Motored all night and all day. Put the sails up for a short time, but soon had to take them down again. There was a light breeze in back of us, so we could have sailed with the spinnaker, but it's such a hassle to put up and take down that Roy didn't feel like bothering. It's well he didn't, because the wind suddenly picked up as we approached Sandy Hook, New Jersey, which is notorious for its wind. It began blowing 20 knots or better, which would have been devastating if we'd had the spinnaker up.
We were both thrilled to be approaching New York City, where we'd lived as children. We couldn't see Manhattan yet, but we could see Brooklyn and Staten Island and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Neither of us was familiar with the waters around New York City, other than the Hudson River, so we were impressed by the vastness of the bay. We were also surprised that we saw so few large ships; we had expected to see giant freighters and tankers and ocean liners all over the place.
By the time we reached Sandy Hook, it was late afternoon, the wind was blowing, and the waves were kicking up, so rather than try to press on to Staten Island, looking for a marina, we decided to duck behind the Hook and drop anchor.
I was at the wheel going up the channel. We'd nearly reached the buoy where I was going to turn into the harbor when Roy said, "You can turn any time you want to." I said, "Yes. I'm going to go around green 17 over there." Roy said, "That green is red." I said, "That's green 17." Roy pointed to the left and said, "There's the green buoy over there. This one's red." He kept insisting the buoy was red, and I kept insisting it was green, but the skipper is always right even when he's wrong, so I went to the left of the "red" buoy instead of going around it to the right as I had planned. When we'd passed it and the sun was no longer shining in his eyes, even Roy had to admit it was green, but we had plenty of water, so it didn't really matter. However, if we'd gone aground because Roy kept insisting green was red, I'd have been furious.
We were approaching a little New Jersey town called Atlantic Highlands. The chart showed a Municipal Yacht Basin fronted by a very long breakwater. We could see masts behind the breakwater, but we don't like to go blindly into a strange marina, so we dropped anchor just outside the breakwater and paddled in. We weren't disappointed. The yacht basin was roomy and had moorings and anchorages as well as a marina and a wide launch ramp. There was a yacht club that provided a free water taxi. We found out we could anchor for free, but the moorings cost $25 a day (that's hard to believe; we'll have to verify that). There was a dinghy dock adjacent to the ramp, so we pulled our Royaks up there and walked to town. We had been told there was a super market a quarter mile down the road, so we walked there and bought as many groceries as we could carry. We also found out there's a bus that goes to Manhattan from here. There's also a ferry to Manhattan that would be fun to ride, but it costs $20 round trip. The bus is only $8 round trip.
We've really lucked out finding this place. We get to anchor for free instead of spending $50 or more a day at a marina, there's a good super market, a laundromat, and lots of other stores, it's an attractive, safe location, and we have easy access to Manhattan. So we'll probably stay here instead of looking for a marina.
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