Day 2-187 north to Brielle, NJ

We left Beach Haven at 7:50 am for a 44.3 mile trip to Hoffman's Marina in Brielle, NJ. The weather was beautiful but brisk (60F). This part of the Waterway is the last protected portion in New Jersey. From Brielle we will go out into the Atlantic Ocean for about 35 miles until we enter the harbor at New York City, which is very open (wide) until we get to our destination in Liberty Landing, NJ just opposite Manhattan Island.  Thus, good weather is important, and the predictions are for north winds less than 10 mph and seas around 1 foot.  That said, we know that there will be residual swells in the open Atlantic, but hopefully they will have a long wavelength so we just go gently up and down. That's the plan, but we will find out in the morning.

This most northern segment of the waterway was adversely effected by Hurricane Sandy so we were prepared for lots of shallow water. We did slow down several times when the depth sounder approached 0.0 feet. Otherwise, most of the trip was in uniformly shallow water with miles of about 2 feet below the keel. The "obligatory" marina photo at the right shows the small building with showers, washing machines, etc. It is almost hidden by the piling in the foreground. Like many marinas, Hoffman's seems to have sold off the parking lot/dry land storage area for condos. The area is very residential with a number of waterfront restaurants. We both had broiled shrimp, scallops, and flounder. Believe it or not, but we are about to leave the coast and really fresh seafood behind when we head up the Hudson River in a few days. Our choice of dinner was excellent!

The approach to the marina is through a railroad bridge where the open channel is only 30 feet wide (remember we are 15 feet beam/width). The river channel is also narrow and generates tidal currents of about 3.9 mph. The combination of narrow channel and fast currents generates a LOT of caution messages. Our dock is at the end of a T-head (at the end of a pier. Normally this is our favorite place, but we are about 50 feet from the railroad bridge. The picture at the left shows an Amtrak commuter train crossing the bridge, and it was taken from the flybridge of Lucky Us. Like I said, we are close to the bridge. The "irregular" surface of the water is the turbulence as there was no wind when the picture was taken. The fast current generates standing waves up to 1 foot high and lots of turbulence (swirling water). Thus, the Admiral will get her dream wish of getting "rocked to sleep". Hopefully, the rocking will be gentle (for the benefit of the Captain).

As I have said before, our grandson Will is crazy about trains (and tugs). The picture at the right shows the length (or in this case closeness) that a grandfather will go to get a picture for a grandson...

You can see the bow of Lucky Us to my immediate left out at the end of the pier. Close to the bridge???

The last picture shows the mouth of the Masaquan River as viewed from our dock. There is a large Coast Guard Station on the right, and the breakwater and channel out to the Atlantic are in the low area in the center.