulled pork and cole slaw that Lynn had made for the day we took Stephanie’s friends out on Zendo.

Philadelphia, PA

On Wed., May 30, we finally reached Philadelphia after an uneventful 4.5 hour cruise up the Delaware River.  The city’s skyline is quite impressive! And so were some of the boats we passed in the harbor.

We arrived at Pier 3 Marina at 2 pm and tied up adjacent to La Veranda Restaurant with walkways lined with gaily colored flower boxes.  

Our plan was to spend a full week here visiting Stephanie and other relatives and seeing the sights.  We were surprised by our marina, having visited it in the winter when we decided that the marinas in Philly were clearly not the nicest we had seen.  This one turned out to have friendly people, a good staff, decent restrooms and laundry facilities and the advantage of a great bar at La Veranda - not to mention its great location in the Old City.  We were within walking distance of many interesting things to do.  There was even a free bus for those of us who qualified age-wise!

One of the highlights of our trip included a visit from Emma, Jonny’s cousin’s daughter who lives in Philly. We hadn’t seen her in a couple of years so that was a treat.  

Stephanie had to work on Thursday and Friday so we went sightseeing on our own walking through the Old City.  Jonny had never been to the Jewish American Museum so we did that on Thursday.

Friday was spent at a most interesting site - the Eastern State Penitentiary, one of the oldest in the US.  When it was built in the 1830’s, it was located on the outskirts of the city among low rolling hills. It’s now surrounded by the City of Philadelphia on all sides. It’s a fascinating place to visit - quite ahead of its time.  It has a spoke and wheel design, housed Al Capone for awhile, and has a tiny restored Jewish synagogue among many other features.  Most interesting is a modern exhibit of our country’s history with incarceration and how that compares to other countries (not well).

Stephanie invited several of her friends to spend the day on Zendo on Saturday.  It was a beautiful day and we headed out a bit ahead of the tides and found ourselves almost stuck in the mud.  We managed to plow back to the dock and ate lunch on board while we waited for the  tide to come in.  An hour later we headed out for a cruise on the Delaware.  All of her friends are from the Philly area but had  spent very little time on the river.  It was a fun day and we made it back to the marina just ahead of a rainstorm.

We headed over to Stephanie’s comfortable apartment a block from beautiful Rittenhouse Square on Sunday where an excellent art fair was underway.  Her neighborhood is lined with stately townhouses and festooned with creatively decorated window boxes.

We had brunch at one of the great little cafes nearby. There are so many great little bars, restaurants and cool things to do within walking distance of Stephanie’s apartment - no wonder she loves living here!

Afterwards, we headed to  Manayunk, where Stephanie used to live, so Lynn could get a haircut. Jonny had biked here earlier in the day - about 10 miles there and back.  The haircut was not a wholly successful experience because the result was much shorter than Lynn wanted. The remaining days were spent with Stephanie and Jonny reassuring her that it looked good!  We took advantage of being on the outskirts of Philly by making a Costco and Walmart run.

Stephanie took Monday and Tuesday off from work so we visited some of the places that she hadn’t seen yet. One of those places was the very unique Magic Garden, a museum  and area of several square blocks that the artist Isaiah Zagar and his wife covered with mosaics and all kinds of folk art.  They were instrumental in the revitalization of this part of South Philly.  Exploring throughout this creative wonderland was fascinating.  

I

By mid afternoon, it was time for the long awaited visit to Lynn’s cousin, Taylor-Lynn to meet her new baby Evangeline who was born in March.  Our timing was great because Lynn’s cousin Angela and her husband Jim (Taylor’s aunt and uncle) were visiting from Conn. for the day.  What a treat to meet little Evie who is just precious.  Although we had seen Taylor and Stu on previous visits, this was our first time seeing their home which they had  purchased and completely renovated doing a beautiful job! See little Evie waking up from a nap with the blanket that Lynn made for her.

Later that evening, Stephanie brought us to one of her favorite restaurants in Rittenhouse Square called Audrey Claire. The restaurant doesn’t even have a sign out front but they were doing a great business!

Our last day in Philly was bittersweet because we don’t get to see Stephanie that often. We went to the Philly’s wonderful Italian market where we filled our senses with colorful vegetables, arrays of pasta, racks of glistening fresh fish and ropes of sausage.

 After purchasing the makings for our dinner that night, we finally had our first  Philly cheesesteaks. We bought one from each of the city’s biggest rivals, Geno’s and Pat’s.  The verdict?  Jonny and Stephanie preferred Geno’s. Lynn preferred Pat’s.  

After our somewhat low brow experience, we opted for a more high brow one and headed over to the venerable Philadelphia Museum of Art.  There we saw an excellent special exhibit of 20th century artists and enjoyed the sculptures on the museum’s lovely grounds.

That night, we cooked a delicious dinner at Stephanie’s cozy apartment with the food we bought at the Italian market.  We had sausage and peppers and fresh  cavatelli with a rose’ sauce.  It was a fitting end to a wonderful week with our dear daughter.  We will miss her!