May 11/12, 2018 – Sandy Hook NJ / New York City / Haverstraw Bay NY

Left Cape May about 6:30 Friday and anchored at Sandy Hook at 12:20am. We were off at 6:15 to catch the tidal currents into NYC and up the Hudson. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy. Just opposite Manhattan about 9am we were boarded by the Coast Guard. They were very polite and asked questions about PFDs, flares, and fire arms. Also looked in our bilge, they said for too much water. They took our passports and boat documents back to their craft. It was taking a long time so they kindly said we could press on and they would catch us up. Finally they returned our docs but there was a question about my last Cruising Permit check in. I had last checked in in Cape May and I thought the next check in would be in NY. However, early in the afternoon I had a call from Border Protection wondering why I hadn’t checked in yet and reminding me that failure to do so is a $5000 fine. Turns out that while I thought checking in the northern US was by state it’s actually by sector. Ergo I should’ve check in at Sandy Hook. So I made the officer I spoke with once we anchored in Haverstraw Bay aware and he noted it but didn’t seem concerned. Whew! We were warned about a shallow spot in our anchorage which may or may not be marked. It wasn’t and we found it right away! We hit suddenly and hard. Peter on the bow, anchor ready, was knocked down. Was able to back off and we anchored in 20’ of water just 10 yards away. Anchoring is soooo entertaining! ?