Jersey Coast to Lady Liberty

We spent two nights at South Jersey Marina in Cape May, NJ. This marina had some of the nicest showers on the entire trip (which you really appreciate after the many showers in the “tube” on our boat)! Cape May is a vacation destination with its beautiful beach and many shops and restaurants. We enjoyed taking a nice long walk around the town, enjoyed docktails with many other loopers, and had a great dinner at The Lobster House. The biggest decision for us at this point was do we go up the Jersey ICW (which is shallow and narrow) or outside in the Atlantic Ocean. The winds were not being cooperative so we decided to do the JICW following our buddy boat “No Rush” since they are a trawler with a keel to protect their gear and can warn us if they “touch down”. We left on a rising 4 to 5 foot tide which definitely helped to get us through the shallow areas. Our next stop was Farley State Marina in Atlantic City where we stayed right next to the Golden Nugget Casino. That was a fun spot! We walked and scootered the Atlantic City Boardwalk which is the oldest and longest boardwalk in the world – stretching 5.75 miles and lined with casinos, restaurants, bars and many shops. We also rode the ferris wheel on the famous “steel pier” which offered a beautiful view of the beach. At night we did participate in a little bit of gambling – which proved to be unsuccessful – but still fun! (John said to add that he won at poker!) We then continued on to the Manasquan Inlet, again through the JICW. People suggest to stay off busy waterways on weekends and especially holiday weekends – well we were wanting to hit a good weather window on Memorial Day to get to New York, so we boated this stretch on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend – which was not the best decision. Between very shallow waters and lots of boat and fishing traffic, it made for a very stressful boating day. On top of all that, we hit something hard towards the end of the day – and banged up our props – so had to continue our journey slow until we could get them repaired. We were very relieved to be in a marina that night. We left early the next morning to do the 40 mile crossing in the Atlantic Ocean to New York Harbor. The weather window was worth the effort to make – as the ocean waters were calm and beautiful. We made it to the Statue of Liberty by 11:00 a.m. and got our picture taken with her – one of the highlights of the trip! There was a lot of boat traffic in New York Harbor – between ships, ferries and fishing boats – but the New York City skyline was spectacular. We spent 1 night in Liberty Landing Marina – which was across the river from NYC – so it offered beautiful views of the city, especially at night. The next morning we left to head north on the beautiful and peaceful Hudson River and eventually back to “fresh water” – we were glad to be there! Stay tuned.