Kingston, NY

We spent the morning of Friday, June 15 visiting West Point.  Thank goodness for Uber which is so convenient to use everywhere these days. Just three short years ago when we did our Down East cruise, Uber wasn’t an option.  This time Uber got us there in no time.  Driving through the little town of Highland Falls, we arrived at our destination in time for the first tour of the day. 

The United States Military Academy, also known as West Point is an impressive place to visit.  The beautiful campus is strategically located on the banks of the Hudson which has been so instrumental in our country’s history and especially its military victories (and defeats). This is the view of the Hudson from the Visitors Center.

The campus of West Point is beautiful with its Gothic architecture and grey granite buildings.  A consistent architectural theme is reflected throughout the campus with even the newer buildings complementing the historic ones. The campus also had many fine sports facilities.

We learned a lot about the school, its history and famous alumni.  Lynn was particularly impressed by its leadership philosophy which emphasizes that graduates should “live honorably, treat people with dignity and respect, and demonstrate the character, competence, and commitment that builds trust.”  It’s too bad that our current leadership in Washington is not living out this philosophy.

We got back to Zendo by noon and resumed our voyage up the Hudson passing the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, and a Vanderbilt Mansion. We are spending less time visiting sites this time because we want to get up to Canada to spend more time there during its short summer.

The day was supposed to be quite warm but in fact it was so chilly that we closed all the stratoglass for the bulk of the day which we never do unless it’s raining.  But Georgio managed to make himself quite comfortable. 

Overall, we had a comfortable cruise with little boat traffic and beautiful scenery.  We’ve been enjoying our anchorages and decided to choose one near Kingston at Port Ewan rather than staying in a marina in Kingston which we did last time. On our way there we passed the Port Ewan Lighthouse.

We arrived at 6 pm and settled in for the evening at a beautiful calm anchorage next to the stately Rondout Lighthouse in Kingston. 

There we had leftover Chinese food from our last night in NYC. We ate on the aft deck with a gorgeous sunset as our back drop.

Bear Mountain, NY

We left Staten Island at 6:45 on Thursday morning, June 14, to take advantage of the tides.  Our cruise took us past the Statue of Liberty, Jersey City and Hoboken and the mighty Palisades on the New Jerseyside, as well as the entire western side of New York City.

Our plan was to cruise up the Hudson River to Cold Springs, NY.  We really liked the village of Cold Springs and our original plan was to anchor there and visit West Point the next day.  Cruising the Hudson is one of Lynn’s favorites - it’s so beautiful - both bucolic and historic.  But we weren’t expecting it to be as windy as it was. The wind was gusting up to 30 knots.  Fortunately, it was out of the north so it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great.  Because we were heading north and into the wind we were hobby-horsing the whole way.

We originally planned to go all the way to Cold Springs on the east side of the Hudson.  But due to the need to find an anchorage with protection from the north wind we decided to anchor off of Bear Mountain on the west side of the river which provided better protection from the wind.  It was also on the same side of the river as West Point which we wanted to visit the next morning.  What is tricky about anchoring on the Hudson is that the depths can  drop from over 70 feet to 3 feet in 150 feet. But we found a gorgeous anchorage at the foot of Bear Mountain next to the state park.

We took the dinghy  over to the park the park to explore.  It’s a huge and beautiful park and the Appalachian Trail goes right through it.  We met a few hikers including a young woman who was hiking it alone.  She had started in February in Georgia and was planning to go all the way to Maine.  She was extremely engaging, energetic and of course, very fit!  What an incredible commitment!

The park had miles of hiking trails, picnic areas, a carousel, a little zoo with bears and foxes, and an amazing lodge.

 After our own short hike and exploration we settled on board Zendo for a quiet and relaxing evening.

Staten Island, NY Part 2

We stayed five nights (June 9 -13) at the Great Kills Yacht Club on Staten Island and used that cost effective dockage as our base of operations for a NYC visit.  Our first full day was spent exploring Brooklyn because Lynn had never been there.  After studying and maneuvering the public transportation system we learned that it’s faster to go through Manhattan to get to Brooklyn even though that doesn’t make sense by “how the crow flies.” We explored the historic and lovely Brooklyn Heights neighborhood and the new (to both of us) DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges Overpass).  This was a cool area with a big and interesting flea market, lots of restaurants and pubs, and a great waterfront  park and amazing views of Manhattan. 

Our second day in the city was spent in Manhattan where we checked out the Museum of Natural History which was somewhat of a disappointment.  Many of the exhibits seem to not have changed since we were there as children, though there were a couple that were newer and worthwhile.  We made up for that disappointment by spending a couple of hours biking through Central Park.  It was a beautiful day and we were surprised to see so many people enjoying the park on a Monday.

That evening we met Robbie's daughter Chloe who works in NY and lives in Hoboken with her husband, JA. Her office just moved to the original Woolworth building which is an Art Deco masterpiece.  

We went down to West Village to meet JA for dinner.  But first we had to stop and quench our thirst at a beer joint.  Afterwards, we had a delicious Italian dinner at an intimate little restaurant there.

On Tuesday, we returned to Brooklyn to visit the exquisite Brooklyn Botanic Garden where we participated in a walking tour to more fully appreciate all this garden had to offer. We highly recommend a visit here.  It would be especially beautiful in the spring because of the extensive spring blooms but even though we were past the cherry blossoms, there’s a fantastic rose garden and lots of interesting and unique gardens. ( Shakespeare, herbs, Japanese, etc.).  We followed that with lunch in the Park Slope neighborhood.

On our final day, we treated ourselves with tickets for a Broadway show, Come From Away.  We went to the matinee performance and we totally loved the show.  It was heartwarming, funny, and sad and the music was wonderful.  Definitely one of our favorites.  After strolling through 

Times Square and Midtown we found an Anthony Bourdain endorsed Chinese restaurant where we had a very authentic and tasty meal.  So we satisfied our requirement to have great Italian food and Chinese food while in New York!

Our final trip back to the boat was the now familiar trek of walking, bus, subway, bus and more walking.  It took us about one and a half hours to get anywhere from our Staten Island dock but we felt it was worth it.  The Great Kills Yacht Club was the calmest spot in the metropolitan area, the docks were great, the facilities were convenient,  the people were friendly and the price was right!

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.