5 May 2026
Depart: Atlantic Highlands NJ anchorage 10:25
Arrive: Home dock, Rumson, NJ 12:00
Distance: ~ 8 nm
Unlike yesterday and the day before, we were in no rush to leave this morning. Clark said the tide would be in our favor mid-morning and it made no sense to leave before that. I lounged around, had a late breakfast, and read my novel until Clark said it was time to start the engines.
What a difference a day makes in terms of weather! Instead of waking up to 50-something degrees, it was in the 60s and rising into the 70s! Yippee! We got to pull our shorts out again!
Our travels today took us a short distance across Sandy Hook Bay to the Shrewsbury River through Pleasure Bay and ultimately to our home on Rumson Creek. Even though these are our home port waters, I decided to take a lot of pictures. Some folks who know the area might like a "stroll down memory lane" to see familiar sights and new developments while those not familiar with the area might like to see a part of New Jersey that does not consist of smokestacks!
As we entered the Shrewsbury River the first thing we see is the ferry terminal for Sea Streak to NYC from NJ.
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| "Ocean State" Seastreak at dock in Highlands, NJ |
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| "Home Run" at dock in Highlands, NJ |
Clark noticed a barge nearby loaded with large poles and fenders. It looks like the number of ferry docks may be increasing or perhaps they are repairing damage from winter ice.
I noticed a riverboat that I don't remember seeing before.
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| "The Seafarer" docked in the Highlands, NJ |
and set up for full-on sunbathing.
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| Twin Lights Marina |
Aptly named because it is located not too far from the Twin Lights Lighthouse. The trees have grown so tall here that only the twin towers are visible from the river.
We passed by Bahr's Restaurant and Marina where the diesel price was advertised at $5.98 per gallon.
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| Bahr's Fuel Dock |
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| Bahr's Dock and Dine |
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| Flags at Bahr's 250th Anniversary Flag |
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| Moby's Restaurant with Twin Lights showing in background |
Next we came to the Highlands bridge that connects the mainland to the peninsula on the opposite side of the Shrewsbury River that is the site of Sandy Hook National Park.
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| Highlands Bridge |
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| Another view of Twin Lights located behind and high above a number of homes |
When this bridge was erected, an elaborate walkway was put in place to allow pedestrians and bicyclists safer access to Sandy Hook National Park.
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| Walkway to Sandy Hook |
Houses / homes on either side of the river differ greatly. On one side we have Sea Bright with many smaller homes.
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| Sea Bright homes |
On the other side we have mansions like the one shown below. A real estate agent told me that, before her death, Whitney Houston owned this property. At that time there were two very different looking mansions side-by-side.
Years after her death, one of the two was torn down and the property changed to appear as it does in the picture below.
The variety of buildings on the Sea Bright side of the river is interesting. After Superstorm Sandy did its damage, a lot of Sea Bright had to be rebuilt and homes had to be raised up a few feet to avoid future flooding.
The houses on the Sea Bright side of the river are tightly packed all the way back to the Highlands bridge.
A relatively short distance after passing under the Highlands Bridge, we came to a Y in the river. The branch off to our starboard (right) side is the Navesink River. Continuing straight is the Shrewsbury River.
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| Beginning of the Navesink River |
The picture above shows our first glimpse of Rumson, New Jersey.
Hartshorne Woods Park is located here where the Navesink River begins.
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| Hartshorne Woods |
The Oceanic Bridge connects Rumson to a section of Middletown, New Jersey.
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| Oceanic Bridge over the Navesink River |
One must be careful when turning onto the Navesink River from the Shrewsbury River. What sometimes looks deep enough to navigate is shallow enough at low tides for the birds to wade in the water. There is also a rock dike always under water to direct the water out of the Navesink into the Shrewsbury River. It is marked by white markers, and also marked on charts.
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| Shallow area at entry to Navesink River |
Sea Bright is located on the Atlantic Ocean. If there was a cut through from the ocean to the Shrewsbury River here, we could cut three hours off our travel time when heading south as we would not have to navigate all the way around the tip of Sandy Hook!
Because Sea Bright is on the ocean, several beach clubs are located here.
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| Ship Ahoy Beach Club |
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| Ship Ahoy |
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| Sands Beach Club Cabanas |
It feels like the Sea Bright bridge has been under construction for a few years now. As we approached, we could see construction still ongoing.
Clark said it looked like they were pulling out pilings from the old bridge. I was glad we were not going by when they had one in the air!
We knew the height limitations on the old bridge, but we are not as familiar with the new one. Clark haled the bridge tender to ask about clearance and was told to look at the tide board. When Clark called back to say we could not see a tide board, she said, "Oh. There isn't one if you are inbound."
So, we decided to sit it out and wait for an opening. At this time of year, it opens "on demand"; however, today the road was being paved, traffic was backed up, and we had about a ten-minute wait for the bridge to open. Later, when we passed under the bridge I looked back to see the tide board for those going outbound and saw the board showed a clearance of about 17 feet with more added at the center. This was near low tide.
While we were waiting for the bridge, we got to have a look around the area.
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| Mansions on the Rumson side of the river |
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| McCloone's Restaurant on the water in Sea Bright |
As I was busy looking around and taking pictures, I heard Clark say there was a swimmer in the water. As it turned out there was more than one. I counted 5 people swimming by our boat. Each one was wearing a wet suit with a float attached to their backside. I am so glad that Clark saw them.
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| swimmer in the water - yellow float |
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| pink float |
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| more swimmers in the river |
Whatever event they were participating in ended just before the bridge. We watched them climb out as they came to the end of their exercise.
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| swimmer climbing out before the bridge |
Finally, the traffic cleared from the bridge, and we could proceed. We motored by the crew working on the bridge.
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| tug with work barge |
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| workers on the barge |
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| Looking back at the bridge after we went through |
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| Tide board shows more than 15' - looks like about 17' |
On the Rumson side of the river, we could see a portion of St. George's by the River.
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| Episcopal Church in Rumson |
On the Sea Bright side, we could see new construction of what looks to be future condos.
After Superstorm Sandy, where the water rushed down all the side streets in Sea Bright, tall bulkheads were put in place at the ends of the streets.
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| Bulkhead at the end of a side street in Sea Bright, NJ |
Continuing on, we passed "Polly's Pond" aka Oyster Bay in Rumson on our starboard side.
Next, we passed the Carriage House Marina on the Sea Bright side of the river.
Continuing straight here would take us into Monmouth Beach, so after an island in the river, we turned to our starboard into Pleasure Bay
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| Green Marker with another green tied to it |
Some houses in Rumson are oversized.
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| Mansion in Rumson, NJ With an oversized flag |
Rumson has a country club on the river.
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| Rumson Country Club |
A little further on, we made a turn into Pleasure Bay to cover the final stretch to the creek where our house is located. We turn when we reach Red Marker 34 / Green Marker 35.
Immediately we noticed something was missing. We could see no day markers through Pleasure Bay to mark the channel to Little Silver Creek which would lead us to Rumson Creek.
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| Pleasure Bay; No markers! |
Fortunately, Clark had waypoints stored on his chart to lead us home. He said he was concerned about hitting a "stick" left over from broken day markers, and sure enough along the way we heard a ka-chunk as the prop hit one. Dang! Luckily, we could hear / feel no vibration after the hit!
Continuing on slowly we found our creek was also missing all the markers for the entrance. This turn is tricky with shoaling in the area. Clark navigated part by memory and part by chart as we watched the depths drop as low as 1/2 a foot of water beneath our keel. Since we have seen 0 feet below our keel coming in here, 1/2 foot sounded pretty good.
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| Approaching Rumson Creek |
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| Entering the creek |
Although they looked forlorn one green and red day marker survived.
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| One green marker survived! |
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| A red survived as well. |
When we near home, we have to turn around and back down the creek to our dock. As Clark spun the boat, he churned up all sorts of black muck from the bottom. I waited until we were out of black water to put my fenders down. Fortunately, we had very little wind, so it was an easy landing at our dock.
Now the hard part begins - transitioning from living on the boat to living in the house. It will take numerous trips from one to the other to make the move, and there are always things tucked away that get forgotten.
I vacuumed the house and used the leaf blower to remove all the tree pods / pollen from our deck. I brought stuff up from the boat to cook at the house and we ate there but agreed to sleep on the boat one more night. Rain is predicted for part of tomorrow, so we will have to work around that as we unload the boat.
