Going to New York

We wanted to get up to New York so we would have time to go into the city for at least two days.  The weather wasn't great but the forecast was for 15-19 knot winds and 4-6 foot waves on the stern. The future forecast wasn't any better either.  When we left Cape May it was windy and pouring rain. As we went on out on the ocean the waves were 4-6 feet as forecast which made for a VERY uncomfortable ride. it was so bad that both Abby and Debbie lost their breakfast. After a few hours of this we came in at Atlantic City and anchored for lunch.  Our plan had been to anchor here for the night but when we looked at the weather for the next day and the fact that we were on a rising tide we decided to push on via the NJ Intracoastal waterway to Barnagat Bay so that the next day wouldn't be so long. We cruised the intracoastal up to Barnegat Bay and found some very shallow water even though the tide was mid and still rising.  We saw one boat aground waiting for a tow and ended up plowing some mud or prop polishing as we went along.  We were happy to arrive in Barnagat Bay and get anchored in for the evening.

The next day was pouring rain again but not as windy. The combination of AIS and Radar gave us good situational awareness and the waves were not as bad as the day before.  We turned the corner into New York harbor at Sandy Hook and made our way over to Great Kills Bay. When we  arrived at Great Kills we were able to find an anchorage among all the private mooring balls. Sandy hit this area hard a couple of years ago and there were reports of many sunken vessels at the mooring balls that had been abandoned and we picked our way carefully through the anchorage to find an area to anchor in that was free of mooring balls.  Supposedly the mooring balls have not been maintained and are doubtful as to their holding condition so felt safer on our own anchors.  We rafted as usual to Seas the Day.  We contacted the harborhost at Great Kills Yacht Club who graciously gave us the password to their WiFi which we were able to use even though we were anchored a quarter mile out.  The Island Time WiFi booster worked as advertised and we settled in for a three night stay.

 There is a bow sticking up from the bottom tied to a mooring here.  Sorry I havn't figured out how to rotate the picture yet