We decided to take a couple of days and start out by launching at the statue of Liberty State park (25 dollars for non residents and they don't like any boat trailers longer than 23'). We measure about 49 feet total truck and trailer. The parking lot is a little tight so they limit trailer size. We found a secure mini storage right across the street, Liberty Self Storage 201 451 6939 The ramp and floating docks are great the area seems safe. Looks like you could anchor in the protected cove just away from the launch ramp. It's like you can reach out and touch New York City. Our plan was to end up in Cape May at the southern tip of new Jersey. So on Wednesday October 24 we launched stuffed the tow rig at the mini storage and set off for Cape May. This is part of the larger general idea to knock out sections of a great loop trip a little at a time. When we planned the weather was supposed to be perfect but from our pictures in the Jersey Coast album you can see it was pretty dreary. Because we thought the weather might deteriate (Sandy) we ran the 44 miles from the statue down to the Manasquan inlet going through the Hudson river, Sandy Hook bay the Atlantic ocean. From there we went up the Manasquan River to the Point Pleasant canal and picked up the intercoastal waterway. First day total was 95 miles. Barnegat Bay was pretty flat we ran 25 to 27 mph turning about 4400 rpms getting 3.4 mpg according our Garmin fuel management. We ended the day up in Tuckerton Creek at the Sheltered Cove Marina. For the 95 miles we topped off taking a total of 31 gallons of fuel. Now we really started hearing about the Franken Storm Sandy. We left Tuckerton Creek the next morning around 7:30 am and did the remainder of the trip to Cape May another 71 miles and 23 more gallons of fuel. We did it in two days but we would have streached it out but I wanted to get the truck Friday morning and get the boat out of the water before panic set in on the Cape May area which is predicted to get the brunt of the coming storm. We got a rental car pickup from Enterprise rental car in Rio Grande on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning we left early for the two and half hour drive north to get the truck. Nice breakfast joint next to the mini storage by the way,the mini storage does not open till 8:30am.. We were back down in Cape May by lunch and pulled the boat. The ramp was already getting stacked up with residents pulling their boats for the coming storm. It was a great trip lots to see. The southern portion I would recommend doing at high tide as the intercoastal seems to be shoaling in a little. The launch point and mini storage we will use again to to do a trip north up the Hudson to the Erie Canal and Oswego canal on to Lake Ontario. Check out the pics if this is any interest. 166 miles on the boats trip meter 54 gallons of fuel. I wish we would have had more sun but at least the winds were light. We might have the last pictures of Jersey as we know it before the combination of three storms Sandy, a big low coming across from the west followed by a cold front bringing colder temps and snow at the the higher elevations. We pray for the folks in harms way. We are heading to home a couple of hours inland to 25 miles northeast of Philadelphia. We even saw them harvesting cranberries on the trip home. Pretty interesting trip.
D.D.
D.D.
