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| Passing Miss Liberty again |
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Lockwood Marine Barge passing
Sandy Hook |
We left around 7:00am with the intent of staying at Liberty Landing Marina tonight. We tootled along making good time with the current in our favor. We realized that we’d reach Liberty Landing Marina sooner that planned. We discussed the pros and cons of bypassing Liberty Landing and proceeding on to Hoffman’s Marina in Manasquan. It would be less costly to stay at Hoffman’s ($2.50/foot discounted) versus $5.00/foot not discounted, and with bad weather due in, there wouldn’t be mush sight seeing anyway. Additionally, the winds and waves were reported to be better for travel today than Saturday or Sunday. The weekend forecast is for Northeast and Easterly winds 10-15 knots with gusts to 20. It would make crossing the Lower Bay outside the New York Harbor and Lower Bay treacherous. Today’s marine forecast on the NOAA website was for East winds 5-10 knots with waves 1-2 feet. The forecast seemed accurate as we exited New York Harbor heading for Sandy Hook. But, as we approached Sandy Hook the wind and wave height’s increased.
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Hoping to capture the
size of waves in this photo |
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| Arriving Manasquan Inlet |
Linda, who had been driving since passing Tarrytown and still at the helm, wanted to press on to Manasquan. Although she throttled-up to 12 knots to put the bow higher, we were still taking some hard rolls as the 3-6 foot waves came on our port bow. She increased speed again to 16 knots and Splash Down charged through the waves. Brian suggested to Linda that she might consider entering the Shark River inlet, the first inlet south of Sandy Hook, if she thought she couldn’t handle the rough seas. She wouldn’t have it and drove all the way to the Manasquan Inlet. We arrived at Hoffman’s Marina fuel dock at exactly 2:00pm. We topped off with fuel thinking we’d consumed half our tanks on this 72 nautical mile voyage and Linda running the engines at 22,000 rpm for nearly two hours. Surprisingly, we got close to two nmpg, our average fuel consumption, consuming only 57 gallons. After tying up to a T-head, downing a stiff drink, washing the boat to remove the salt, and picking up the cabin contents that were tossed in the waves, we walked over to patio restaurant called Union Landing for dinner. After dinner we turned in early. Tomorrow we plan to stay here and walk over to the Manasquan beach and breakwater.
