Day 2 Friday, September 27th, 2013 - NYC to Manasquan, NJ

Well, being our first day was uneventful, lets see if today is the same.
We left Liberty Landing Marina


The fuel dock at Liberty Landing Marina in NYC as we were leaving

at about 9AM and arrived in Manasquan, NJ at 4:00PM, a run of almost 60 miles, however it was not completely uneventful.
We were supposed to follow some friends, (Roger and Dorothy Hayes aboard SLOW CHURN) of ours to Manasquan, however they travel about 2 hours earlier in the AM than we do.....so, we decided to meet at Manasquan. Mistake #1......

Our welcoming committee at Hoffman's Marina.....what a beauty!

The trip through Lower NY harbor is a maze of buoys , ferries and freighter's, but after about an hour of not knowing where we were heading, and watching our charts and e-charts we figured it out. I have to say one thing for captains of ferry boats....they suck!! They try their best to come as close as possible and have their wake rock the crap out you. They are the most rude and obnoxious bunch of boat captains we had ever met.

We headed down the New Jersey Coastline finally getting a response from the Manasquan Coast Guard on the VHF radio. They gave us our position and then told me to hang a sharp left and we would see the inlet.....they never said it was the Manasquan inlet and it wasn't. I listened and they were wrong....MISTAKE #2. Never listen to anyone!!
We lazied up the Shark River through two draw bridges and a railroad bridge with no sight of Slow Churn, so I called Dorothy on the cell, and she said they had just entered Manasquan and that they had just gone through the railroad bridge.....:Where are you"? she asked. I was getting more and more pissed, because as far as I am concerned when I ask someone for help, either they give it or they don't. and I kept telling Dottie, "Wait till I get Roger" "I am going to yell and beat him to a pulp".I WAS PISSED!
We tied up at the first marina we saw and we asked someone why the Manasquan Inlet was not so busy, his response was "this is not the Manasquan Inlet, it is the Shark River Inlet, Manasquan is about 5 miles south of here."..so we had lunch, re-couped and headed back out into the ocean, turned right (starboard) and headed south.
After about an hour, Manasquan came into view.....I was boiling inside ready to attack Roger for not waiting for us earlier in the day.

(You see, Roger and Dorothy come from Toms River, NJ and live aboard full time on Slow Churn. If anyone knows NJ it is them.
We have gone out of our way numerous times to help them out, lending them our car and whatever it took to give assistance. However, they could not do the same for us, but that is a whole different story, that I will not get into here.....)



Some sport fishing machines we tied up in front of....

After heading through Manasquan inlet, Dottie points and says there is the Point Pleasant Canal, so I throw a hard left (port) to enter the canal and then... BOOM....nothing. I had run aground in the soft, white sands of NJ. The Coast Guard answered me on Channel 16, saying, "We can see you captain, but we figured you knew what you were doing"......a few hours earlier giving me instruction, although wrong, on where the Manasquan Inlet was located.
So after waiting about 30 minutes for the BOAT US Tow Boat to arrive, and free us, which I must say they were very helpful, we were on our way again.....pulling into Hoffman's East Marina at exactly 4:00 PM.

An un-eventful day ??....to say the least, eh!

Tomorrow we head to Forked River and Bayville, NJ on our own.