Curse of the Fat Lip or did I injure an albatross?!!! and NY City.

If you've ever read the "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge; two things you'll have learned: first, mariners are a superstitious lot (no exception with me - bananas on boats are bad); and second, killing an albatross is very bad! Well that isn't what happened here. No birds were harmed in this story and there were no bananas on board; but there was a sign of things to come!

After we had our first ocean day behind us and though we were at what was arguably one of the least organized marinas that we had encountered on our trip, it was time to start the departure planning.  Because the current and tides in the Manasquan River can really make for tricky navigation we decided to wait for favorable conditions prior to leaving.  That meant we would be leaving a little later, we had planned to be off the dock by about 9:30 that morning.  

Turbulence and zebra mussels, a sign of the current in this marina.

Being in the routine of waking up at 5:00, I slept in until about 5:30....As I had my shower I noticed a foul smell from the water. Sometimes this happens when you take on water from several different sources, you never really know what you will get. I made a mental note of this. Up on deck I went on with all of my usual morning routines and then had some breakfast as we had time. Capt. Steve showed up on deck with his face swelling up, was this a sign of things to come? Did Capt. Diane get angry with him? Would I need to break out the harassment and violence policy? Nope, we starting to think it was a spider bite.  

Steve had arranged for a friend to visit him on the boat and they caught up on what was going on in each others lives. I said hello and went about filling the water tank with fresh water, adding some bleach to the tank before the water was poured in. This method of cleaning out any bacterial contamination has always worked well for me, it used to be how we treated our well water when I lived with my parents and the water tests came back with bacterial contamination generally in the spring.  Then Steve's face really began to swell up and we were all trying to figure out what was the cause of this. Fearing a more serious insect bite or an allergic reaction, Steve's friend took him to an ER just to have it checked out. I was relieved, the last thing we needed was an escalating medical situation. 

Off the dock, now to get through this automated bridge.

 

When Steve returned about an hour or so later, there was still no answer as to what this mysterious swelling was from. I asked him did you drink the water or brush your teeth with it? At first the answer was no, but then he started to think that maybe he did rinse with the water from the tanks. I mentioned to him that it had an odor and he commented on that as well. Steve started taking the medication that was prescribed as Karen and I searched his bunk for the evidence of spiders that may have bitten him while he was sleeping, we couldn't find any arachnid anarchy! At the end of the day, Steve and I were convinced that it was most likely the water...or was it? Most importantly the swelling was starting to drop down.

Past the bridge, now to clear the inlet.

Looks like a great day, nice and calm....

Fishing boats, not the commercial kind, the annoying kind that drift along in the channel.

Looking at the wind vane should have clued me in.

We left the dock at 11:00 timing the departure with a rising tide and the current on our bow allowing us to maintain control while running through the railway bridge. Once we passed through the bridge, we were on our way back into the Atlantic. This would not be a repeat performance of the day before.  When you leave with a rising tide flowing against the current of the river which is dumping out into the Atlantic, it can make for some larger waves as you exit the inlet until you are able to get out into deeper water or away from the opposing currents. This was what we experienced!

It doesn't look so bad here, but we were being tossed around quite a bit.

The first waves hit us hard and we went up and down and all we could hear below decks were things starting to go crash. (the curse of the Fat Lip) Karen and Diane went below decks and were frantically stowing items away, (now we know what to stow away) while I kept pushing on, this was not the time to stop and turn around. Once clear of the concrete breakwater that marked the entrance, I edged Tropical Horizons II off a bit to take the waves at a 45-30 degree angle. This, I hoped would allow for the stabilizers to work a little while reducing the amount of hobby horsing we were experiencing. My next thought was to head straight out for deeper water as the waves would be less in the deeper water. I would have to estimate that the waves were approximately 4-6 feet with the odd 7-8 foot wave finding us, it really was hard to tell. The next step would be to increase RPMs and boat speed in an effort to give the fin stabilizers more lift and subsequently more righting moment. This tactic proved to work and soon we were experiencing a calmer ride.  

Calmer waters!

There were some items that were below decks that came crashing down to the floor and drawers that would open along with the refrigerator door. Once Steve was confident that I had the navigation under control, he went below decks to help Diane and Karen secure and clean things up.  A short while later they all emerged. Karen's first words to me were "I don't like this!". Fair enough comment to make but we needed to push on, as I pushed into deeper water, Steve made the observation that I was quite a bit off track, I explained my reasoning and continued towards deeper water in an effort to give everybody on board a comfortable ride.

Dredge operations.

More houses and condos appeared as we approached NY City.

Sadly, more balloons appeared too.

We pressed on and eventually we could see Sandy Hook in the distance! New York harbor, here we come.  Entering the harbor we noticed a few container ships heading both in and out but there really wasn't much traffic besides a few sailboats enjoying the breeze. By this time Karen started feeling better and was out and about snapping photos. I have never seen Karen go from complete and total despair to having the biggest smile on her face ever as we made our way through the harbor.  

NYC on the horizon!

Sandy Hook light house.

Sandy Hook

The traffic on the water was much lighter than I expected it would be, COVID-19 might have something to do with that. There were barges moored all over the place, the Staten Island Ferry boats were zipping along, smaller "fast ferries", catamaran commuter ferries, were passing by and there were tugs pushing barges from one place to another.  

Container traffic coming and going.

I guess if he fits under that bridge, then so will Tropical Horizons II

Light house marking a shoal.

Another light house.

The radio was scanning ship to ship traffic when I heard a Staten Island Ferry comment to a tug captain that he would be out of his way once he passed a yacht that was in front of him.  He was talking about us!  I heard him blast his horn once to indicate that he would be passing leaving me on his port side.  I couldn't resist (and legally had to), I responded with our horns to indicate that I understood his intentions....I think he noticed, I know Karen did! (she was not impressed, next time I need to warn her somehow)

Passing under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge

Traffic was starting to pick up.

Tug with a barge in tow.

Staten Island Ferry.

Fast ferry, and various barge traffic. With the Statue of Liberty in the back.

Approaching Ellis Island!

We dodged tugs and barges and a few other yachts along with more ferry boats and made our turn into Liberty Landing Yacht Basin.  Once we knew where we were going I made my first approach.  This did not work out so well for me as both wind a current were pushing me off the dock (the curse of the Fat Lip). I backed out and gave the throttles a bit more fuel to avoid colliding with boats that were docked opposite to where we were heading.  Once we were out of the basin I re-adjusted my approach and as the wind blew the dock hands had our lines.  I kept trying to twist the bow around and get it in closer to the dock, the bow thruster was not doing anything (the curse of the Fat Lip) and the wind kept working against me (the curse of the Fat Lip).  Finally I was able to get the bow in by shifting the transmissions in and out of gear and we were tied off safe in our new slip for the evening.  

As we passed the Statue of Liberty we noticed the lack of visitors.

With the Statue of Liberty behind us we made our way to Liberty Landing Marina.

The Manhattan skyline.

Railway terminal on Ellis Island.

All that is left of the Colgate factory that was here.  This clock now marks the entrance towards Liberty Landing Marina and others.

I was frustrated with the bow thruster not performing and when I gave it another burst I heard a loud pop from below decks and Diane let out a squeak (the curse of the Fat Lip).  Something was not right!  With the power shut down, I made my way down to the galley and lifted to settee cushion and could see smoke from under the hatch.  Lifting up the hatch cover revealed that one of the batteries in this bank of 4, 8 volt batteries had popped the caps right off of the cells.  This was bad news (the curse of the Fat Lip).

Right away we started thinking, how do we get passed this?  There was a small ships store at the marina and Steve and I headed there quickly before they closed.  I spotted two group 31, 12 volt batteries and instantly picked them up.  Worst case, we would rig something up to power up the bow thruster.  Steve managed to get a price reduction on the batteries and we were off with the new batteries to rig something up.  As we looked at how the batteries were connected, they were set up in series to provide a 32 volt bank and were in parallel with the 32 volt bank in the engine room.  Then the bow thruster was connected to just 3 of the batteries which provided the 24 volts needed for it.  There was a connection to the entire bank going to the backup 32 volt battery charger, where the inverter charger was connected to the 32 volt bank in the engine room.  Once we figured out what was going where, we tested each battery and found that the three 8 volt batteries that were feeding the bow thruster were finished, while the fourth battery in the bank was just fine as it had not seen any of the abuse that the other batteries had seen.  We removed the three batteries and removed some wood dividers that were holding them in place only to notice that the dividers were not painted black but were scorched black and just fell apart in my hands (the curse of the Fat Lip). This could have been much worse than what we experienced.  With the three batteries removed, we reconfigured the bank with the two new batteries I had just purchased and tested the entire system.  It worked great and now that bow thruster actually had some punch to it!

Steve and I put the dinette back together and removed the old batteries from the boat, placing them into a dock cart.  I brought the dead batteries up to the store where the shop keeper asked me to leave them, threw out the charred bits of wood we had removed and the rest of the crew ordered a pizza, while I headed below deck for a much deserved shower.

The Empire State Building.

The Freedom Tower.

We took a walk out to the park that the marina is set beside while waiting for the pizza to arrive and Karen snapped more photos.  Tank had the opportunity to meet some NY dogs, who yapped and snapped at him and we had the opportunity to visit a 9-11 memorial wall.  We returned to the boat only to find another boater in a panic as his boat was sinking!  I couldn't just let him be, I went into TH II and pulled out some of my rescue tape and tried to help him stop the leak.  I stuck with him until his brother arrived to help him out.  There were already too many people there so I left him my roll of tape and suggested that he force his second bilge pump on to keep up with the water coming into the boat.  I returned to Tropical Horizons II and enjoyed some good Jersey Pizza.

View from Tropical Horizons II at Liberty Landing Marina.

Looking across the river, the Empire State Building in the background.

There are some interesting buildings in NYC.

View of the Freedom Tower and the empty space beside it where the Twin Towers once stood.

View of the Freedom Tower through the reflecting wall memorial at the Liberty State Park.

Empty Sky Memorial
If you stand in the center between the walls they frame the space where the Twin Towers once stood.  The walls contain the names of New Jersey victims that died in the attack.

Beams that were taken from the Twin Tower wreckage and are placed at one end of the Empty Skies Memorial.

Tropical Horizons II tied up at Liberty Landing Marina.

Looking towards Manhattan Tropical Horizons II is resting peacefully.

Yet another spectacular sunset.

Later that night we took another walk, and enjoyed the beautiful Manhattan skyline.  Karen and I took several photos.  And we walked back returning to Tropical Horizons II for a quiet evening...or so we thought.  I lagged behind as I had a few more night shots that I wanted to take.  When I reached Tropical Horizons II, there was a small boat with three dudes on it blasting their music as if they were at party central in Ibiza.  The first thing I noticed was that this party was missing girls!  I think it's funny how some dudes think that playing their music loud enough to make sure everyone in the area can hear them makes them somehow cool.  Then again, maybe then didn't want any girls around? Just maybe they were all suffering from hearing loss? Perhaps they just loved their music so much that they wanted to share it with all of us, who knows? Maybe I'm just getting old! I knew a guy like that once....he never had too many girls around him either.  Lucky for us they were fueling up and soon were on their way again to share their taste in music with the rest of the city.

The Manhattan Skyline at night.

The pavilion at Liberty Landing State Park lit up at night.

Heading back to Tropical Horizons II.

We called it a night and all went to our cabins for another great sleep.  On a positive note, Steve's face was looking much better, no so much like a Julia Roberts!  Had the curse been lifted?