Wednesday June 2, 2021.
Temp: 69/58, Humidity: 87/100%, Top Wind: S8mph, Precip-Rain & Thunder, Miles Traveled: some by car
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I love it when y’all leave comments on the blog so that I know you’re out there. I’ve had people tell me intersting things about areas that they know well, relating to someplace I write about. One of those places is Atlantic Highlands. Capt Walt has been a faithful reader, and he keeps me on my toes if I fall behind and keep him in suspense too long before posting another episode. Somewhere along the line, he told me that he lived in the Atlantic Highlands area of New Jersey. That stayed tucked in the back of my mind, and I recently e-mailed him for marina suggestions in this area. Since we like to stay in new places when possible, I thought this could be fun. He gave me a couple of ideas, and so when I had reservations set, I let him know where we’d be and that we’d like to meet him if possible.
As we were heading up the coast yesterday, I texted him to let him know we were coming, and we agreed to meet for lunch today. Then he texted me back and said they were headed to Costco, and did we need anything. Really? What timing! Exactly yes, we do! I told him that our Lil’ Red Rocket refused to distill any coffee, and that I was just making an online order of Costco items, including a new coffee maker, to be delivered to the marina via InstaCart! We needed to purchase it with our membership card for the warranty, so it wasn’t something he could pick up for us. So he said they could take us to Costco today! Seriously? How sweet is that!? Now I know that you nervous nellies out there are thinking…. Karen – you aren’t really going to get in a car in an unknown place with people you just meet, and let them take you somewhere, and think they’re going to brink you back in one piece? WHAT?! Yes. Of course we are! If you aren’t a long distance boater, I don’t expect you to understand. But there is something about salt water cruising people that makes you wish the whole world would be like. There is a trust that is implied between us. As Walt’s wife Janice said today, we’re all ‘out there’ on the water, and we depend on each other in case of emergency or need. It’s a community of people who help each other, no matter what. Maybe that’s part of what we love about it. People are genuinely friendly and helpful. It’s a culture that’s hard to explain unless you expereince it. But trust me on this – it’s real.
So – back to today. We got up and we were able to threaten lil’ red rocket enough that he squeezed out two cups of coffee. But it was iffy. Capt Walt and Janice came to meet us at Island Girl around 11:00. It was kind of funny, because they would know us by sight from being faithful blog readers, but we had no idea who they were. But we had instant friendship, because they feel like they know us, just like all y’all do, from being subject to my ramblings here. We enjoyed telling stories and hearing about their adventures in their numerous boats. Then they took us on a little sightseeing adventure here in Atlantic Highlands. This area gets that name because it is the highest elevation land on the east coast south of Maine. We drove up to the Mount Mitchell Scenic Overlook which is the highest point at 266’ above sea level. On a clear day, we would have had a superb view of New York City. But today was foggy, so visibility wasn’t awesome. We couldn’t even see the northern point of Sandy Hook.
There was a neat 9-11 memorial for Monmouth County, honoring the lives of the men and women who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks. It was sobering to read the names and ages of the people just from this county that were lost. So many people in their 20’s and 30’s. Young adults the age of our kids, who went to work one day, and never came home. The piece of iron in the eagle’s claws is from the twin tower ruins.
From here we went to Costco for some shopping. We bought lots of non-perishable junk food and a new coffee slave. We figure that with the bad luck that we have with these things, if we get if from Costco, we can take it back if it goes on strike. We’ll keep lil’ red rocket on board in case of 🆘 emergency.
After unloading our haul back at the boat, we went to lunch at a restaurant near the marina. We sat outside and enjoyed more conversation and stories. I kept thinking that every time we told a story, that Walt and Janice already knew it because they’ve been following the blog. Walt admitted to being a lurker… that they have the computer open for story time at breakfast. 🤗
It was such a pleasure to meet Walt and Janice. We had such fun, and we could really enjoy hanging out with them more! What a blessing for us, that my crazy obsession with writing this blog resulted in a new friendship. So Walt & Janice – if you every find yourselves in Florida (if we’re ever home) y’all need to come by for some more fun times!! And we’ll even take you to Costco. 😉
Tomorrow we’ll start heading up the Hudson River. It has been raining all evening, and will continue to do so tonight and a good chance of rain for most of the day tomorrow. The trick with going up the Hudson River is to time the current. It is actually influenced by the tides for the entire 150 miles up to the Troy Lock. So you can catch a flood tide current going UP the river of 1.5mph! Unfortunately, the flood tide starts at like 1:00 in the afternoon tomorrow. So the ebb tide current will be coming down the river all morning. At peak ebb tide, it runs at up to 2.5mph, which really sucks fuel when you’re going UP. So we’ve been trying to figure out when to go. On a good day, you can catch the maximum flood at the bottom here in NY Harbor, and pretty much run on it all the way up the river. That’s what we did in 2018. It’s cool how it works, because as you go up the river at about 8 miles per hour, the peak of the current goes with you. So if you start at say 8:00 on a peak flood tide at point A, go 8mph up river, and by the time you get to point B an hour later, it is peak flood there, and so on. It’s like you just ride the wave up the river. How does that work? I remember reading that the tidal water flows mostly on the surface, and the “river” flowing to the ocean runs more along the bottom of the river bed. Anyway, we don’t want to try to go up river against a strong ebb tide, so maybe we’ll go really early when it’s less than 1 mph. We’re going about 55 miles, so at that distance, one mile per hour can add a whole hour to the trip! And then, if we have fog?… all bets are off and we’ll have to wait. If visibility is bad, we don’t want to go through NY Harbor on radar. There are five thousand ferries and ships and boats out there. And we’re just a visitor, and y’all know how New York drivers are, right? It’s the same on the water. They just go and honk their horns and go some more.