Left Jersey - Jill and Matt Again

Left Jersey City today after church. Had a kind of wild sail out of New York Harbor and hit 8.5 knots, speed over ground. Of course we were helped by the tide going out which contributed 1+ knot. After we cleared the Verazzano Bridge, the water calmed down a little and at least was running in a consistent direction. In the harbor the waves were bouncing all over the place due to the large boat traffic.

So we spent 11 nights in Jersey City, glad we stopped there.

Now we are at Rockaway Point Yacht Club or as Jim( one of the members who still has to work) Rockaway Point Used Boat Club. Nobody owns a "yacht", they all own "used boats". Jim is the Fire Chief in charge of maritime service. He is in charge of all the fire boats and everything that fights fires on the water. He was injured in 9/11 and transferred to Maritime service. I asked him why he became a fireman. Said math was his favorite subject, he took it every summer.

Anyway, there is a great group of people here and everybody has been helpful on some ideas about our trip. Many of the members live next door at Breezy Point which is a coop community, where people own shares in the coop and that entitles them to live in a certain house. It is like Jill & Matti's coop building but on a much bigger scale. Smallest house is $500,000. Many of the members are retired public service workers: policeman, fireman, sanitation, teachers, etc. Recently they see an influx of Wall Street people moving into Breezy Point. One of the guys we met today, Jerry, is a 4th generation Breezy Point person. His great grandfather started by pitching a tent there in the summer time. We are talking back to 1880 to 1900 as Jerry is older than we are. So in terms of our family we are talking about the equivalent of Skip's Uncle Walter Huggins.

Jill and Matt came over tonight, and are staying until tomorrow evening. We plan on leaving on Tuesday morning and sailing down the coast of New Jersey unless the winds are totally head on.

Pictures are from Rockaway. One is a shot of sunset here, one is the Verazzano Bridge, one is of the Club here at Rockawy and one is of the Parachute Drop at Coney Island. I went on the Parachute Ride when I was 10 years old with my father. They haul you up to the top of the ride. You are sitting in a canvas seat attached to the parachute. When you hit the top, 250 feet up, you are released and drop about 30 feet. Then the parachute fills up and you float down. The chute has guide wires so you do not drift out of your vertical column. It was the first thrill ride I ever went on as a kid. Better than the roller coasters that had back in 1958.


Joe