AdventureUS aka Sea Senor and Cats Away took off from Cape May NJ on Wed May 1 and headed out to the Atlantic Ocean! No more protected waterways and the training wheels were off! The weather was clear and we saw dolphin from the moment we left the inlet. We were not sure how far north we would get, it was all based on wind and sea state. Our first possible inlet was Atlantic City but as we got close Gerry said, let’s keep going, it’s not so bad out here! Amy, Ty and Dave reluctantly agreed.
The next inlet would be Barnegat Inlet and further north was Manasquan Inlet. The conditions would improve to fairly calm with 3-4 foot rolling waves and then to short chop with rolling waves. We were bouncing all over the place. We continued to see dolphin and Gerry kept saying to us, lets keep going. After we decided to keep going past Manasquan Inlet, there was no turning back!
BTW we never realized that the NJ coast had so many ferris wheels and water tanks! The beaches looked beautiful. When we head south in the fall we will spend some time along the NJ coast and look more into the ICW that runs from Cape May to Manasquan Inlet which is about 26 miles south of Sandy Hook NJ. Click to learn more. https://www.nap.usace.army.mil/Missions/Factsheets/Fact-Sheet-Article-View/Article/490826/new-jersey
We made reservations at https://sandyhookbaymarina.com/.
As we rounded the northern point of Sandy Hook and started heading south toward the marina, the wind was on our nose 15-18 knots but thankfully very short chop. Tough marina to get into but we all made it safe and sound!
We met at the bar of https://www.onewillowhighlands.com/ for Happy Hour! Great wings, tuna tacos, mussels in a spicy red sauce. Yum. We ended up eating dinner at the bar and then going to bed early. We were all very tired both physically and emotionally.
THE FOG ROLLED IN. Our plan was to leave at 7 am on Thursday, May 2 but by 6:30 am we realized it was a no go.
The second picture was taken around 9 am and by 11 am we were finally on our way to NYC!
Our visibility remained limited until we reached the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. We were so fortunate to be traveling with Cats Away as we circled the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan sky line to get some amazing pictures of each other. If you ever have the opportunity to travel the waters around NYC, we encourage you to do it. It’s an amazing experience!
We continued up the East River, through Hell’s Gate (with a nice current with us) by Rikers Island and LaGuardia Airport and eventually into Long Island Sound. The conditions in the sound were good (cold but good) so we wanted to push as far east as possible. But we also needed fuel so making it all the way to Mystic was not really an option.
I called a couple of different marinas along the CT shore but being it was early May, many were not selling fuel yet. Not a problem we had encountered along the journey. We were warmly welcomed by https://shmarinas.com/locations/safe-harbor-bruce-johnsons/ in Branford. The gas dock was owned and run my a super nice guy Paul who was pumping fuel by appointment only. He graciously agreed to meet up at the dock around 5 pm to assist both boats with filling up with fuel and showing us our dock spaces for the night. We met at https://docksidebranford.com the restaurant for dinner. The drinks were lacking but the food was pretty good.
Friday, May 3 we were off the dock at 8:15 am to catch the current to Mystic! It was great that we had the current with us but the wind was not, so it created a lumpy and choppy sea. We ended our journey at Ram Island YC and Cats Away was fortunate to have a friend in GLP with dock space so they tied up there!
An amazing Adventure with many more to come, we were all exhausted and happy to be securely tied to the dock! The middle picture below is Gerry and I as we entered the Mystic River!
Our next post will include totals for number of hours we ran, miles traveled and fuel burned and other fun statistics.
Thanks for following along. If you have questions or comments, feel free to reach out or comment below.
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