Tanya's Great Loop Adventure: New York, New York... and more of New Jersey.

The last 3 days were spent heading towards NYC. My Mom and I left Cape May, and headed to an anchorage in this large bay, north of Atlantic City. From our anchorage, we had the best view of Atlantic City at night. I wish my camera could have taken those night time pictures. Despite the anchorage being exposed in a large open body of water, we had a very peaceful, quiet night, and it turned out to be a great spot.

Heading up the New Jersey intracoastal waterway (NJ ICW), was described by Mark, from Average Looper, as "tedious". People who live along the NJ ICW suggest avoiding weekends, when everyone who has a boat, is out fishing. In working with the weather, I left on a Sunday. It was a beautiful day. The NJ ICW is narrow, shallow, and winding. I think if I had a bigger, stouter boat, I would have preferred going outside of NJ and up the Atlantic the whole way. There were "no-wake" zones throughout, and once past the "no-wake" zones, there were fisherman in the channels in small boats, enjoying the day. On Monday, it was much better, and we headed to Manasquan, where the NJ ICW ends... or starts, depending on the perspective.

Towards the end of the run to Manasquan, a delivery captain in a sports-fisher radioed back to me, asking where I was heading. He explained the upcoming waters were tricky, very shallow, and difficult to navigate. I followed along behind him, and was impressed at his kindness and consideration. We both made it through the tricky waters, with our depth finders showing 3.7 feet, neither of us hitting the bottom. I am sure he was much closer than I was. As I stopped in Manasquan, he went on to Sandy Hook.

In Manasquan, I stayed at Hoffman's marina. The best part about Hoffman's was the other loopers I met there, Richard and Diane on Halcyon. The marina had a strong current, and the fixed docks were tricky to get into and tied up in. They have a 5 foot change in tide, so the lines have to be fairly loose. I couldn't wait to leave this marina. I had to get up through the night to check the lines. When the lines were slack and the tide was high, I was hitting the finger pier. However, they needed to be slack for the falling tide. I was up at 4:45 and out of the slip by 5:30 am, just as the sun was coming up.

Here are a couple pictures from our run up the NJ coast to Manasquan:

This town seemed to be built up on pilings.

There were two low bridges in Ventnor, NJ

After Manasquan, there is only one way to get up the coast. When I had initially checked the weather for the Atlantic, it did not look good for a few days. However, when I talked with Richard and Diane, they were going to head up to NYC. So, after re-checking the weather, it was a done deal. As I mentioned, we left really early, heading out the inlet and a couple miles off shore. The weather was great, the swells were 3 to 4 feet, with an 11 second period. PERFECT!!! As we headed into the New York Harbor, we followed along behind a sailboat, named Qingdao. Little did we know, that we were all headed to the same marina. Qingdao stayed in the Hudson for a few minutes before heading in, so we actually arrived just before they did. When they arrived, they were met with a celebration as the last of the 12 sailboats doing the Clipper Round the World race arriving at Liberty Landing, in Jersey City, across from Manhattan.

Qingdao arriving at Liberty Landing

Coming up into the NYC area was great. My Mom, was born in Staten Island, and grew up in Brooklyn. It was great to have her aboard during this exciting moment and seeing NYC from my boat. She was hoping to take a picture of me with the Statue of Liberty in the background, but I had to drive the boat! The highlight for me was seeing the Statue of Liberty from my boat.

As we came in, it was hazy, so my pictures of Manhattan didn't turn out as crisp as I would have liked. However, you can see the Freedom Tower in this picture. Later, as we were having dinner, we saw a full rainbow over Manhattan. It was spectacular, but with my Iphone, I could only get part of the rainbow in.

Manhattan from the water.

After arriving at Liberty Landing Marina, we ran into people, we had previously met, including Richard and Diane, from Halcyon, and Joan and John from Destiny. Hilde, my sister, came with her two sons to pick up my Mom. I spent the evening enjoying dinner with my family, and then came back to my boat.

I have one last picture to share, which I took yesterday afternoon as a storm was rolling in, of the sailboats from the Clippers Round the World.

This morning, Joan and John arranged for a tour of Derry-LondonDerry-Doire. and I joined them. The crewmember was explaining how, this boat was known as the "Happy" boat of the race and how they had made a video with the Pharrell Williams song.

After leaving the tour, I headed north, and am now at Croton on Hudson, in Half Moon Bay Marina, with a lot of other Looper boats.

Here are a few pictures from todays trip: