Atlantic Highlands — Cupcake Afloat

After a delightful, calm, beautiful night anchored at Liberty Island Park, we set out bright and early to head across to Atlantic Highlands. The plan was to meet another cousin there. I had been basing all my expectations on staying at Sandy Hook, NJ. No idea where Atlantic Highlands was, thought the whole plan would fall apart. Turns out they are basically the same place.

The early start got us out on the water before too much craziness started. We joined an enormous container ship as we passed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. In high school I had a Geometry teacher who used to exhort us to keep our proofs simple. “I’m just asking you to show me the angles are the same, not to build the Verrazano Narrows Bridge!” He would say. I get it now – that’s a big bridge, probably pretty complicated math went into its construction.

Crossing to Sandy Hook was largely uneventful but we did spot some huge dolphin-types as we got very close to the Atlantic Highlands anchorage. What really happened was that a couple of the dolphins came up for air with a whoosh and a splash about 15 feet from the stern and grave me a big fright.

The crew relaxing at Atlantic Highlands.

Inside the breakwater at Atlantic Highlands we found a nice spot to anchor, just outside of the crowded mooring field. Took the dinghy to shore for a look around. I do want to say how pleasant, accommodating, safe, and secure the Atlantic Highlands anchorage was. A real treat.

In town we stopped at a farmers’ market and picked up some pies and some pickles. The pickles were excellent – we got some whole-sour pickles and some sweet horseradish pickles. At first bite the horseradish pickles were a little too sweet, then the horseradish kicked in and they were fantastic. Just finished them today. Alas.

Because I had been craving a bagel for a while, we had lunch at a nice deli, then went and played (Moss played) at a playground while the adults sweated.

Later in the afternoon, Cousin Elise picked us up (air conditioning in the car!) and took us home for dinner (and laundry and more air conditioning). Her daughter Margaux and beau Ben joined us for a really nice dinner. Then other daughter Amanda and husband Sean showed up with a carload of friends from DC. Suddenly it was a house full of Millennials.

The next day we upped anchor and made the easy run down to Manasquan, NJ. Took a dock for the night (nowhere to anchor) and met up with everybody again for a Beach Boys concert.

As a native Upstate New York boy, I have looked down on New Jersey my whole life. And as a Mainer now, I have had a prejudice against most other coastal states. No longer. The Jersey Shore is beautiful. The towns we saw were charming, lovely, and full of summertime fun. Who knew? (Ok, millions of people, but still…)

The New Jersey shore has more than its share of gazebos. Moss is so overwhelmed, she has to close her eyes.

The town of Ocean Grove is where we saw the concert. Ocean Grove is full of lovely Victorian homes and these really curious summer cottages that are half wooden camps and half canvas tents. They get passed down from generation to generation as summer homes and look like a great time. Families with kids and older people were all over the place. What a super way to pass the summer.

When Margaux and Ben visited us aboard Cupcake, they brought the appropriate boat gift. Delicious. Thanks guys!

In case you are wondering why the flurry of posts all of a sudden, it is because we have wifi. The last 10 days our cell-carrier throttled our bandwidth (or whatever) because we used too much in the first 20 days of the month. Now we are into a new billing cycle, so we can upload pictures again. Also we are getting semi-reliable wifi from the nearby Harrah’s Resort and Casino from our anchorage in Atlantic City, NJ.