Down the Hudson to Atlantic Highlands Marina
Trip Start
Jul 21, 2001
1
21
45
Trip End
Apr 22, 2002
Atlantic Highlands,
New Jersey,
United States
Sunday, September 30, 2001
On the final day at the boatyard, Daryl the yard supervisor and their top mechanic spent the entire day trying to get our tachometer working. He replaced the gauge in the cockpit, the engine sender unit but nothing worked. There was some corrosion in the wiring harness so he replaced the electrical sending unit and then he redid the wiring harness. His meter showed that the line had continuity but still nothing. He phoned Volvo and they had no suggestions as he had done everything possible to make it work.
Finally in frustration he hooked it up to the alternator, had me shine a hand held RPM indicator on the flywheel, and he set the cockpit gauge to match the engine revolutions.
He never did solve what to him should have been a very easy problem. I thought only computers had these glitches.
At 5 p.m., we left and sailed until dark. We ended up anchoring just above the George Washington Bridge (all the locals just say GW) outside the Alpine Boat basin which is part of the Palisades Interstate Park. Since the Coast Guard closes traffic going south of the GW at 4 p.m., we had a very quiet night without the usual wash from ships and barges going by. It was a very clear evening and the New York skyline was beautiful with all its lights.
September 28
At 9 a.m. traffic is allowed to proceed south of the GW so we called "Coast Guard Activities New York" and received permission to transit to Liberty Landing Marina as long as we stayed a minimum of 500 yards away from the east shore (Manhattan).
As we headed along the waterway we could see hundreds of buildings with water towers on top of the building.
They are there to increase the water pressure to the building. In all of the cities we've been to in North America and Europe we have never witnessed a similar construction. Water is a serious problem for Manhattan as it cannot produce its own water. When we were in Newburg, we had learned that the Catskill Aqueduct, a tunnel measuring 17.5 feet by 17 feet passes hundreds of feet beneath the Hudson River on its way to providing 500 million gallons of fresh water to Manhattan each day.
We had decided to stay at the marina at Liberty State park. It is directly across from the World Trade Center. As we approached it we could see the smoke from the fires still burning at the site. One building from about it's 40th floor to its 30th floor had part of it's structure ripped open and steel girders were hanging out in mid air seemingly ready to fall at any time.
Since the streets run 90 degrees to the river it was quite easy to see the destruction. As we sailed past the last street before entering the marina we could see the huge steel structure standing ??? stories high rising from the tons of rubble beneath. It made one sick to see this destruction first hand. The newspapers show pictures each day but it still did not prepare us for the scale of the destruction we were seeing.
As we entered the marina channel, a small open Coast Guard boat went by. It was only about 25 feet but it carried five mounted machine guns, one in the bow and two on each side. On shore at the marina we could see a number of men in SECURITY uniforms and several police and more Coast guard officers.
One of the reasons we wanted to stay here was different sights available at the State park. There was the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Liberty Science Center and the CRRNJ Terminal where more than eight million immigrants set foot on mainland United States soil for the first time. There were also several gardens in the park, one of them being a famous butterfly garden which Margaret would have enjoyed. Such a garden highlights different flowers and shrubs which attract various varieties of butterflies. After we docked, I found out that all sites at the park were closed.
It was going to cost us $63 U.S. a day to dock there and if we stayed past 4 p.m. on Friday we'd be forced to stay until 9 a.m. Monday as they still close the river on weekends. So we left immediately to hold the tide through The Narrows. Our GPS showed we got a 3.2 knot lift from the tide going downstream, our best speed of the trip.
As we left New York, a barge and a ship were coming up the channel so I was motoring about 200' to the right of the channel. As we approached the Statue of Liberty, I asked Margaret to go forward and take some pictures. There was a huge Coast Guard ship anchored off the Statue and a small C.G. boat cruising nearby. Soon after she took the picture you see on this page, the boat headed directly at us. Oh. Oh.. As they came along side of us, the officer told us to get back into the shipping channel as we were in a restricted zone. He was quite polite and thankfully this wasn't the open boat with the machine guns. We continued southward and anchored for the night behind the break wall at Atlantic Highlands at the south end of Sandy Hook.
September 29 and 30
We are caught in a major front which has blanketed the area with 30 - 35 knot winds increasing in areas to gale force winds. They forecast seas of 15 feet building to 20 feet so we decided to get a slip at the marina and stay put before we attempt to sail into the Atlantic Ocean. Since it will be our first experience with ocean sailing, I want to make sure it doesn't scare Margaret so badly that she flies home on the next available flight.
The high winds mixed with rain have continued for three days. This is a nice marina with the business section of town within easy walking distance but one should never come here if strong winds out of the NW, N or NE are predicted. There is only a low breakwater protecting the marina and during high tide with these winds the waves bury the breakwater in spray. Even at low tide the boat continually rocks and rolls but for several hours before and after high tide it is very bad as the boat is pulled in all directions by the waves and the mooring lines. It has been a learning experience to tie lines to take into account the tides and a neighbouring sailor spent some time teaching us the finer points.
