When the temperatures dipped well below freezing earlier this month, the Navesink River froze up to the point where people were able to go ice skating.  The ice boats also came out in Red Bank for the first time since 2018.

It was the coldest January in New Jersey since 2015, and while many complained, ice skaters and ice boaters alike took the opportunity to get out on the Navesink River and enjoy the fun, an opportunity which could take years to happen again.

The last time anybody was able to go ice skating on the Navesink River was in 2015.  It was a rare opportunity that many locals had to take because it may not happen again for several years.

Several locals also took the opportunity to play hockey on the Middletown side of the river.  One of the locals who went skating and who has a dock on the river, Tory Donnelly from Middletown, recalled how she felt young again being able to skate on the river for the first time in so many years.

“I was painfully aware I wasn’t so young.  I tried to play some hockey and fell a few times, and I am sore.  But the skating was beautiful, just like when I was a child.  Ice boats and neighbors having fun on the ice.  Skating to Red Bank was also fun, we had to dodge the ice boats flying by,” Donnelly said.

On the Red Bank side of the river, the ice boats came out for some fun.  It was the first time the ice boats had been on the Navesink River since 2018.  Members of the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club knew it would be a perfect opportunity to take out the ice boats onto the river for the first time in seven years.

In recent years, members of the club had to travel to North Jersey or even to upstate New York and New England to take out their ice boats.  However, this year, the Navesink River finally froze up to the point where the ice boaters could take the boats out into their backyard.

The ice has to be perfect in order for the ice boats to come out onto the river.  In order for the ice boats to go onto the river, the ice has to be at least four inches thick.  For that to happen, there must be at least three straight nights with temperatures of 15 degrees at the highest.  Before going onto the river, the members of the club tested the ice with an axe.  After being given the clear to go onto the river, the ice boaters took full advantage of this opportunity, one that could take years to happen again.

“You need perfect conditions: You need ice, you need wind, and no snow,” ice boater and Red Bank resident Mike Soldati told the Asbury Park Press.