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| Tall ship: Mircear - Romania |
The last month has been eventful leading up to the 4th of July celebrations. With family coming to visit, we had some work done on the house as well as taking care of some boat maintenance. To begin with, we desperately needed to repair the steps leading down to the dock behind our house. Due to old age, the railroad ties supporting the pavers rotted and collapsed making it dangerous to walk to the boat. We got a recommendation from a neighbor, and now have beautiful new steps! I am no longer in fear of breaking my ankle while walking to the boat.
Clark did regular maintenance on the boat including engine oil and filter changes that have to be done at each end of our annual trip. He also worked on fixing an antifreeze leak, a window leak, the port hole screen and getting a blackened engine display repaired. He checked and filled the oil in a dry windlass. For the 4th of July, we use the radio for the sound track for the fireworks and he noticed that one speaker sounded distorted. Clark opened the speaker and found the cone half rotted. We found the exact replacement and he replaced both of them for a nice clean sound.
Knowing that family would be visiting for the 4th of July and given pleasant weather, Clark and I got out to do some bike riding together. Sometimes it was just around the neighborhood, but a couple of times we biked into Little Silver (nearby) and stopped at Carvel for a treat / reward. On one such outing, Clark decided that we should explore a bit of Little Silver.
The Little Silver Nature Trail is a small park with 3 trails - Red, Yellow, and Blue. All three trails can be completed in a half-hour's time. We left the bikes at the entrance and walked in to see what we could find.
We ended up walking over some bridges with marshes on either side.
As we passed under one walkway in the park area, Clark heard people speaking above us. "I recognize that voice" he said to me. And then shouted, "Hello Gavin!" Not knowing where the voice was coming from, Gavin's first thought was that it was the "voice of God" calling out to him. No, it was just Clark!
Looking at the vegetation overgrowth and depth of the water, we wondered how we managed it!
Clark remembered going under a road and went down to check out the view under the street to see if he recognized where we had gone.
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| Crawling back from peeking under the road |
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| he made it out of the weeds! |
Besides doing some exercise together, Clark decided we should have a date night. We both dressed up to go to dinner and see a play here in Rumson. Clark had me model several dresses before deciding which I should wear. As we stood in our front yard trying to get a selfie, a neighbor walked by and grabbed the phone to help us out with the picture taking.
For our big date, we went to the Fair Haven Diner for dinner. The staff were a little surprised by our attire given the venue. From there we went to see the play 1776 put on by the Premier Theater Company. The play was being held here in Rumson at the Rumson School District. We had a little difficulty finding the theater.
Having not explored the school district section of town in more years than we can remember, we were shocked to find the elementary school and the middle school had been modified to have the two individual schools modified to be one much larger school with an all-purpose room / auditorium connecting them!
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| Small Orchestra in front of stage |
The play was excellent, and we had a lovely "date night".
Our son, Jeff, who lives in Idaho would be coming to visit us with his wife and three children for the 4th of July. Prior to that, however, we did get to spend some one-on-one time with our Connecticut grandchildren. Jack came for one day with his father. Jack stayed with us for the day while Chris went to a baby shower for his long-term friend who lives near Philadelphia.
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| Jack on our old rocking chair |
Jack had a full agenda planned for the day, and all Clark and I had to do was follow directions. First on his list was to go out on the dinghy with Clark. That gave Chris and myself some time to chat before Chris headed out to the shower. Later, Jack played piano with Clark (Jack's 8 and learning basic songs) and then played cards (Skipbo) and did art projects with me. We painted a Pokémon picture together that Jack picked out. He painted the characters, and I filled in the background afterwards.
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| Pokémon in acrylic paint |
All too soon it was time to drive Jack up the parkway to meet Chris for their trip back to Connecticut.
Just prior to the Idaho clan arriving, Lillian came for her turn at Nana / Papa Clark time. She too had a list of activities. On the way home from picking her up from North Jersey, she had us stop at the Dollar Tree to load up on supplies for her visit.
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| Filling balloons with various "stuff" for texture |
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| Painting a ceramic dog purple |
Like Jack, Lillian spent time playing the piano. She's getting pretty good!
Of course Lillian wanted dinghy time with Clark.
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| "Ta Da"! The finished project! |
Lily's favorite pastime while visiting, however, is collecting crabs from under our dock.
She started out with one bucket, but when she found out they would fight each other, she had 6 or 7 buckets out on the dock each containing a crab! They all get, quite literally, thrown back into the water when she's done until next time.
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| another day, another bucket |
Lily knew the Idaho folks would arrive soon, so she insisted we had to bake cookies for the occasion. I normally consider the recipe to be for "Christmas Cookies", but we pulled everything out and went to work.
She decorated the cookies with red, white, and blue icing with sprinkles for the 4th!
Lillian loves the beach, so one day we took a dinghy ride and stopped at a "beach" on the side of the river where Lillian went looking for seashells.
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| On the way, we saw turtles sunning themselves in our creek. (First time ever!) |
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| and passed an egret busy fishing also on our creek |
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| Lily exploring the beach |
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| Looking for shells |
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| Off in the brush |
The Idaho folks arrived late at night on the 30th of June. Having no idea Lillian was there waiting for them, it was a big surprise to have her greet them at the door especially since it was close to midnight when they arrived. I am not sure when we finally got to bed as there was a lot of antics going on prior to lights out.
The next morning the ID kids were all out with Lily dropping crabs into buckets.
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| Zoe, Lily, Sierra, and Violet |
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| Violet and Zoe |
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| Crab trying to find his way back to the water |
A first order of business was to go shopping for life jackets that fit Sierra and Lillian. Everyone had moved up a size since last year. We were sad to discover that the local West Marine store had a "Going Out Of Business" sign on the door. On the bright side everything was 20 to 40% off. On the bad side, Clark could not find life jackets he thought appropriate for the girls.
We ended up driving to the West Marine in Brick Township, finding nothing better there, and returning to Eatontown and buying what the girls wanted to start with. The shopping trip took several hours more than planned. While at the WM in Eatontown, the girls found a water "toy" for tubing behind the dinghy and convinced Clark to get it for them.
After all the patience shown by the girls in the search for life jackets, Clark decided we needed a trip to an ice cream store. We decided to go visit "The Lighthouse" where we had never been before in Long Branch. We got the ice cream and found a playground across the street.
When we got home, everyone was anxious to get a turn tubing.
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| Clark with Chris, Jack, and Lily for a tube run |
3 July 2026 - tall ships
Clark looked into the 4th of July activities days in advance trying to understand the security zones, regulations, and viewing options for the Tall Ships in Sandy Hook as well as the fireworks in NY city. We finally agreed that getting 11 of us on our boat to leave at 5:00 a.m. to see the Tall Ships' parade was an unreasonable expectation. Few, if any, of us are morning people. It sounded like a "disaster waiting to happen" resulting in a boat load of unhappy people.
We settled for going out on the 3rd to see them at anchor instead. That worked just fine but not without some adventure. First, when we arrived at the Sea Bright bridge, we heard that they had an electrical problem and could not open the bridge. We checked and could fold to get under it. However, to ensure we could make it back home, we had to do some calculations to see what time we had to be back by to be sure we could still fit under it in case it still was not fixed because the bridge did not know how long it would take for a repair.
Notice the dark cloud to the north that was moving ever closer to us. That was the next adventure.
We ran up to the easterly most tall ship near the tip of Sandy Hook, and then headed west along the row of tall ships towards Earl Pier and then back towards Highlands. We had to keep the visit brief to make it back to the bridge to fit under if we needed to. Also, it wasn't clear what the weather was going to do with that ominous cloud from the north marching steadily towards our current position.
On the way back, that dark cloud passed over us and brought very strong gusty winds. The weather services reported 60-knot wind gusts. The first gust came from the stern and unsnapped our front panel from the ceiling and flipped it to be streaming out towards the bow of the boat. One of the tabs for the snaps lost most of it's threads. We were able to fix it a few days later. After the initial gusts passed, our anemometer showed winds of around 40 knots.
The waves picked up but didn't have enough time to be too uncomfortable for our ride back from the bay to the rivers. You can see the chop in the picture below. The view on the way home was quite eerie!
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| Sunset on the River |
When we got back to the Sea Bright bridge, our calculations worked and we were still able to squeeze under the bridge, without needing it opened, by lowering the mast and antennas as we did earlier. We headed back toward Pleasure Bay, but the storm seemed to be passing.
There were supposed to be fireworks in Sea Bright on the 3rd, and we saw flashing blue lights from the local marine police in the area, so we headed back out toward the bridge and hung out until about 9:45 only to find out after searching online that the fireworks had been moved up to 8 to avoid the storm so we had just missed them. There were still boats waiting for the bridge to be fixed when we left.
We headed back home and ran into a little rain. If we had found out about the fireworks a little earlier, we could have missed it.
4th July 2026
Clark said we should be underway around 11:00 for our trip to Sandy Hook and then on to NYC for the fireworks display. We watched the weather carefully as thunderstorms were predicted for the evening. At some point we would need to decide if we wanted to risk the weather for a chance to see the fireworks. Meanwhile, we had things to do.
Lillian had us buy art supplies, and we needed to use them before the Connecticut kids left the next morning. We got busy with some painting activities and rushed to complete them before the boat left dock. We had metal trays to contain the mess, acrylic paint, and a pouring agent to thin out the acrylic paint.
We got quite a nice display! Each child took a couple home with them, and I still have a bucket load!
When we were done, the paint was mostly contained. I did find that someone had spilled drops of paint on the floor which someone had then walked in and spread all over the floor. Some paint got on a wall near the table. One good towel now has a blue tint where it does not belong, but everyone had fun! I managed to clean the floor and the wall, but the towel has a permanent reminder of our art session.
Then, it was time to jump on the boat. Since I was busy with art, I did not pay as much attention to what food was being loaded on the boat as I usually do. We did not starve while on our outing to New York, but we had no where near as much food as we should have had for 11 people. No one other than me seemed to care.
Clark called the Sea Bright bridge from the home port on channel 13, which is only one watt, they heard him and reported the bridge had been fixed. With the tide low, he lowered the mast and passed under Sea Bright bridge on the way out to avoid the wait. It would be high for the return trip.
During the day, we even got to see a few helicopters as well.
In Sandy Hook Bay we had plenty of time to drop anchor and swim in the water behind the boat. Jumping off the "high dive", i.e. the top of the boat 18 feet above the water, seemed to be a big thing this year. The kids are getting braver as they get older! It was a hot day, so we were all in the water cooling off, i.e. no pictures!
We had a vote late afternoon - would we stay here and hope to see local fireworks or would we take a chance on the weather and head to NYC for the big show? The vote came in as all in favor for NYC! We could not arrive before 8:00 to the viewing area "G" and so we took our time getting there.
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| Heading for the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge |
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| Sitting on the bow to get the best view |
The severe storm on the 3rd so severely damaged the premier viewing area on land for the Tall Ships parade the day before that the section was closed, and the authorities were working out how they would refund the ticket money. Similar bad weather was anticipated this evening. Red zones appeared in great number on the radar forecasts. One model showed the red area passing right over the fireworks just before they were scheduled to begin. Another model showed the red area passing a little more to the north. Fortunately, this is what happened, and everyone on the bow stayed dry before and during the fireworks.
Approaching the viewing area ...
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| The red light on the bridge started flashing red and white when the fireworks began. |
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| Macy's fireworks barge sign lit up |
Anchoring is not allowed, and thus, we had to "station keep" before and during the show. This year the current changed to flood just after 8, so the boat had to be spun around to point into the incoming current and away from the fireworks barges. So the pilot is facing the wrong way to watch. Clark is a big fireworks fan - me, not so much. We took turns piloting the boat, so Clark could enjoy more of the show. We were unclear on when the show would begin and were pleasantly surprised when at 8:45 the fireworks started being shot into the sky.
We thought with the wind direction that we might get "smoked out" but that did not happen.
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| The waterfall and ground works off the Brooklyn bridge |
We heard on the radio that the Brooklyn Bridge briefly caught fire from the fireworks but was quickly put out.
Before the show began, Chris and I made all the beds on the boat so that folks could sleep on the way home. By the end of the boat ride, we had Clark and Jeff at the upper helm, me cleaning up the galley and packing up the fridge food, etc for when we got home, Heather reading on the salon sofa with Jack sleeping next to her, and everyone else asleep in one of the three beds on board.
I did manage to get some great pictures of the VZ bridge as we passed by there on the way home.
The future cast showed storms that were going over NJ and over Raritan Bay after the fireworks. It looked like there might be a break from the worst of it while crossing the Raritan and this held up for about 2/3s of the way across. We could see a strong thunderstorm over our home port, even while it was clear in the Raritan.
Then, a red zone passed directly overhead bringing wind and rain as we entered Sandy Hook Bay. The waves began increasing from the wind, but as we got into Sandy Hook Bay, we became more protected by Earle Pier and the Highlands, and the rocking subsided. With the kids all sleeping, none of the crew noticed the rocking.
As we got closer to home, the storm passed out to sea, and after arriving at the dock at 1:30 am, the rain had stopped and the sleeping kids were moved into the house.
The Connecticut crew left early the next morning to get back home with plenty on their busy schedule. That left the Idaho clan with us for a few more days.
We played plenty of games.
Violet and I did some crochet! Violet had a Harry Potter crochet kit. We worked together to make the owl Hedwig first.
While Violet worked on her crochet owl, I was busy making a crochet whale for Zoe. I started trying to make a whale for her without a pattern. It was not going super well and then she said she wanted it in blue, so I started over with a pattern from the internet and blue, fuzzy yarn. Zoe was content to play by herself while Violet and I crocheted nearby.
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| Zoe with the Coke Truck |
Once I restarted the whale project, I worked on it and completed it in one day.
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| Model on the Internet |
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| Zoe's finished whale |
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| Yay! She loves the whale. |
Clark came by while we were playing Rummikub and took some funny pictures.
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| Sierra in a ball picture |
Zoe discovered my collection of period dolls and had me explain each one to her.
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| French Doll |
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| Zoe! |
On Wednesday, we decided to take the boat out to Horseshoe Cove for the day to play in the water. We brought the raft for tubing along for some fun. It seems everyone but me wanted a turn being pulled behind the dinghy.
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| Sierra and Violet getting ready |
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| Devon going out with Sierra |
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| Jeff out with Zoe |
The tube flipped over on Jeff and Zoe and landed on top of them in the water. Zoe was so excited by it that she could not wait to tell me about it when she got back on the "big boat".
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| Jeff on is own |
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| Sierra and Violet (I think) |
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| Big kid! |
We had lunch out at Horseshoe Cove but returned home for dinner.
The next day, and the last day for the Idaho clan to be here, Clark, Devon, Sierra, and Violet took the train into New York to go see the play "Six". That left Jeff working from "home" with Zoe and me sharing special time together. Zoe and I went to Sickles park to check it out since it was renovated.
Zoe was bound and determined to get to the 5th ring on the monkey bars. She tried multiple times and finally managed to touch it before dropping! Such strength for a 6-year old!
Of course, after working out at the park, we went to Carvel for ice cream!
At home, we checked out my Barbie doll collection for a while and played with trucks. She found both equally interesting!
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| Bedtime for Zoe |
The NYC group came back with pictures from their time in the city.
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| Museum of Natural History |
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| Sierra - 12 Violet - 9 1/2 |
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| Turtle in Central Park |
Each time the girls come out from Idaho they go see a play. This year it was "Six", and Clark went with them - a bit of a surprise to everyone!
The next day, July 10th, it was time to say goodbye. They left for the airport back to Denver mid-morning.
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| Group Hug!! Ev, Sierra, Violet, and Zoe |
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