We left Port Jefferson at dawn on October 20th hoping to make it to the Throgs Neck Bridge by 10:30 am to catch a favorable tide. The bridge was 37 miles away and we made it at 10:45. The next few hours are a bit blurry as we dodged ferry boats, tugs & barges, water taxis, tankers, fishing boats and private yachts. After twisting through Hells Gate, we chose to slide down the East side of Manhattan rather the follow the Navionics suggested route of passing east of Roosevelt Island. With a favorable tide we passed cars on the FDR Drive, went under all the famous bridges and slid past Battery Park towards the Statue of Liberty. Crossing New York Harbor was like a squirrel trying to get across a freeway but we managed to avoid any dangerously close encounters.
A note to the vicarious voyagers: this is where AIS really came in handy. Being able to tell which ships were anchored, which were coming at us and how fast the ferry boats were moving, took a lot of angst out of the navigation decisions. We made it through and never heard the 5 blasts of impending doom.
We hadn’t decided on where to spend the night because the weather was still unstable and our next run would be 97 statute miles, in the ocean, down the New Jersey shore. We planned on anchoring in Sandy Hook, but a prevailing west wind left that anchorage too exposed. The weather for the next day also looked unfavorable for the next long trek, so we figured that we would stay two nights wherever we wound up. Liberty Landing in Staten Island wanted $6 a foot per night so we sailed right past. Atlantic Highlands Municipal Marina was half that amount so we made a bee line for them, only to discover that $120 a night buys you 4 old piling and a rusty ladder. There is an anchorage here at the east end of the breakwater (Moorings for sailboats only) and if we were only spending one night we would have anchored.
Atlantic Highlands has a really nice walking path south of the Marina, a restaurant next door and a casino that looks like it was financed by Tony Soprano.
Wonderful moon and photo of nav map from Manhattan.