Sea Bee Cruising

Four hours on the ocean took us from Manasquan New Jersey, around Sandy Hook, into Lower New York Harbor and the welcome calm of Great Kills Harbor on Staten Island NY. Great Kills Harbor, Staten Island, NY The following day, we took the Staten Island Ferry into Manhattan for an afternoon and evening with June's sister-in-law Mickey, who lives in the West Village.   Staten Island Ferry's Coast Guard escort; Verrazano Narrows Bridge connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn in the distance. Gilded Age Ferry Terminal on the Battery, Lower Manhattan June and Mickey  On Thursday, we explored the Great Kills area by bicycle. Who knew Staten Island had wild swans? Cruising under the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge into Upper New York Harbor, past the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and lower Manhattan, into the Hudson River was all we could hope for.  It is impossible not to think of grandparents and great-grandparents for whom this was the fi...

Most of our travels so far have been in protected waters--either on the intracoastal waterway or in Chesapeake Bay.  Just because these are 'protected' doesn't mean that you can't encounter some awful seas in the large bays and sounds along the way, but generally these more open passages are short, and you can wait the weather out if necessary. We didn't have any really bad weather up till Cape May. However, to get from Cape May to New York City, the only safe way for a boat of our size is to go out into the Atlantic and follow the coast north.  The weather for the next week looked moderately terrible.  There was a low pressure system entering the area--this builds swells and waves from a combination of atmospheric conditions and winds.  But the trip north can be broken into short legs of about 50 miles each: from Cape May to Atlantic City; then to Manasquan; then around Sandy Hook to New York Harbor. So not withstanding the marginal weather, I, the Capt...

Delaware City The stop is located on the Delaware River just at the exit of the C&D Canal.  This city, like most that we have visited, has a bunch of historic houses, but because we were here for only one evening, we didn't see very much.  The owner of the facility, Tim, gave me a good tutorial on currents and tides in the Delaware River, which we would have to travel the next day to Cape May, NJ. The creek on which the marina is located is only 65 feet wide, with a very strong current.  It was fascinating watching the very experienced dock hands manually turn our boat around in the creek, holding on to one line tied to the forward cleat on the boat and letting the current spin the boat around. You can see how narrow the creek is Part of the fun of this trip is learning new things about boating, and this was certainly a new thing to learn! The next morning, before we headed east to Cape May NJ, down the Delaware River into Delaware Bay, we ...

Rock Hall, MD Our original plan (if we had one) was to hopscotch around the Chesapeake, traveling thirty or forty miles per day, visiting all of the interesting towns that we saw in our guide books.  However, the weather is soooooo hot and uncomfortable, that when we get to an interesting place, the only sane thing to do is stay on the back deck of the boat, in the shade and breeze from the water--or inside in the air conditioning. So we decided to amend our plan and get out of the Chesapeake and heat and head north.  We'll stop in the 'missed' places on our way back to St. Augustine Fall 2018. Rock Hall is the last stop in the Chesapeake.  It is just across the bay from Baltimore, where the temperature on the day we arrived was 97 degrees, with a heat index of 106.  Just tooooo hot!! Rock Hall is a mildly historic place on the east shore of the bay.  Signs all over town proclaim that George Washington stopped there six or seven times.  The town is ...

Urbanna VA offers the typical Chesapeake Bay small town charms -- tree-lined streets with historic and attractive buildings, quaint local businesses, waterfront seafood dining, picturesque sunsets. Landsdowne, 1741 The Marble House, so named for its marble steps and floors 18th Century home "Grounded" coffee & sandwich shop - no Starbucks in sight Urbanna City Docks' say LOVE Urbanna also offers something unique.  In 1755, John Mitchell, former Urbanna resident and physician, drew this iconic map of the North American colonies. One of only four remaining original prints resides in Urbanna where it is preserved and explained in the Urbanna Museum and Visitor Center, itself a former general store built in 1766.   The map is not only beautiful and impressively detailed, but it has been important in resolving boundary disputes, beginning with the 1783 Treaty of Paris defining the borders of the new United States, up to a 1980's di...