Sheepshead Bay, NY

After a blissfully calm night at our quiet anchorage in Barnegat Light, we woke up early on Saturday, June17 and took Archie for a walk through that tidy seaside town. There is a big dog park nearby but it is locked and only open to residents who always let us in. This time, as Jonny discovered last night, no one was using it. Instead, we walked across the narrow barrier island to the beach, but dogs aren’t allowed there at this time of year.

Returning to Zendo, we pulled up the anchor at 8:35 and took off for our long cruise up the Jersey shore to Sheepshead Bay Yacht Club in Brooklyn.  It was a beautiful day with relatively calm seas and the weather was welcome after our stormy day yesterday. As we approached New York City the sky became quite hazy and the smell of smoke from the Canadian forest fires was in the air.  All was calm until we were just outside of Sheepshead Bay.  All of a sudden, the skies clouded up and it poured rain.  Jonny slowed us down so we could linger outside the entrance to the bay until the storm passed.  And fortunately it was short lived and we were able to safely enter the yacht club and get our assigned mooring.

Once we were tied up, we took the launch into shore to take Archie for a walk. This is not an attractive part of town but we knew of a waterfront park a half mile away and we headed there.  Next to the park is a beach where we were able to let Archie off his leash for a walk.

There were less than half a dozen people on the beach.  Not surprising because it was strewn with tons of seaweed filled with what looked like deteriorating plastic bags. It was quite an astonishing site to see.  When we returned to the marina we asked one of the members why and and he explained that it was the result of storm drains in the surrounding area discharging garbage that ended up on the bay’s beaches. It’s another convincing reason for us to drastically reduce our use of plastic.

Jonny prepared our dinner of meatloaf, potatoes and broccoli and we had a quiet evening onboard catching up on the news and other entertainment. Tomorrow we continue our journey heading up the Hudson River.  Next stop, Nyack, NY.

Barnegat Light, NJ

We left Cape May very early on Friday, June 16 because we anticipated a long trip up the coast of New Jersey and thunderstorms were predicted for the afternoon.  Our initial plan was to reach Atlantic City by noon and anchor in nearby Brigantine.  After Jonny took Archie into shore to do his business, we left promptly at 6 a.m.  The day started off quite pleasantly with somewhat overcast skies and calm seas.

As we cruised by Atlantic City, we were making good time because the current was in our favor. It looked like we could make it to Barnegat Bay before the storms moved in so we decided to go for it and travel another 28 miles or 4 hours which would get us there by 3.

However, as we got beyond Atlantic City, the radio started broadcasting the imminent arrival of a string of strong thunderstorms. The radar showed that they were largely behind us and we were far enough offshore to be “relatively” safe so we kept going. We proceeded to batten down the hatches, donned life vests and contacted the Coast Guard to let them know we were out on the water and got ready to ride it out. Somehow we managed to fortify ourselves with lunch prior to the storm’s onslaught.

The sky got progressively darker as the storm clouds moved in. As the rain started, thunder and lightening followed and we had periods of torrential rain. It was pretty scary (though Jonny insisted that he was only worried if the wind kicked up too much).  Fortunately it did not and he very deftly steered us through the severe line of thunderstorms that lasted almost two hours.  We were very lucky to have ended up between some of the worst storm cells according to the radar map. During the peak of the storm, our visibility was limited to what was on the radar screen.

By around 3, the storm moved on just as we neared Barnegat Light.  Jonny safely guided Zendo into the familiar inlet and we entered a sea of calmness. What a relief!  We found our usual anchorage and dropped the hook.  Inside Zendo we put away all the things that had fallen off shelves and settled our nerves with calming cups of tea and ginger cookies. It was a nerve-wracking experience.  Little Archie was a trooper having glued himself to my side throughout the day’s journey.

After a very quick rest, Jonny took Archie for a dinghy ride onto shore while I had my regularly scheduled book club meeting with my sister and niece. (We just finished Maya Angelou’s Why the Caged Bird Sings).

Later on we had a delicious dinner of shrimp scampi and zucchini and did some trip planning. Tomorrow we head to Sheepshead Bay in NY and then on to the Hudson River.  All’s well that ends well on this calm night in a lovely anchorage!

Cape May, NJ

We spent two weeks in May and June traveling to Delaware City and getting Zendo ready for our 2023 journey. It was wonderful to visit close friends on our three day drive north. And staying with Stephanie and Ryan in Philly was a blast and especially fun for Archie and Stephanie and Ryan’s 11 month old Corgi, Eloise.

Our initial  plan for  this season was to go back to Maine and travel further down east.  But due to commitments we have with MTOA in Long Island and the Chesapeake, Maine just wasn’t doable. Plan B is to travel up the Hudson River to Lake Champlain.  We even bought tickets to a two day jazz festival in Saratoga Springs! 

But the first step was to launch Zendo which had been “shrink wrapped” for the winter. 

Unfortunately, after launching her, we ran into considerable delays prepping her for the journey and dealing with Jonny’s lingering issues from the cataract surgery he had in January.  And just as we were about to leave on June 13 for the proverbial “shake-down cruise,” the steering on the flybridge went out. Fortunately, we hadn’t gotten very far, so we just turned around (with difficulty) and headed back to the dock.  The steering mechanism was skillfully rebuilt by one of the marina’s marine techs and we were ready to go following a day of stormy weather.

So happily, we took off for our 2023 cruising adventure at 8 am on Thursday, June 15. It was a perfect day for the long cruise to Cape May.  The weather was sunny, temperatures were in the 70’s and with no wind, the waters were calm.  It was a long day and the three of us fell into our usual routines with the Captain feeling relaxed enough to take a quick nap.

The currents were in our favor most of the way and we made it to Cape May in good time arriving by 3:15.  We headed to our favorite anchorage near the Coast Guard station but had a little trouble getting a good placement in the anchorage which was much smaller due to the presence of a large barge.  After a few tries, we finally got settled.  After that, we all boarded the dinghy for a ride to our favorite fish market which is run by the popular Lobster House restaurant.  As we arrived at the dock the dingy engine quit on us but fortunately Jonny got it started to get us in.  

We headed over to Utsch’s  Marina which is next to the fish market where we stocked up on hake, shrimp, crab soup, shrimp salad, cole slaw and potato salad which will keep us satiated for quite a few days.  At the marina store Jonny was able to snag the last fuel line to replace the one on our dinghy which was the probable cause of the problem with the outboard.

Back at Zendo, we unpacked our goodies.  Jonny made a delicious dinner of hake and zucchini on the grill with roasted potatoes.  We settled down for the night, so happy to finally be on our way!

Delaware City, DE

Sunday, October 16 was our last day of cruising for 2022. We left our anchorage on the Cohansey River early so we would have a slack tide when we arrive at the Delaware City Marina.  The tide runs swiftly by their docks and we knew that there would be no one to help us tie up. We wound our way out of the Cohansey River with the surrounding marshlands showing the colors of autumn. The weather was quite chilly for the four hour trip and we spent some time traveling from the salon.

We arrived at our marina by11:30 and because of our good timing we were able to tie up easily. In fact, there was a dockhand there to help and all went quite smoothly.  We always like staying at this marina and we especially like Tim, the owner.  

We spent the afternoon with Jonny washing down Zendo and me catching up on the blog.  Later on we took Archie for a walk into town along the waterfront. This town is also historic and has done a great job of maintaining its waterfront.

It’s with mixed feelings that we end our journey this year. This has been another wonderful year of cruising for us.  We traveled 1,856 miles on Zendo going from Manteo, North Carolina all the way up to Seal Harbor, Maine visiting many friends and family along the way. We visited several new places and returned to many of our old favorites.  All in all, we visited 50 locations up and down the east coast. In addition, we had a fabulous trip to the west coast cruising the San Juan Islands in Washington and visiting friends and family in the northwest.  Each year, Jonny and I reconfirm our commitment to this cruising lifestyle and will continue it as long as we are able to.  We feel like we have the best of both worlds, our city life in Miami and our “country” life onboard Zendo.  

We’ll spend the next week getting Zendo ready to be hauled for the winter. We’re keeping her in Delaware City this year because of its proximity to Philadelphia. With all the wedding plans underway, we wanted to be closer to Stephanie and Ryan to be able to participate and help as much as we can with the planning of all the festivities.

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.

Cape May, NJ

The original plan on Friday, October 14 was to take the ICW to Cape May because the seas were expected to be uncomfortable for traveling.  The ICW here is very skinny with lots of bridges all of which require the utmost attention to navigation.  While Jonny was taking Archie for his morning walk, he  learned from some of the local fisherman that the seas were not bad so he wanted to try the outside. If it was too rough we could always turn around and go on the inside. And so we headed out at 8 a.m. for the five and a half hour cruise to Cape May.

We nosed out into the ocean to check it out. There were 2 to 3 foot swells with long periods so it was really not too uncomfortable and we decided to go for it. It was quite chilly but we stayed on the flybridge and bundled up. I was not feeling 100% throughout the trip. I was a bit queasy so I was unable to do my usual reading, writing or needlepointing.  Instead I just cuddled with Archie and dozed occasionally throughout the cruise.

We arrived at our anchorage in Cape May by 1:20, had lunch, and took Archie into shore for a walk through some pretty Cape May neighborhoods.

We also went to our favorite fish market next to the Lobster House restaurant where we bought some of our favorite goodies.  Those included salmon, shrimp salad, crab soup, cole slaw and potato salad. We had to hold back from buying more because we are trying to use up the food in our pantry.

On the way in to shore we stopped to chat with a fellow boater and his wife who is with MTOA and who is a port captain in Camden, ME.  We invited them for cocktails later that afternoon.

Shortly after we returned from our walk and shopping Dan and Cathy came by for a little while. We had fun chatting with them and learning about their cruising experience. They were on their way to Florida and the Bahamas for the winter.

That night we had a very nice dinner of the leftover steak and sides from our dinner out the night before and planned for the next (and last) two days of travel before we end this year’s cruise.

Atlantic City, NJ

Jonny took Archie for a walk while I had breakfast on Tuesday, October 11.  I had my Spanish tutor at 9:30 and Jonny decided to pull up anchor by 9 so we could make our way to Atlantic City. I was able to do my lesson from the salon. Fortunately there was only one day this year that I couldn’t participate in the lesson due to connectivity problems.

For the next several hours we cruised south on a sunny and fairly mild day with calm seas.  I made tuna fish sandwiches for lunch and after lunch Jonny spied another whale and this time I saw it too! We even saw it blow! This is the second time in two days that we spotted whales on the Jersey coastline!

We arrived in Atlantic City by 1:50. The local MTOA port captain who Jonny had contacted helped us to get a slip at the Farley State Marina which is operated by the Golden Nugget casino. It’s a huge marina and really quite nice.  Glenn was also kind enough to let Jonny have the new inverter shipped to him.  That was the reason we were staying there - so Jonny could install the inverter and have some moral support from Glenn, a very seasoned boater.  After we arrived, Jonny removed the old inverter and got ready to install the new one which was planned for the next day. We took Archie for a couple of walks and had dinner on board.

On Wednesday Jonny worked all day installing the inverter.  It was a lot of work but he didn’t stop until 6:30 and he got it done! Hooray!

In the meantime, I worked on finalizing the article about our San Juan Island cruise to submit to the MTOA magazine.

Although our original plan was just to stay two nights, we decided to stay a third night because the weather forecast called for rain and rough seas on Thursday. As it turned out Jonny still had more work to do connecting the inverter and snaking the wires through the chase to where our instrument panels are.  This was one area where I could help because my hands are smaller and maybe a little more nimble than his to maneuver through a blind space to make the connection.

While he did that, I watched the ninth (and last) hearing of the January 9 Congressional committee. It was fascinating and even more fascinating is why the majority of Americans are not completely outraged at all that has been reported!

That evening we took advantage of the fact that Atlantic City had extended its restaurant month and we had dinner at the nearby Chart House which is connected to the Golden Nugget. Dinner was very good and as usual, we had enough leftover for another meal!  After dinner we walked through the casino to gawk at the people playing the slot machines.  We are clearly not gamblers so the proximity to the casino held no draw for us. 

Each day we were here we took Archie for long walks along an attractive waterfront walkway. It brought us by some very pretty scenic areas, a windmill installation, and a few of the Atlantic City casinos such as Harrah’s and Borgata. We weren’t on the famous Boardwalk but we didn’t mind a bit though it might have been fun to stroll by the others at night when they are all lit up.

On the last night we were delighted by a fireworks display within view of Zendo. Our plan was to leave the next morning bound for Cape May.  Sadly, we only have a couple more days and nights on Zendo before we put her up for the winter.