On Friday, the day before our departure, it snowed. The Captain we hired (Captain Rob) flew in from Florida and managed to drive to Cape Cod on slick, traffic-clogged roads while Greg and I slogged through the rain and snow carrying last-minute provisions to the boat.

We spent our first night on the boat on Friday night for an early departure on Saturday morning. We awoke to find icy decks and frozen dock lines that were a challenge to untie with frigid fingers.

That blue dock line is standing straight up because it is frozen solid.

Greg and Captain Rob trying not to slip off the icy dock and boat deck.

Our boat has a joystick control, just like a video game, for maneuvering around the docks. You can see Greg’s hand on the joystick and he did a stellar job getting us out of the slip for the first time.

We had choppy seas until we crossed Long Island Sound, then the seas calmed for the rest of the nine hour ride to the Manasquan River in Brielle, NJ where we spent the night at Hoffman’s Marina. We walked to a restaurant for dinner and turned in early.