Atlantic Highlands

Up at 7:00 and pancakes for breakfast. Head cloggs, S**T! Quickly got it to clear and it worked fine after that, was a little nervous for a moment that I was going to have to tear it apart “loaded”. We take the launch ashore and have lunch at Sissy’s on the water. Alain and Diane had lunch there just before us and were on a taxi ride to a West Marine to replace their damaged cable, by the time we arrived. Linda and I mistakenly get our own sandwiches and could only eat half. The other half will be dinner.

Farmers Market

After lunch we walked through town to a large supermarket. On the way, I went to two liquor stores trying to find Yuengling Black & Tan. Success at the second store. The clerk at the first store called the second store to see if they have it. On our way back to the docks we stop at a farmers market and get some scones for and overnight snack on the sail down the New Jersey coast.

 

Later Alain and Diane dinghy over for Happy hour on our boat. We make plans to leave for Cape May tomorrow around 10:00 AM. We take the launch in, one more time to use the showers at the Yacht Club.

Sunset

Moonrise

 Full moon tomorrow for our overnight run to Cape May.

Atlantic Highlands

I fill the 3 water tanks, and get the boat ready to finally leave. There is a fairly good weather  window coming up in a couple days and we plan to start from Atlantic Highlands. There are a lot of boats backed up waiting for this window.

“Blow Away Too” had their brand new 30amp splitter cable melt, that they bought the day before from a local marine store. They stay for a while longer to go back to the store to get the defective cable replaced. Unfortunately the overheated connector also damaged their older cable it was connected to.

 

What is that thing in the sky ?

Manana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First time this dock has been dry

 

 

Great Kill Yacht Club

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally we have a sunny, relatively warm, day for our short trip to Atlantic Highland. Once we get out on Raritan Bay we put out the sails, even though there is not a lot of wind, it is just nice to slow down and enjoy the sun. We get to Atlantic Highlands and head to the fuel dock for diesel and a pump out. As we head over to our mooring “Blown Away Too” comes into the harbor. The anchorage beyond to mooring field is crowded with southbound boats and they wind up anchoring just beyond the northern protection of the breakwater. Once on the mooring I tackle a project I have been putting off, replacing the Joker valve on the head and lubricating the pumps. We don’t put our dinghy down since we get to use the launch with the mooring.

Great Kills - Ian leaves

Finally the remnants of Ian moves out of the area. The next weather window for the New Jersey coast is a couple days away. I make reservations at Atlantic Highlands for a mooring, assuming Diane had already done so. Some how she missed my text recommending it. It turns out we get the last available mooring for the following day. Great Kills Yacht Club is getting rather expensive for them since the Canadian dollar is worth 70 cents here and Great Kills does not take Canadian checks, requiring them to use US cash, ouch !

We walk into town to “Frank and Sal’s” a small Italian grocery. On the way we stop at a store specializing in fishing equipment. Linda has been trying to find foul weather pants that fix. They have some heavy duty pants that are met for fisherman who need hardworking pants. Linda finds a pair that are relatively inexpensive, which will do until we find some sailing foul weather pants that fit. 

Back at the boat we put our groceries away and head to Happy Hour. Again, as we walk in with Diane and Alain, our usual drinks are put down in front of our bar stools, before we engage in any conversation with the bartender. As we leave for dinner back on the boat Linda has a long conversation with some of the club members setting up for an even of playing Mahjong, a game she would like to learn to play.

 

 

Great Kills - rain not so much

Finally just and over cast dreary day without much rain. We take the bus to the local mall with Diane to head to the Apple Store to take care of our i-Devices issues. Linda and I are there to get new phones the 13 Mini. We were there for 3-1/2 hours. Our old phones were so old the they could not be easily updated. Had to load the phone up to the cloud and down load the install to the new phones. As the store got busier the data transfer rates greatly slowed. Finally we finish and head to the grocery store and to Panera’s for a late lunch.

Diane, Linda & Nile, Great Kills Bar Flies

And of course, back to Happy Hour at the bar. No one is feeding us tonight so back to the boat for dinner.

 

 

 

 

Great Kills - Rinse and repeat

 

Rained all night and most of today. Rinse and repeat, Hot showers, hangout on the boat and Happy Hour at the bar. New bartender tonight, Linda asks her to concoct Hot Chocolate (using chocolate syrup and milk) and amaretto, our go to drink for cold days in the winter. It was pretty good.

 

This system left over from Hurricane Ian just sat here circulating rain over us for 4 days.

 

Great Kills

Rain all night. Being Sunday, Linda gets Pop Overs for breakfast. They are fairly good. This is the only oven we have that makes decent Pop Overs. We recently built a new kitchen in our home in Vermont and the fancy convection ovens suck at baking, since they do not have a bottom heating element, if I have only known before hand.

"Cheers"

 

During a break in the rain we walk into town. Again to Happy hour, with Alain and Diane, our usual drinks are at our seats at the bar before we are seated. Think we may have been here too long ? Another party going on at the club. An 80^th birthday party for on the past Commodores of the club. We are all invited to their lavish Italian buffet that they have put on. Very good. One of the women even brings us desert to the bar.

 

 

Great Kills - Rain

Rain is in the forecast from the left overs of Hurricane Ian. The last weather window to sail the New Jersey coast was a couple days ago and it could be a week before we have another opportunity, so we are in no rush to leave. A rather boring day, hot showers, lunch on the boat in the rain, happy hour at the bar. Tonight Diane orders a pizza that gets delivered to the bar and we head back to “Blown Away Too” for dinner. Christine and Peter, a Canadian couple also from Toronto, on a Catalina 36, nearly identical to ours comes over from a mooring at an adjacent marina for dinner too. Peter was the dockmaster at the marina that Christine kept her boat. Hard to believe, but she lived on the boat through a couple winters in Toronto. Tough Canadians! 

 

Lots of sport fishing members at GKYC