Nicole Herbert?s only nude-sunbathing fear is that it could fade her tattoos.

Ferrying From Manhattan to Bare It All on the Beach

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
The New York Times
June 30, 2008

SANDY HOOK, N.J. ? In honor of Nude Recreation Week, traditionally celebrated after July 4, join us on the Wall Street ferry SeaStreak as it makes its twice-daily run to Gunnison Beach, the busiest clothing-optional recreation area in the nation, devotees say.

Aboard on a Wednesday are Kassity Hu, 29, and Rochelle Rosen, 40, Internet marketing colleagues who no sooner found out on the Web about a nudist haven within sight of the Manhattan skyline and maintained by the National Park Service than they were game to try it.

For someone in the fashion trade, Todd Thomas, 46, another day-tripper, has found a particularly liberating way to play hooky.

Add Mike from Britain, a bond trader, and his American companion, Monica, in the hotel business ? no last names please ? who find the timing fortuitous. ?June 2,? said Mike, ?was a perfect time to be laid off.?

Kelly O?Brien, a nurse, has worked all night and is ready for a nap on the beach, but at an adjacent one in what the park service calls a ?clothed area.?

?I?m kind of conservative,? said Ms. O?Brien, 22. ?I like clothing.?

Molly Rodriguez, 69, a retired real estate payroll manager, on the other hand, is not beachbound at all but on her way to Atlantic Highlands to house-sit for her daughter and son-in-law who are sailing their boat up to Connecticut.

In any case, she would not be found anywhere near a nudist beach, she said, adding, ?I can look at myself and get hysterical.?

Long one of the New York area?s best-kept secrets, Gunnison Beach, on the upper end of this barbed peninsula jutting into the harbor at the northern tip of the Jersey Shore, has been a favorite of naturists, locals say, since Army troops at Sandy Hook?s historic Fort Hancock, and perhaps the redcoats before them, discovered the joys of skinny-dipping far from prying eyes.

It opened to the public as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area in 1975 but remained largely a zealously protected local attraction until 2003, when the SeaStreak ferries began catamaran service as quick as 45 minutes from the East River at Wall Street and East 35th Street. (The company?s name, by the way, predated the beach run.)

Round-trip tickets cost $43, and the trips are becoming so popular that weekend boats carrying up to 400 sometimes ?max out,? and a later weekday homebound departure has just been added, said Heather Irvin, a SeaStreak spokeswoman.

The half-mile beach regularly attracts 5,000 sunbathers on a weekend, making it the most populous nude beach in the country, according to Friends of Gunnison, a group that self-polices the beach and runs charity events.

A yellow school bus providing free shuttle service is waiting at the ferry dock for the three-minute ride to the beach. Some of the day?s passengers disperse to ?clothed areas? all along Sandy Hook. But Ms. Hu and Ms. Rosen, Mr. Thomas, Mike and Monica and others head for Gunnison, trudging past cautionary signs.

?Warning: Nude Bathers May Be Present on the Beach.?

And farther on, ?Beyond This Point You Will Encounter Nude Sunbathers.?

Ms. Rosen and Ms. Hu do not scare easily. They pick a spot near the water and set down their blankets, demurely removing their tops but not, or not right away, their bottoms.

Others also choose varying degrees of modesty. Nina Calvin, 40, a leasing and sales coordinator, strolls the beach topless with her companion, Larry Garbowski, 61, who is wearing a skimpy bathing suit. ?I won?t take it off,? Mr. Garbowski, a machine technician, said stubbornly, ?because she wants me to.?

Karen Czaplinski, 56, a former teacher, and now a waitress and manufacturer of fishing lures, is lolling by the curling tide, in a bathing suit, next to her equally clothed and cringing friend, Kat, a postal worker who said her first name was enough. ?My husband would kill me,? Kat said, mumbling, ?First time ever in a nude beach and The New York Times comes.?

To hear her tell it, they somehow did not realize it was a nudist beach when they arrived, but once they found out did not rush off either. ?It?s like eye candy, I guess,? Kat said, making the best of it.

Sharon Caruso, 48, a flight attendant for a corporate fleet, is stretched out in a chair just topless for now. ?The only thing better than sitting here with nothing on,? she said, ?is going into the water with nothing on.?

Nearby lies her friend Phil, 44, a salesman who gave his last name and then thought better of it, doing the ?full Monty? and baked brown as a chestnut. Hasn?t he ever heard about sun damage? Phil is practically insulted, countering, ?Haven?t you ever heard about vitamin D deficiency??

No doubt, the dominant state of dress is undress, and one of the problems, it can be reported, is where to focus the eyes. The distant spire of the Empire State Building is a good bet, along with the rolling waves.

But try ignoring a naked horseshoe match.

Gawking is gauche, and overt sexual behavior clearly illegal, Friends of Gunnison advises. Vigilante justice for miscreants is not unknown here in the land of the Sopranos, although the group counsels restraint when beach etiquette is violated: ?Do not try to take matters into your own hands.?

Down the beach, a portly fisherman wearing just a sun hat casts into the surf for blues and stripers. He is not thrilled with the news coverage. ?The press built it up as a nude beach, and every pervert in the world thinks this is the place to be,? he said. But the rise in gas prices has brought at least one blessing, he and others said: fewer power boaters flitting close to shore with long camera lenses and binoculars.

Nicole Herbert, 40, a veterinary nurse, strolled the beach in only her abundant tattoos, concerned, she confessed, that sun exposure could fade them while glorying in her freedom. ?When,? she asked, ?are we going to get respectful of our nudity??

The yellow school bus comes promptly at 2:20 p.m. to collect beachgoers for the ferry, but Ms. Hu and Ms. Rosen are missing. They have called for a cab, it turns out, to stay later and take a boat back from Atlantic Highlands.

On the SeaStreak, Mr. Thomas lies on deck, shirtless, catching a few last rays. Near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the crew reminds him to put his shirt back on. New York is a clothed area.