The Good Samaritan
10 May 2019
Allan Gray
When discussing favorite memories of voyages with fellow cruisers it is usually a toss up been a favorite anchorage or a special person that sticks in our minds. Although we have visited numerous favorite spots, Wednesday we met someone who we will remember for a long time. Our neighbour in the Atlantic Highlands anchorage was a solo sailor from Nova Scotia, who we invited over for a beer at day's end. As we were discussing our trips we discovered that he had left New Brunswick late in November and stopped in Barnagett Bay NJ to visit a friend on the way south. Unfortunately his southern trip ended at his friend's marina. When he arrived he discovered the friend's teenage son was suffering from cancer and it was uncertain if he would see the summer. Rather than continue south he volunteered to spend the winter in NJ looking after the friend's elderly parents while father and son went to Florida for treatments and recuperation time in the sun. So far so good, the son's health is improving and they have returned to NJ. Everyone should be so lucky to have a good friend like this.
We were disappointed that we didn't get to spend a day or two visiting Cape May on the way north so we were determined to spend some time in Atlantic Highlands. Thanks to Goolgle I discovered that there is a Twin Lighthouse museum in The Highlands which was only 2.5 miles from the boat. After breakfast Wednesday we launched the dinghy and set off to explore the town and tour the lighthouses. There is a beautiful waterfront trail that leads to the historic village that "back in the day" was a popular day trip for New Yorkers. We ate at an old funky waterfront restaurant that has been around for a couple of generations and following lunch we hiked up the hill to the lighthouses. The view from the lighthouse park is spectacular, to the north lies Sandy Hook and NYC in the distance, to the east the Atlantic Ocean and the Jersey Shore strecthes south as far as the eye can see.
Once again the weather was not to be in our favour so we decided to start our trip up the Hudson River on Thursday morning. The forecast was for rain so we figured we may as well be on the move if we couldn't go ashore. After a final check of the tides we were off the hook by 7:30 for the trip north; fortunately, the rain held off and we set sail in a stiff easterly breeze. We haven't had the best luck with winds on the ocean this trip but we've had some great unexpected sails. Thursday was no exception, we rode a 15-20 breeze from Atlantic Highlands to the Statue of Liberty before finally starting the engine. As much as neither one of us are City people, we have to admit sailing through New York is very impressive. We milked the flood tide as much as we could and covered 75 miles before calling it a day.
Today's picture is of "Dagny" at anchor with NYC as a backdrop.