New York and New Jersey

Sunday August 4, 2012
40 42.687N
74 02.532W

We are now sitting in a slip in New Jersey, just off the Hudson River, just a little south of Jersey City. Deidre can see the Statue of Liberty thru her galley window. (When Bryce sends me the satellite image, you will be able to see how close this is to the river and Manhattan).

We needed to get under way early this morning in order to catch the tide thru the narrows and up into the Harbor proper. Plus I wanted to load up with diesel before we got into "the land of expensive everything" and we had identified a reasonable price ($3.72 gallon) in Atlantic Highlands, a few miles away from our anchorage. So we were up at 7:00AM and were underway shortly thereafter. We took on 411 gallons at Atlantic Highlands and made it to under the Veranzano Bridge by 10:30AM.

(Deidre's camera failed a few days ago. We have not been able to bring it back to life. So we will be running thru New York and up the East River (past our first home in the USA and where Adam was born) camera-less. We are taking some photos with the iPad, but I have yet to figure out how to get them from there to the blog.)

Our view of Manhatten opened up as we passed under the bridge and continued up the harbor. There were a few anchored ships, the Staten Island ferries were running, a bunch of pleasure craft and parked barges, but otherwise the harbor was nice and quiet. We made a close pass on the Statue and Ellis Island, and reached the tip of Manhatten to see the new XXXX building about 3/4 complete. The canal to our marina was only another mile or so, and since the weather was threatening again, I decided to get to our slip.

I must admit I am a bit "torn" about the Jersey side of the river, maybe I am a bit prejudiced. When we lived in NYC back in 1970's the Jersey side was a pretty gritty place, and Jersey City was dump. New Yorkers held Jersey in total scorn. Our arrival today did not do much to change my negative feelings.

The usual procedure for an overnight ("transient") dock is to call before you arrive (using the radio or cell phone) and the Dock Master assigns you a slip, tells you where it is and meets you there to take lines. You then call into the office to do any paper work. Not in NJ! "Tie up and the fuel dock and walk over to the office" was to be the process. Twice the effort for the same result. And the place is grungy - the "office" is a trailer, the fingers are old and grungy, the fuel dock is an old barge, the water is littered with junk. To pay $150 to tie up for 20 hours in a place like this bugs me. (Hilton Head was $100 and was a resort!)

We had been seriously on the move for a week or more and needed supplies. As previously reported we had tried in Atlantic City (New Jersey again!) with no luck. So we grabbed our folding trolley and headed out into the wilds of Hoboken and Jersey City. Step #1 was make it thru 1/2 mile of moonscape to find the "light rail" station ("tram car") and ride it to Harsimus Cove. This we did, and our opinion of "new and improved" Jersey City shot up with every corner. My goodness how the city has changed. My guess is that gentrification is only a few miles away from the marina and our next visit may