7/12/18 – 7/28/18: We were one step away from heading offshore down the coast of New Jersey. There aren’t many places (for our boat) to “duck in” along that coast if the weather turned nasty, so we needed a place to wait for a good 2-3 day weather window. Our choices were the Sandy Hook, NJ area, or the south side of Staten Island. Most of the marinas in the area were too shallow for our draft,so our options were limited. We chose Nichols Great Kills Park Marina on Staten Island as it had the depth, was only an hour to the New Jersey coast, and was also the least expensive at only $2 per foot. Little did we know we would spend a little more time there than we first anticipated.

While we were at Liberty Landing, we noticed our bilge pump started kicking in every few hours. At first we thought it was something benign like condensation from our refrigerator, but we couldn’t find anything specific. We decided to keep an eye on it and moved on to Nichols Marina, only 15 miles away. We left Liberty Landing early in the morning to avoid the intense boat traffic, but even at 8AM it was incredibly busy – especially ferry traffic. We arrived at the marina, got settled in, and over the course of the afternoon saw the bilge pump kick in 2 or 3 more times. Ok, this wasn’t normal – we have to find the source. We started at the stern of the boat and moved forward. Propeller shaft? No. Raw water engine intake? No. Refrigerator condensation? Nope! Through hulls? All OK. Fresh water tanks? Good. Plumbing? Good. Head? Nope. The final place it could be was the bobstay chainplate. On our boat, we have a platform that extends off the bow of our boat (the bowsprit). At the end of the bowsprit is a cable running at an angle to the top of our mast that holds the mast from falling backwards, and is also where we attach our headsail (the jib). There’s lots of force pulling upward there, so to counteract that, another cable (the bobstay) runs downward from the end of the bowsprit to a lower point on our bow. It attaches to a plate that is bolted to our hull (a chainplate). One of those bolts is always underwater. Sure enough, the water was coming in from that bottom bolt – apparently the 35 year old bedding (sealant) was failing and was now letting water in. Not good. We talked to the marina and they said it would be a simple thing to disassemble, rebed with new sealant, and reassemble. The problem was our boat would have to be hauled out, which couldn’t happen until Monday (this was Thursday). Guess we’re staying here the weekend!

In some ways, we felt a little deflated. Having a leak, especially under the waterline, is such a sinking feeling (pun intended)! Not to mention another $500 or so for repairs, and we weren’t feeling too upbeat. On Friday, still feeling a little discouraged, we didn’t feel like doing much of anything, so we walked across the road and sat on the beach. We just sat, and sat, and sat some more. One thing we noticed about this beach that we didn’t notice on the others we’ve been to: how much garbage there was – not only on the beach itself but also floating in the water. There was everything imaginable: plastic bottles and caps, cigar tips, cups and straws and lids, plastic bags, and a million other bits of undefinable stuff. It was disgusting and sad. Remember the “Keep America Beautiful” commercial from the ’70s with Iron Eyes Cody pulling his canoe to shore, walking through garbage, a tear in his eye? Yes, it was that bad. (We also couldn’t believe how much trash was floating in the water as we sailed between Liberty Landing and Great Kills Marina). But the saddest part were the people. Dozens of them swimming, walking, jogging, and sitting there, seemingly oblivious to the trash and garbage around them. Sad.

On Saturday, we decided to go to lower Manhattan to tour the 9/11 memorial and museum, see Battery Park, and walk around the Wall Street area. There were many ways to get there, but we used Lyft to get to the Staten Island Ferry, which then took us right to The Battery. From there, everything was within walking distance. We first walked through Battery Park, which was really nice. In the park are many memorials, including the East Coast memorial commemorating the lives lost during the Battle of the Atlantic, the American Merchant Mariners Memoriaal, statues of Giovanni da Verrazano and John Ericsson, as well as the Hope Garden dedicated to AIDS victims.

The 9/11 memorial and museum was a somber experience. Knowing we were standing on the site where thousands of innocent people lost their lives was sobering. For those who’ve not kept up with the rebuilding, the site where the original two towers stood has not been rebuilt. In the footprint of each the buildings are two reflecting pools, as deep as their foundations, with water flowing down the sides to the pool beneath. On the parapets surrounding each of the memorials are inscribed the names of all the victims of that tragic day, including those from the attacks on the Petagon, Flight 93, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. Flowers are placed next to the name of each person on their birthday. The museum sits between the two memorials, and takes you underground and around the outside of each building’s foundation. Here are found many of the remains of the buildings: twisted beams, a single pane of glass from the buildings (the only one known to have survived), and many other pieces recovered from the wreckage. The most poignant part of the museum, however, was “In Memoriam”. In this room was a photograph of each victim of the attacks with interactive displays where you could read a short biography of each person. It brought us both near to tears. The memorial and museum should be on the top of anyone’s list when visiting New York City.

After the museum, we ate our first hot dog from a street cart vendor. Meh. Then we walked over to Wall Street to find the famous, iconic bull statue (it’s actually two statues – a little girl standing up to a raging bull, but pictures rarely show the girl). On our way, we passed the Trinity Church and walked through the old graveyard. Wow! Some of those tombstones were so old you couldn’t even make out the engravings. We also went inside but there wasn’t much to see as there were prayers happening at that time so they had most of the church closed off. We then walked along Wall Street and took in all of the old buildings (and some famous ones, too: New York Stock Exchange, Tiffany’s, etc…). There were tons of street vendors all over the financial district – both food and gifts. One thing we found amazing was how they restrict vehicular traffic in and out of the area. Several blocks away, on all the streets leading in, are huge barricades built into the road that can be automatically raised and lowered on demand. Each barricade was guarded with one or more security officers, insuring only authorized vehicles could enter. Nobody was driving into the area unless those things were lowered. We finally did find the famous bull statue, but there were SO many people crowded around it taking posed photographs that we couldn’t get a decent shot of it. Oh well, at least we saw it! After that we walked back to the ferry, crossed the bay, and grabbed a Lyft back to the boat. It was a good day.

Monday came and we took our boat over to have hauled. For those that have never seen this done it’s quite the sight. Most marinas use a Travelift – a big, boxy looking machine with huge straps that lifts the boat out of the water. They drive the travelift over a special well or bay and lower the straps into the water. You drive your boat into the bay, over the straps, and the machine lifts you out. The entire process takes about 10 minutes. We hauled our boat and just left it hanging in the straps, since the chainplate repair was slated to take an hour or two. We feared the worst: corroded and frozen nuts & bolts, a crack or hole in our fiberglass, or something else entirely. But no, the nuts came right off, and within minutes the bobstay was hanging there and we had the chainplate in our hands (we did lose a nut, though, and it rolled down the inside of the bow underneath our holding tank – quick run to the hardware store)! Sure enough, the old bedding (adhesive/sealant) had failed, causing water to come in. We cleaned everything up, rebedded the chainplate, reattached and tightened the bobstay, and within 2 hours had the job completed. We allowed a few hours for the bedding to cure and we were back at the dock that afternoon.

Next we set our sights on a departure. Our next stop was Atlantic City, a 15 hour sail. After that was Cape May. We wanted to wait a day or two here to reprovision and to insure the new repair was good. We looked at the forecast, hoping for a few days of good weather and favorable seas for the run to Atlantic City / Cape May. We had a few favorable days coming up, but after that they were predicting many days (maybe even a week) of storms with seas in the 5-10+ foot range. Not good. We decided to wait out that next system here at the Great Kills Marina, rather than make the run to Atlantic City or Cape May and then have to wait it out there. The slip prices further down were almost double what we were paying here, and if we had to sit and wait out weather, we might as well do it where it’s less expensive. And whatever’s coming now looks like it’s going to pack a punch, as gale warnings and small craft advisories are being raised all along the New Jersey Coast. Good news, though: several days have passed and we still have no leaks with our chainplate!

Pics of Staten Island