We picked up our rental car and away we went. After trying in vein to obtain a Cruising Permit from the New Jersey Port Authority we arrived at the marina and accepted ownership of our boat! Walking down the slip to our own boat was a pretty awesome feeling :) We hit West Marine for some Coast Guard approved safety equipment and then emptied our storage unit and lugged all our very heavy belongings aboard the boat in the 34 degree heat!
Since we had a car for the day we were trying to take full advantage and decided to get some groceries to stock the boat. Grocery shopping on no sleep for an empty kitchen is never fun but on a budget in NYC - "forget about it" as the locals say. I spent nearly two hours penny pinching my way through the store, even signing up for a "Super Saver Discount Card". Tired, hungry and incredibly hot we finally came back to the marina a mere 19 hours after our day began. We loaded up the marina trollies with our bags of canned everything, fruit, spices, veggies, and coffee and started off to stock the galley. As James walked down the slip towards our boat the wood under his feet broke and he fell through!!! The slip lurched hard to the left under his partially submerged weight and ALL our groceries went "overboard". As I was helping free James leg all I could hear was the sound of tinned beans rolling along the dock and splashing into the water! After James was freed from the broken slip we stood up and saw cucumbers, apples, yogurt, an egg carton, a bunch of bananas, a bag of carrots and other random food items floating just out of arms reach all around the boat. I was able to fish out some wet curry powder and a very soggy cardboard container of oats. Oddly enough about half an hour later the bag of carrots floated back to us so we snagged them!
The main thing is thankfully James wasn't badly injured (just some bruises and superficial abrasions) - hard to believe after seeing the incident! The bonus to James' mishap: we get to stay at our swanky marina for free for the week ;)
Mercifully the weather has cooled with all the rain we had overnight - it also alerted us to the fact that some of our hatches leak (I was fast asleep and awoke to drip-drip-drip on my leg, it took me a few seconds to remember I was on a boat and something must be leaking!).
Tonight is attempt number one at a cooked meal made in our galley kitchen... I have the fire extinguisher at the ready. Fingers crossed there is some propane in those tanks...
So the stove didn't work last night but it turns out we just didn't know how to use it! We made our first cooked dinner on the boat tonight and it turned out great - next step is to buy some kitchen supplies ;)
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