All Seasons Marina, Marmora, NJ to North Cove Marina, New York, NY.
It was flat calm during the night, but a light northerly breeze came up in the early morning with occasional light rain. We decided not to wait for the gas dock to open and left at 0700 hrs. heading for the Seaview Harbor Marina, where Bill McDonald and I had stopped on the way down, but we missed it somehow and ended at the Farley State marina in Atlantic City. The tide was in and we had to ask both the Dorset Ave. and Beach Thorofare ("You want me to open for that little boat!?") swing bridges to open. Mary was asking the gas attendant about buses to NYC, and he whispered in my ear that he thought she was about to jump ship. But she stayed and we arrive at the Manasquan inlet to a NOAA forecast which included a small craft advisory for ocean waves. However, we saw a small Boston Whaler with three kids in it going out of the inlet, and decided to take a look outside anyway. We found 4-6’ swells, but with such a long period that we could comfortably cruise at 20-25 mph. We decided to go for it, the sun came out, and we made excellent time to the Verrazano Narrows bridge, arriving at the North Cove marina at 1605 hrs. after an easy and enjoyable (even to Mary) trip up the coast. John Cameron had called that morning and we had told him we wouldn’t be there until 1630 hrs. at the earliest, but probably not until tomorrow because of the small craft advisory, but when he called again at 1620 hrs., there we were! He came down to the marina and we had rusty nails on board and then walked around the tip of Manhattan to eat at the Bridge Café right next to the Brooklyn Bridge. This is the second oldest restaurant in Manhattan and the food was great! John told us all about the Academy of Achievement 2005 Summit Meeting he had just been attending (see www.achievement.org) during which he and other young scholars joined hundreds of distinguished guests including heads of state, leaders of industry, foreign ministers, ministers of defense, military commanders and diplomats in an extraordinary series of symposia and roundtable discussions.