Barnegat Light (HBHYC) - NYC – Haverstraw Vacation

Alex F

Well-Known Member
Nov 14, 2006
9,166
Miami / Ft Lauderdale
Boat Info
2005 420DB with AB 11 DLX Tender, Raymarine Electronics (2x12" MFDs) with Vesper AIS
Engines
Cummins 450Cs, 9KW Onan Generator, 40HP Yamaha for tender.
We just came back from our vacation cruising with kids for a week visiting areas that might be of an interest to other local boaters. The trip had begun during July 4th weekend and one of the things I had considered is to stay away from huge crowds and boating traffic. So, instead of heading straight to NYC we picked Barnegat Light harbor and High Bar Harbor Yacht Club as our destinations for the long weekend. We had planned to spend one night on the hook and one night at the HBHYC marina. We had two anchorage spots marked to see what looks more comfortable (mayor’s hole and SW of HBH). MH looked more protected on the chart while HBH is too close to the channel. So, accompanied by Danianna (our friend’s sail boat) we gave it a shot to check MH first approaching from ICW buoy #42. As we turned NE there was very well marked Double Creek Channel leading to MH. As we got to the final destination it looked very different than what the chart showed. The land protecting the anchorage area turned out to be simply marsh, which was wide open spot except for the north side of it. This could be a good location for the raft of several boats during the day, but I didn’t like it as an overnight spot. Thus, we took off to the HBH. Double Creek channel has a shortcut to the mouth of Oyster Creek Channel leading to the BI and HBH, even though the chart shows 1-2’ there’s actually plenty of water. I have to say that the first thing we’ve noticed was huge change in water color. As we were getting close to the HBH the water looked like in the Caribbean.

It's a bit deeper water so more scope is a must. With lots of boats near by, you're limited with the scope (it's a catch 22). We have put up a "show" there last weekend. I dropped my anchor in high wind with enough scope to hold me. As Danianna pulled in and tied up, we started dragging. I let go more scope and it didn’t help. The wind was close to 20+kts. Now we’re too close to other boats and dragging with ~70’ of line. The “dance” began as I took over the control of two boats (I felt comfortable enough to drag Danianna on my port side). While squeezing between other boats and mooring balls, I was retrieving my anchor at the same time. It was clear that the only way to have the raft of two boats, we needed both anchors, so I “danced” around bringing us to a safe spot and we dropped the hooks. One captain of a boat we have passed by couldn’t watch the show for too long, so he packed his rig and took off rapidly.

We had great time exploring the shore. We used our dinghy to pull water toys, which turned out to be a huge success to entertain the kids and even teaching them first steps of water skiing. My 5 year old son made the boogie board rides into a ski training session, setting the example for our older girls.

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As the night approached, the strong day wind calmed down, turning the sunset night into a beautiful and peaceful setting to enjoy the scenery: fireworks, clear skies full of stars.

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The next day we continued our shore exploration by taking the dinghy to the light house. It turns out that you had to hassle docking the dinghy in order to get to the shore in that area. We were chased from one marina just north of the CG station, so we pulled up to the next one (south of CG station). They were nice enough to let us tie the dinghy for an hour or so. Here are few shots from the light house tour:

Looking at HBH
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Beautiful Barnegat Inlet
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Small beach just inside the inlet
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Tices Shoal few miles away
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And this is how 320DA would look like if it had a mast with sails.
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Soon after the light house tour, we headed to the HBHYC marina near by. I have to mention that this is one of the nicest marinas we’ve stayed at. BTW, this is dockominium type of marina with a very nice club house, eating area with grills and picnic tables. Laundry, showers and everything else was very clean and they also have a great pool.

Here’re few shots:
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Finally, it was the time to head out onto our voyage to NYC. The night before, I did all final checks to make sure that everything was in order (oil levels, cleaned seastrainers, electronics, etc…..my list is few pages long). We had a slight delay since we needed to get fuel. I assumed that such a big marina will have fuel, so I didn’t fill the tanks before arriving there. Turned out that my assumption was wrong. There were few other marinas across the harbor that had fuel, so it wasn’t an issue. But, there was a surprise waiting for me (actually two). I was told to just shoot across to the nearest marina, so as I was making my way across and looking at the chart that showed 7’ confirming with the depth-finder, being totally new to the area, I approached at an idle speed. All of a sudden, my props got stuck in the sand. The sand bar that was on the chart was supposed to be away from me, but I guess the chart was off. I kicked the shifters into neutral and waited for the wind to push me away from the sandbar. In my experience, this is the best approach instead of stirring the bottom and having engines suck in all that sand. I wasn’t concerned at all, because I basically just touched it (thanks to the slow speed). As couple of boats passed by slowly, their wake also helped my underwater gear to be off the sand bar and few minutes later I was free to go. I said – “screw this marina” and approached the channel to the marina where I had my dinghy tied up the previous day. The surprise #2 was that after I was done fueling and pulled away from that marina I picked up huge chunk of eelgrass. “Nice…” that’s exactly what I was missing after I just cleaned everything the night before. This happened right before the entrance to the inlet. So, now I’m trying to plane to head out of the inlet and the boat struggles. It’s decision time, turn back to the bay, drop an anchor and clean everything or continue out of the inlet and drift in open water while I clean the mess. Since the ocean was flat, I decided to proceed forward. As I got out to a safe area (away from the traffic and in deep water), I made the first attempt to clean the scoop strainers, which is stop, put her in reverse, apply throttle in reverse, and then after picking up a little speed back off the throttles to minimize the intake suction. After “dancing” in reverse for a few minutes making few Z-turns I proceeded to plane and the smoke was gone, the boat sounded and performed as normal. It was a big relief that I was able to loose the chunk from the scoop-strainers with minimum effort. Finally, we were on our way to NYC. From that point on, it was one of the best ocean cruises we ever had. The water was very clean and colorful. We had encountered several dolphins and passed few awesome looking cruisers.

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Approaching Verrazano Bridge
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After few hours of joyful cruise, we had arrived to Liberty Landing Marina, still within the scheduled timeframe. I rinsed the boat and we started making our way to explore NYC. The ferry leaves right next to the marina, which is very convenient. It’s $7 bucks for an adult and $5 for kids age 12, each way. The problem is that the last ferry from NYC is at 7:45pm, so we had to take path train and then a short cab ride back to the marina. However, it’s a quite a PITA commuting within the city and then heading back jumping from train to train. So, for anyone visiting, make sure you plan your trip accordingly. The negative part was that for those 2 days we were touring the city we had a heat wave and it was 100+ degrees. We managed by mixing our activities between outdoors and indoors, but it was quite uncomfortable anyway. Also, a quick note about the cabs in Jersey City, they operate differently. First it takes a while to catch one, but then they try to get away from using the meter and charge you a flat fee of $15 for 1-1.5 mile trip. The first time we heard it I told the guy “you want flat rate, I’ll give you $10…you don’t like it, bring us back to the same place we were picked up”. He tried to negotiate for $12, I could care less for $2 bucks, but it was a principal reaction to his approach. We got another cab, in fact it was a limo, for $10 just 2 minutes later. The guy gave me his number so the next day we waited only for 5 min to be picked up and this time I was happy to give him $12 at my own will.

Here’re few shots of the city and surroundings (Statue of Liberty, Elise Island, Jersey City and others) :
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And here’s the city at night time:

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We had plans to explore Central Park and be outdoors much more, but due to the 100+ temps we had to make necessary adjustments. However, we still went to the Central Park Zoo, which was pretty good with lots of fun for the kids. Museum of Natural History, Sony Museum all were nice to tour and cool off from the heat wave. Closer to night times we were outdoors more and had visited Greenwich Village and Seaport.

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Few words about the LLM, it’s very nice with protected slips. They just finished (well, almost finished) the main building there. The facilities are very nice, the view is breathtaking (I guess the pictures show it well). I highly recommend taking a nice night walk and enjoying the picturesque scenery of the city, across the river. Aside from all good things about the marina, I guess they don’t think much about the boater’s safety, because of the way they assign their slips - something I’ve never seen before. In this picture

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you can see part of the setting, right to my starboard side there’s 40’+ big $$$ Marquis and at about 2 o’clock, 50’+ trawler. I don’t have a better picture at the moment, but so far, it’s just a nice view until I heard some noise very close by. I got out of the cabin and saw the trawler casting off. A moment later, I had realized that the boat simply doesn’t fit in the fairway and it also doesn’t have thrusters. Let me just say, that only due to the fact that there was an empty slip between my boat and the Marquis, the trawler was able to get out. He made it only by about 3-5” (yes, inches). As his stern was against the bulkhead, his anchor was making its way above and over my railings. So, if my burgee pole would be 3-5” longer the trawler, then either he would have not made it or would simply break it. GEEZE……. that was a close call, I’m glad I was there to supervise the safety of my boat. I have to say that it wasn’t a piece of cake for me to dock there. When we arrived, the marina was full and there were no pilings for me to touch when I was backing in with the side winds. The difficulty is due to my dinghy hanging off the swim platform. I’m afraid to damage the dinghy vs. when the platform is empty.


Here’re few night shots in the marina:
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So, after touring the city for couple of days, it was time to cast off up to the Hudson.

Here we are, waving good bye to the city.

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The next stop was planned: Croton-on-Hudson. We planned to stop by for a swim, lunch and see if we like the place to spend a night there on the way back from Haverstraw. Well, I’m glad we had planned the midway stop on the way there, to check things out, because we weren’t impressed with the setting and decided not to come back. So, after the short stop we continued to Haverstraw Marina.

Here’re few shots along the way:

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Approaching Haverstraw Marina, it looked like we entering some kind of factory property, it looked strange but once we got there, it was actually pretty nice and inviting. This is a nice marina to stay in. The slips are well protected, they have pretty much of everything you need, it’s like a small resort with a nice pool having an awesome view of the river, bar and restaurant, just next to the pool with clean changing rooms and bathrooms. The facility is protected and locked, so you get a special card to get in. Kids had a blast in the pool while we enjoyed the surroundings and also joined them for a nice swim. Marina staff was also nice, so I’d say it’s well worth the $100 we spent (if I recall, they charge about $2.75 per foot or something close to that). Since we were there only for one night, we didn’t care to tour the town, although I’ve heard there is not much to do. But, we had a nice walk around the property and the river shore to relax, while kids were busy with their activities.

The following day, we took our time to enjoy the pool site again and left the place only after lunch. Got some fuel, did the pump-out and headed to Alpine Marine Basin to get cheap fuel $2.95 for 89. This is the cheapest marina in the area, so anyone passing by, might want to take advantage to save few bucks.

The ride back was pleasant and smooth, with perfect scenery of NYC. We enjoyed the sites of the city, exposing its beauty on the river side.

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As we got just south of George Washington Bridge, (just minutes after taking the picture below) all of a sudden “BANG!”…….we hit something.

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We look back and I see a huge log floating behind our path. The log was the size of a piling or half of a telephone pole. At first, I got very nervous just by imagining the possible damage we could have sustained, but by listening how the boat performed, I slowly calmed down. I first thought to stop and open up the engine room, but the river was rocking from the boat traffic, so I paused on that idea and instead was closely observing the boat behavior. I saw that we didn’t lose the performance, which was the primary sign that the damage should not be too bad. All the gauges were showing the same numbers as prior to the accident, which gave me the most relief. I watched for any signs of a change, the bilge pump remained OFF. For me, it was a big break indicating that we’re not taking on water.

Our next port of call was Great Kills Harbor in Staten Island. Since, there were no signs of emergency, I continued on. Periodically, I had felt some slight vibration, but the feeling was mixed, because of rough waters we were in and the boat being loaded with full tank of fuel. In the back of my mind I knew that something was slightly different but I just couldn’t tell what it was. The next thing I wanted to do is get to the calm water and dive under the boat to inspect everything. So, GKH was my target, only several miles away and I headed to it, maintaining the normal cruise speed. I’ve read in cruising guide that there’s a dedicated anchorage area in GKH. However, upon arrival I had realized that it wasn’t the case. The harbor was full of mooring balls. The depth was 22-25’ with no room to let enough scope to stay secured and swing with the wind. I found that there were quite a few unused mooring balls, so I grabbed one. Finally, at this time I was able to dive under the boat and assess the damage. I dove many times, inspected the bottom and all underwater gear but found no signs of the impact. That didn’t make sense to me, but I still wasn’t sure if I had extra vibration or not. The bilge looked fine as well. But, the fact that there was no visible damage, was the major relief for me and I was able to relax a bit and enjoy remaining time.

If you’d like to find more details about the damage discovered later on, due to the impact with the log, please use this thread Hit a huge log – what would you do?

Here’re few pictures (if you look closely you’ll see rainbow in the background on first two pictures) of the GK harbor. BTW, it’s a pretty nice setting with few marinas surrounding the mooring field and quite few nice restaurants. We also heard club music coming out of one of the buildings, so it sounded like there was a club. We took the dinghy to near by marina and went to one of the restaurants, which was excellent (food and service were great).

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The weather was calling for approaching t-storms the following day, so we stayed for sometime and enjoyed the harbor for as long as we could and started making our way to homeport in the late afternoon. I checked the forecast and all they had said that winds expected at 9mph with seas 2-3’. Well, once again they were off big time. We started with 2-3’ chop, but later as we entered the shipping channel and hug the coastline heading south those chops turned into 3’-4’-5’ swells. We were heading against the wind which was getting stronger and the swells were getting larger. So, we had encountered occasional 6-7 footers. Having full tabs down I had to slow down as much as 3100-3200rpm doing 16-17mph, which is very low for 320 (usually these boats need around 3400rpms to stay on plane). To my surprise, she was able to stay on plane and handle these conditions very well without slamming. I guess, the fact that she was loaded with full fuel, kind of helped pushing the waves with extra weight providing the smoother ride. The trip from GKH to Manasquan Inlet took about twice the time it should in normal conditions. The slight complexity was that we didn’t have too much slack time and it was getting darker as we were getting closer to the inlet. I watched the seas calm down just a bit and added couple of knots trying to avoid going into the inlet in complete darkness. This was a first time for admiral travelling in such conditions, so I had to do some talking to keep her cool. It took her some time to get a bit more comfortable seeing that I got things under control and the boat handles the seas just fine. My biggest “selling point” was that I took my previously owned 240DA in a small craft advisory out in the open ocean and she handled 5-7’ rollers just fine (this was the test for both, myself and the boat). Thus, I had no doubts that current conditions were no big deal for 320DA. It was a good learning experience for my wife as she needed to see the boat’s behavior in different conditions as we excel our cruising lifestyle. But I think she handled the situation very well considering the circumstances. I also had good learning experience operating 320 in these conditions and also had to re-adjust the radar, as in auto mode it wasn’t picking up all the targets. I had to switch to manual, adjusting the settings to my satisfaction. As you can imagine, the inlet was rough and we had side wind pushing the port side with large swells from the same direction. The inlet is not very wide, so I was aware of the fact that we’ll be pushed off the course a bit on to the jetties on the starboard side, so I steered over to port much more and worked the throttles to maintain full control of my direction. We went through 2-3 huge rollers and it was over. We arrived safely in the protected waters of Brielle at around 9pm. From there on, we simply enjoyed the night cruise at slower speed to our marina as it was dark with cloudy skies. I love night cruising, so it was a nice way to end our trip.

Overall, we had a great time and despite several issues, including hitting the log. It was very exciting experience and another awesome family vacation with lots of great memories. Hey, we were cruising on our boat - what more could I ask for, right? I think that it was a very well planned trip, mixing different types of activities - being near the water (beaches and pools) and spending few days in NYC. Besides the enjoyment, we also have learned few things and will be looking forward to new adventures.

Total numbers:
Total fuel used for the trip: 271gal
Total miles travelled: 191miles
Total hours used on each engine: ~16hrs
AVG fuel burn rate: 0.7mpg
 
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That was an awesome adventure, I felt like I was there. You are an awesome captain. Thanks for sharing. Wow, talk about sea worthy. Those shots of NYC at night were awesome. Must of been so beautiful just relaxing on the boat enjoying the view..
 
Great pictures. Brings back a lot of memories from our trip up there.

The weather looks great...
 
Nice write and great pics.....I particulary like the pics of the lighthouse.....:)
 
Great pictures. Brings back a lot of memories from our trip up there.

The weather looks great...

Thanks Gary. I'd say we got pretty lucky with the weather. It didn't rain for the whole. So, even touring the city at 100+ degrees was still not to bad vs. doing the same in the rain.

Thanks - it looked like a great cruise - I enjoyed all of the details - you really should write a book!!!

Thanks! I have a huge learning curve in regard to writing a book. But, these occasional write ups might help me get there some day, may be.

Nice write and great pics.....I particulary like the pics of the lighthouse.....:)

Thanks Dom, remembering your avatar I knew you'd like specially those pics.
 
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Alex, Great pics & a Good read !!. Thanks for sharing. :smt001

PS, I've stolen afew of them as background pics for my lappy. :grin:
Thanks. :thumbsup:
 
Alex, Great pictures... We would like to join you the next time you head up to NYC... Want to do it again this summer? We are always up for trip to Liberty Landing... One year we went to the Liberty Science Center, that was nice too... If we all go, we can go to Chinatown and buy some knock off purses for the women...
 
Alex, Great pictures... We would like to join you the next time you head up to NYC... Want to do it again this summer? We are always up for trip to Liberty Landing... One year we went to the Liberty Science Center, that was nice too... If we all go, we can go to Chinatown and buy some knock off purses for the women...

Rod,

Sure thing, I’ll give you heads up for the NYC trip, but your invitation to Long Island is still open. BTW, the china town “black” market has been shutdown this year.
 
Rod,

Sure thing, I’ll give you heads up for the NYC trip, but your invitation to Long Island is still open. BTW, the china town “black” market has been shutdown this year.

Darn... That was so much fun... Going into back rooms and buying designer stuff for pennies on the dollar... I guess I will have to stick to Harbor Frieght for my cheap knock offs... :lol:

We can't make the LI trip, this year, I don't have time to take off work... We can do long week ends only...
 
Alex - fantastic voyage and great photo-blog!

BTW my one and only soft ungrounding came in the same spot you got stuck - in High Bar Harbor. After a stay at HBHYC, I too needed fuel - so I took a bike ride over to the marina across the way. The woman warned me to drive AWAY from the marina (south) and then double back (rather than cut straight across). I did just that but it was a small craft warning day and as I waivered wondering how the hell I'd turn the boat around in that small closed in area, I was blown into the flats and was stuck there. TowBOAT/US got us off. You definitely got bad advice!

Interesting bit of useless information. The BINGMAPS pic of this marina was taken the day before we left (and I got grounded). James, Eric, Rudy and I were there and you can see the boats all out on the second dock from the end.

BTW, if you scroll east in the bing maps pic you'll see the marina with the gas dock. Fully enclosed and if I remember correctly you had to pull into the travel lift area to get fuel. The winds were 25knots from the south and I was really concerned about controlling the boat in there.

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qm...&sty=o&where1=High Bar Harbour Yacht Club, NJ
 
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....BTW my one and only soft ungrounding came in the same spot you got stuck - in High Bar Harbor. After a stay at HBHYC, I too needed fuel - so I took a bike ride over to the marina across the way. The woman warned me to drive AWAY from the marina (south) and then double back (rather than cut straight across). I did just that but it was a small craft warning day and as I waivered wondering how the hell I'd turn the boat around in that small closed in area, I was blown into the flats and was stuck there. TowBOAT/US got us off. You definitely got bad advice! ....

Hey Ron,
HBH is becoming famous for incidents. We both got stuck on the same sandbar, last weekend boat sank. Actually just few hundred yards away this place is a zoo with fishing boats drifting in the channel and tons of boats running all different directions. I had to come off plane in order to pass safely.
 
Alex, what a trip i'm jealous we dont get to use the boat the way they where designed for ,the way you have ,. great pics and looks like you all had a great adventure memories for a long time:smt038
 
Thanks Joe, I'm very excided about our trip to LI, as well. I only hope you guys don't have those jambo logs floating (I still didn't commit to the spare props), but some bays are a bathtubs with shoals. Coming from Barnegat bay I should be feeling at home, though...LOL.

As you can tell we enjoyed this trip a lot and I'll be looking to do it again some day. I guess for the scenery it might be best to do it when it's a little colder. I hear that Hudson in the fall is awesome.
 
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