GLORY DAYS ON THE GREAT LOOP: TO THE BIG APPLE

THE BIG APPLE

DAY 336; MON. JUNE18, 2012

DEP MANASQUAN 07:39 ARR. NYC 1:00

D. 46.9sm / 5624.0

After 2 day of tortuous cruising, today was boring. The NJ ICW ends at Manasquan, so the only way north is in the ocean, up the coast. The current was pretty strong in the morning so Mike, the assistant mgr and his deck hands helped us depart. It was just a short distance from the marina to the ocean, about ¼ mi., and from there it was a pretty straight shot, 45 miles up the coast to NY. The wind was 5mph, still out of the east, and the waves were less than 1’, but we had swells on the stbd. Beam of about 2’ – 4’. It was a little rocky, but I much preferred it to the NJ ICW. We cruised at between 8 & 10 mph, and at 11:05 we passed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, (thttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verrazano-Narrows_Bridge) the entrance to NY harbor. At this point the harbor is almost a mile wide and there is a huge anchorage area with ships of all kinds from all over the world. As we got closer to Manhattan, the boat traffic increased until it became very busy with ferries, water taxis, police & fire boats, fishing boats and cruisers like us. As we passed the beautiful Statue of Liberty we (Boreas Something Special, & Glory Days) stopped to pose for pictures with her in the background. We stayed at the Liberty Landing Marina, which is a privately run marina at Liberty Landing National Park, which is on the NJ side of the Hudson R. From there it was just a short water taxi ride to Manhattan or the Statue.