Hanging on the Hook in Sandy Hook

When we last left you, we were hanging out in New York City, which now seems like eons ago! In reality, it was three weeks ago that we left the rough waters of the 79th Street Boat Basin and made a quick trip to Sandy Hook in New Jersey where we dropped anchor in the well-protected waters of Horseshoe Cove. Our hope was to be there a day or two and then make an overnight run to Cape May. The winds, however, were not cooperating. With a constant northeast wind ripping across the Atlantic, the waves were far too tall for us to comfortably leave, so we ended up spending some extra time in Sandy Hook, and made the best of it!

So…where did our adventures lead us? Well, on the first day we went for a walk and ended up on a nude beach with Ron & Jackie, our friends on Hullabaloo that we’d now caught back up with. We were really just hoping to see what the waves out on the Atlantic side of Sandy Hook looked like, but were treated to quite a bit more than that…oops!

The next day was warm and sunny, so we rode our bikes to the beach and spent a good part of the day just lounging around and enjoying the warm fall day. Then we figured since we were already out and about, we’d find a grocery store and do some provisioning. Ugh! The nearest store ended up being about eight miles away…a very hilly eight miles away! I was NOT a happy camper! But…we wouldn’t go hungry…and I got in some unintended exercise! We also made a quick stop at the liquor store (you know…to offset the exercise! Ha ha!). What a weird experience! Inside the liquor store was a bar, and it was crowded! So, as we’re standing looking around and trying to decide what to get, directly behind us is a crowd of people drinking beer and chatting. Odd.

Ended up spending my birthday in Sandy Hook, so we did what we do best, and found a brewery where we could celebrate! We dinghied over to Carton Brewing, a small brewery in Atlantic Highlands. It was our first time there, so they gave us a quick little tour of their facility, and then we headed upstairs to taste their wares. For five bucks, each person gets a small glass (maybe 5 oz?) of beer and then five more tokens good for five more beers. What a great deal! Oh yeah…and they sell socks, so Ron & Jackie bought me a pair of birthday socks! I love birthday socks! 😉

The whole time we were hanging out in Sandy Hook, we were continuously checking the wind and weather forecasts…and they just kept getting worse. The nor’easter was still blowing and winds were predicted to reach around 50 knots by the following weekend. We didn’t really want to be anchored through that, so on Sunday we made a reservation at a marina on Staten Island starting on that Tuesday night and figured we would be there until at least the following Sunday. Morale on board was pretty darn low because it was now looking like there was a good chance we would not make it to Annapolis in time for the boat show we’d really been looking forward to attending for the first time.

So, we went to bed feeling a bit dejected and woke up in the morning to a text from Skelton Crew asking us if we’d checked the weather. We hadn’t yet, so we did. Time for a pow wow with Ron & Jackie. The weather forecast had changed slightly for the better, and it was looking as if we might have a little window to go now, or else be stuck for a week or better. We came to a consensus and an hour later we were on our way for our first overnight trip!