New Jersey and New York

Curandera spent a week in New Jersey, part of that time in NYC but more on that later. We made a pit stop in Cape May for two nights, anchored outside of Atlantic City, and then made a one night stop in Point Pleasant Beach. Cape May was a really cute beach town known for its Victorian houses and great beaches. A family friendly vacation spot for sure. Anchoring outside of Atlantic City was pretty due to the lights of the casinos and hotels, but we had no desire to go to shore. Point Pleasant Beach has long stretches of beach and vacation rentals, topped off with a cute carnival right on the beach. It is exactly what I pictured when thinking about the "Jersey Shore"!

Lovely grasses run along the beach in Cape May     

Entrance to a Cape May Beach

Cape May is known for its Victorian style houses

The sunrise from our boat outside of Cape May

Point Pleasant "marina" stop (more like a fuel dock stop, we were the only boat on the dock)

We were very excited to bring Curandera up the Hudson River into NJ and NYC. Upon our arrival it was a bit cloudy but it was such a thrill to cruise past The Statue of Liberty, The World Trade Center and the NYC skyline! The marina we chose was in Hoboken, NJ directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan. We spent six days in a prime location steps away from the downtown, but it was by far the most unsettling marina we have ever experienced. There is a high speed ferry from Hoboken to NYC  every ten minutes right next to the marina (Shipyard Marina). As a result, our boat was constantly and vigorously moving back in forth from the wake! This happened every day from 6:30 am to 9:30 pm. It was so bad our lines broke four metal cleats right off the floating dock! Clearly our boat was too heavy for this marina, most of the boats were the locals' weekender boats. But on the bright side, we were directly across from Manhattan and had a killer view! 

We made it to NYC!!

Manhattan Skyline from our boat

Passing by the Statue of Liberty in our boat...what a thrill!

World Trade Center View from the water

Since our marina stay was in Hoboken, I'm going to write a bit about this little gem of a city first. The marina was a few blocks away from Washington St., which was essentially the downtown. It was lined with restaurants, shops and old brownstone apartments. A majority of the restaurants were Italian, which makes sense as the town was originally inhabited by many Italian immigrants. Now it is a suburban community, a lot of young, professional families and a lot of Labradoodles!  At least half the dogs we passed on our walks were some sort of doodle! Murf fit right in:)

Three other interesting facts... Hoboken is the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, it is the 4th most densely populated city in the US, and the home of the first ever baseball game. We did a lot of walking as the city isn't that big but the seawall was quite extensive and beautiful with many parks (including dog parks) along the way. On one end is the Hoboken Terminal which is the last working train station on the Hudson River.

The best part of staying in Hoboken was the proximity to NYC. The high speed ferry was both a savior and a curse (as mentioned earlier with the wake it produced). We hopped on the ferry almost every day while we were in Hoboken. It took approximately 10 minutes to get across to Manhattan. We brought our bikes across once, biked along the water through Battery Park, towards the Brooklyn Bridge. We stopped for brunch at the Tin Horn market building, and then headed to the lower east side and did the Tenement Museum. Very interesting to learn about how immigrants came to NYC and how they lived! We walked the High Line twice (once at night and once during the day, the night walk especially cool) and went to a broadway play, The Cottage (was excellent..starring Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) and Alex Moffat (SNL)). We even made it to Tavern on the Green for dinner before the play, right in Central Park. 

The High Line...one of my favorite spots in NY! Love the red tree!

New section of the High Line

Warhol, Frida Kahlo mural from the High Line

Shipyard Marina, Hoboken. Curandera is on the right!

Same view of the marina/Curandera but at night...beautiful view of Manhattan

Walking down Washington St. in Hoboken, NJ

NYC skyline from Hoboken's seawall

Interesting architecture off the High Line

NYC Street view 

We left Hoboken/NYC early morning on August 16th and made our way up the East River towards Long Island. There was lots to see including four bridges, one right after the other... the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro bridges. We also passed Brother Island and Rikers Island (known for its prison) and many other landmarks. We passed through Hell Gate, which is a narrow and treacherous strait of water separating Astoria, Queens, from Ward's Island, and connecting the Long Island Sound to the East River. It was quite exciting, as our boat reached 11.8 knots due to the current! This is significant since our boat usually cruises at 6-7 knots. We made it through unscathed! Next stop...Connecticut. 

Cruising up the East River

Interesting architecture along the East River

Abandoned mossy  building...East River

More interesting architecture... East River