September 25 -October 3, 2021 - Newport RI to Riverside, NJ
and Last Sailing Days on Our Hunter 39' Lillian Gray
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| The Statue of Liberty is truly a beautiful sight to behold. What it stands for and what it represents is very compelling when you see it. It invokes an emotional response, including wonder for what the immigrants were feeling as they arrived at Elliot Island and anger and shame for what was done to the indigenous people. The color of it against the background is so pleasing to the eye and almost seems magical--pictures do not do it justice. |
Newport to Riverside, NJ
Saturday, September 25, 2021
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| Kim's job as we leave dock is to stow the lines and take in the fenders |
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Newport RI to Old Saybrook CT
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Point Judith Lighthouse in Narragansett RI
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| Watch Hill Lighthouse, located on a peninsula in southeastern Rhode Island |
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| Latimer Reef Lighthouse, in Fishers Island Sound NY |
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| New London Harbor Light, CT |
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Saybrook Lighthouse, CT
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| Kim and Levi missed seeing some of the lighthouses |
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| From the walkway below the hotel at Saybrook |
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| There is nothing more fun than doing laundry! |
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| We really liked this place |
Sunday, September 26, 2021
Old Saybrook to Norwalk Yacht Club
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| Out for a morning walk with Levi, we saw some beautiful buildings that belong to the Old Saybrook Resort. This sculpture looks like it was done by the same person who carved the pilings. |
On our way to Norwalk, CT, we were sailing along in Long Island Sound while the winds were gusting 20-25 knots. We started to get some higher gusts and
decided to take the jib sail in and that turned out to be a chore. In the process of furling it in, the end of
the furler line inside the furler drum broke free and Roger had to go out to
the bow and got bounced around as he furled the sail in by hand. With no furler lines, we had to Gerry-rig a
system to keep the jib sail from unrolling and flapping loose. We noticed that the furler drum itself had
come apart. Always a new project to deal
with on a sailboat!
Overall, it was a rough day on the water. It slowed us down significantly and we ended up arriving after dark. When we got there a
guy came out in a skiff to show us to our mooring but he noticed that there were no pennant lines for us to tie up to. While we were waiting for them to come up with a solution for us, we had to circle around in the small harbor in the dark, which was scary because you can't always see markers or stuff floating in the water. Finally, after looking at some other spots we might go, the boat hand came back to the mooring meant for us and realized that the pennant lines were there after all, just tangled up underneath the mooring ball. By then, the
manager had came out on a boat and told us we would have our mooring for free that night. In the morning, in daylight, we saw three metal rods that there sticking out of the water where we had been circling around. Thank God we didn't hit them!
Once settled, we went to shore for a little walk. We could tell it was a beautiful place with gorgeous homes, but Levi found a skunk and luckily it just ran away instead of turning on us!
p.s. Kim got a kick out of Roger trying to say "Norwalk Yacht Club" two times fast in a row when he was hailing them on the VHF radio.
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| Levi enjoying the scenery. Looks like the Saybrook Lighthouse again. |
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| Rough waters in Long Island Sound |
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| New York City off in the distance at sunset |
Monday, September 27, 2021
Norwalk to Jersey City – Liberty Landing
Big news! The sale of RPF Environmental finally went through!
When the Backup to the Backup Goes Wrong
We suddenly had issues with the Raymarine GPS plotter - the
screen had gone all dark. We figured it
was related to having put the radar on to help us navigate during the dark the day before, but when Roger shut it off and back on, the screen actually worked briefly, so we knew the screen itself was okay. Roger tried a bunch of things with no luck, and we were bummed because it would really stink to have to replace that system before we could sell the boat! On top of that we were going to sail right through New York City without it! Luckily, we have a backup with the Navionics app on the iPad but lo and behold, it wasn't connecting with the satellites. Of course, the old fashion paper charts are always on board too! Luckily, just as we were entering the East River, we saw a sailboat right ahead of us, and it was some folks that we had met at a marina earlier on. We hailed them on the radio and asked if they minded if we trailed them going through the river.
Sailing down the East River was fascinating! Great people watching, amazing buildings, historical landmarks, a wide variety of boat traffic; we were all three in awe.
We sailed right through New York and just before Ellis Island, we crossed the Hudson River into Liberty Landing in Jersey City. It was a huge marina; very busy and we landed on our dock with no problem at all. Spaghetti dinner was just the think that evening.
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| Early morning sky in Norwalk, CT |
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| One of the beautiful homes near the marina |
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| A nice little beach at the marina's boat club |
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| Lillian Gray on the mooring at Norwalk |
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| Green's Ledge Light |
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| The boat we followed into NY City |
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| A view of the statue on portside as we veered to starboard |
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| A view of Manhattan through the cockpit |
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| NY City - a jewelry box of lights |
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| Lillian Gray at dock in Jersey City |
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Jersey City to Brielle, NJ (Hoffman’s Marina on the Manasquan Inlet)
Navionics on the iPad decided to work today, thank goodness. We docked just inside the T-dock between pilings. All we had to do was throw the two bow
lines, and they had all the other lines already set up on the pilings. Kim had a throwback to touch tank days at Berwick Academy when the dockhand showed her the sea life around the dock; a starfish and sculpin of some sort feeding off a piling.
Roger was able to repair the chart plotter by reverting to an earlier version of the Raymarine software and thankfully, that solved the issue we were having.
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| Early morning sky in Jersey City |
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| We passed by Ellis Island on our way out |
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Lady Liberty
She was considered for Egypt, Philadelphia, Boston and Central Park before she made it to her current location. The original design was to make her a light house. Suffragettes protested a female figure representing liberty when women had no liberty to vote. The torch is actually copper covered in 24K gold. It is not the original, since the Black Tom explosion in 1916 damaged the original. The bombing was an act of German agents to destroy U.S. munitions that were to be supplied to the allies in WWI. |
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| The entrance to the Manasquan Inlet, which leads to the Manasquan River. Funky Jetty! |
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| Roger talking it up with some neighbors doing a similar journey to ours. They helped him get us plugged in. This place was loaded with pleasure fishing boats of all sizes. |
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The fateful glass of champagne at the Shipwreck Grill. A bad choice as a pre-dinner drink!
"First you have a drink, then the drink has a drink, and then the drink has you." Roger picked that quote up somewhere he doesn't remember. Maybe a Lawrence Block novel. |
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| An evening walk. Looks like Levi is mistaking the "No pooping" sign as a squirrel. |
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Brielle, NJ to Atlantic City (Golden Nugget)
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| Early morning |
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| We were a bit disturbed going by this fishing boat heading out that morning. The dredged part of the channel is narrow and the draggers were very close until they started to lift them just as we passed. |
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| This Northern Flicker decided to join us for an hour or two, much to our delight. |
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| Atlantic City. Lots of casinos. Not many safe places to stop along the NJ coast so we took what we could get! |
Sun setting at our marina, nicknamed "The Golden Nugget" because it is right across the street
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| The Golden Nugget. We won a whopping $36.00 in five minutes and left right away. There was a guy creeping Kim out there. |
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| The real name of the marina |
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| Notice the missing beard? Roger had decided he wasn't going to shave until the business closed, but he was thinking about keeping it anyway. He knew I wanted it off for Ben and Mattie's wedding, so with a bit of encouragement it got mowed. I know my Mom and our friend Esther will be happy to see "that crap" off his face! Lol! |
Thursday, September 30 - Friday, October 1, 2021
Atlantic City to Cape May (Utsch’s Marina)
We had a huge wasp land on the seat of the cockpit. We immediately looked up murder wasp and we
couldn't tell if it was one or not, and we saw that the authorities should be notified immediately because of their invasiveness. So, we contacted the aviarist for NJ by email and heard back from her that it was a large European wasp, so we let it go.
We arrived at Utsch’s Marina at Cape May and were greeted with a bag
full of goodies. Biscotti, a bottle
of Utsch's Sangria wine, and few other things. The marina is old and seriously needs updating, but we could see that it would've been a really nice place in its prime. The staff were very friendly.
On the second day there (waiting on weather), we received some new neighbors: a lady in a Catalina with a gregarious captain who was helping her get to Baltimore where she wanted to keep the boat after she purchased it. He wanted to know who was going to be brave enough to open the Sangria bottle from Utsch's. None of us were. BTW, the "u" is a short vowel sound, like in "but."
Roger spent some more time trying to figure out the furler, but came to the conclusion that some parts were going to need to be replaced.
We kibitzed with our new neighbors about where to stay when we left Cape May. We all decided a ridiculously early departure was in order to make it to the next marina. Their mast was shorter than ours so they could go through the Cape May Canal and shave off about an hour or so that we couldn't.
Saturday, October 2, 2021
We left Utsch’s at 5:15 a.m. because we had to get to the
marina in Delaware City by 5:00 p.m. (they were having fireworks that night and
everyone was getting off early) and it was going to be a long haul. It was lucky that we did because
it was just after 4:00 p.m. when we arrived.
Had we not arrived before the dockhands left we would’ve had to anchor
outside the mouth of the C&D Canal which has a hefty current. The tide timing was sort of a wash because we were on the water twelve hours. The wind petered out
too, so we pushed the motor so we’d save some time, but the engine didn’t like
that and an alarm went off to stay it was starting to become overheated; we
had to shut it off and let it cool down.
It was fine when we restarted...so much for trying to cut some time off the run!
The Delaware Bay has few, if any, places to stop between
Cape May and the C&D Canal. The excitement is looking at the industry and huge freighters.
As we were pulling into the creek for the marina, we knew it
was going to be a small thin channel and shallow. The depth meter made it look like we were almost scraping bottom (we were!).
When we got there we pulled onto the dock and the dockhands turned us
around 180 degrees - so we were turned in the right direction for when we would
leave. It was cool as they did it so slickly - well practiced at it! They handled the lines, gave us instructions
and the current turned the bow of the boat right around.
Once we were settled, we walked to Kathy's Crabhouse and Roger
had really good (stinky per Kim) crab cakes! We hid out for the fireworks--it's pure torture for Levi.
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| Off to an early start. This is a first - setting sail before dawn |
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| Eerily quiet at the marina |
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| Sun rising on Cape May |
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| Cape May Lighthouse |
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Miah Maull Shoal Light
From Wikipedia: the shoal commemorates Nehemiah Maull, a river pilot who was drowned in 1780 when the ship in which he intended to sail to England in order to make a claim on an inheritance was wrecked on the then-unnamed shoal.
So many of the lighthouses have such interesting stories. |
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Elbow of Cross Ledge Lighthouse
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| It was a long day on the water! What better pass time than knitting? |
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| Not a lot to look at but lighthouses and industrial activity |
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| The Lillian Gray is settled safely on the dock at Delaware City Marina. Phew! |
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| Roger celebrates every safe docking, mooring, or anchoring with a cold beer |
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| As we came into the River, we could see there was a celebration going on; live music, lots of people and this River Taxi was taking folks on rides. As he came near us, we could hear him telling the story of George Carver and peanut butter. |
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| A good view of the Lillian Gray from the sidewalk - she will be missed. We were taking Levi for his last pee of the day. Up early again tomorrow. |
Sunday, October 3, 2021
We left Delaware City and headed to G Winters Sailing Center/
Riverside Marina - our final destination on this version of the Lillian Gray.
It was a day full of huge tankers, barges, river dredging or
construction, and bridges, and we passed by Philadelphia. Near the end of our journey was the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge (built in
1929) and we had to radio in to have them open it for us. At first we didn’t get a response and we
wondered if we were mispronouncing the name because we had heard
that you have to pronounce bridge names correctly or you might get
ignored. But we did eventually get an
answer and were politely told that a shift change was happening, so sit
tight. It was kind of odd to know that
we were stopping all that traffic between New Jersey and Philadelphia.
After that, the Riverside marina was not far away. Since it was a Sunday, the marina was not
officially open and no one was around. We were forewarned that it’s
quite shallow and you need to time your arrival as close to high tide as possible to get into the narrow, dredged harbor.
We got to a point and weren’t sure where to dock, so we called Gary who works
for the marina (Gary was also the guy who was with Roger on the sea trial for our new boat) and asked him about where they wanted us to tie-up. He indicated that we should tuck in behind a 50 foot
Beneteau on the working dock. He didn't tell us that we needed to hug the
docks on the right hand side so we proceeded on the most direct path and
moments later realized that we weren’t moving and were stuck in the mud.
Fortunately, it’s mud and not granite ledge like in Maine so we were,
with a big sigh of relief, able to just back up to get loose. As we backed up we
realized we were sitting on top of a green channel marker and it then became abundantly clear that we needed to hug the right side of the docks. We managed to get on the dock OK--a
big jump by Kim from the deck of the boat.
Gary showed up shortly thereafter and helped us move the
boat to much tighter quarters on the dock where they keep their boats for sale. We knew, and know for sure now, that we will
need to get used to docking on pilings instead of floating docks like we are
used to up North.
We enjoyed our last dinner on our Lillian Gray, 39 ft. Hunter - chicken fajitas in the cockpit.
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| No sun today, and this marker stands out like a sore thumb |
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| Kim helps Levi sing the song of his people. Perhaps he is sad that there is no sun? Alternative to our fog horn too maybe. |
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| One end of the Commodore Barry Bridge between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It took us awhile to realize that's what it was. |
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The Delaware River is loaded with flotsam, bad for the propeller and hull too if not careful.
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| Lots of industry |
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| A cargo ship from Liberia. What could it be carrying? Perhaps not much, it's sitting pretty high in the water. |
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| Whoa! It's so huge compared to us! (Kim and Levi slept though this passing) |
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USS Fort McHenry, a decommissioned dock landing ship and an old aircraft carrier. |
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| As we approached this scene, one of the smaller working boats broke away and came by to ask us to stay well clear of them, just in case. Brilliant! |
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| An interesting old pier in Philadelphia
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| Philadelphia |
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| the 4-masted cargo vessel in back is Moshulu, built in 1904 in Scotland. Now a floating restaurant in Penn's Landing. |
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| The Tacony Palmyra Bridge. Lillian Gray stopping the traffic! |
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