2020: Barnegat to Rumson NJ

Depart: Anchorage near Barnegat Light, Barnegat, NJ 8:10
Arrive: Home - Rumson, NJ 4:30
Distance: 63 nm


We decided we needed to get an early start to beat the rain scheduled to arrive this afternoon. While Clark prepped the boat for departure, I made his breakfast and prepped mine to eat later. Not knowing what the ocean would present us today, I also made sandwiches for lunch, so they would be easy to grab later.

As we prepared to leave, we saw lots of activity near where we had dropped anchor.

Barnegat Light and some little boats

Charter boat heading out 

Going for the inlet

Fishing from a Kayak

Clark uses a piece of PVC pipe with a pinpoint nozzle on the end of a section of hose to wash down the anchor chain and anchor. We have a pump on board that pulls up the raw / salt water so we don't have to tap into our fresh water, and we don't end up with mud in our rope locker.

Anchor cleanup time

Shortly after 8:00 a.m. we were on our way on the last leg of our trip home. As Clark piloted the boat out of inlet, I sat down to my favorite meal of the day and my novel.

Barnegat Light

Without looking, I could tell when we started to get near the ocean as I found my eyes chasing the words on the page due to the rocking motion of the boat. I decided it was time to abandon the Kindle.

Traveling Barnegat Inlet is almost always an adventure. The waves were particularly impressive in size today. I decided not to move until we got out in the ocean proper as I anticipated the wave action decreasing once we got out of the inlet. As I sat in the salon, I heard Clark moving about up top taking pictures a couple of times.

Beach and jetty along Barnegat Inlet

Wave action at Barnegat Inlet

While I was down in the salon thinking about what a fun ride we were having, Clark was up top sweating out the trip as he navigated the less-than-abundant waters of the marked channel. Later, after I managed to move up top, I got Clark's story.

He said that the trip out was a "real nail biter". He had 5-foot breakers crashing over the bow of the boat as he saw depths in the 7.5-foot range in the channel. When the waves crashed over the bow, the depth would become unreadable due to the bubbles generated by the wave. He had no idea if the boat would bottom out as the waves passed.

Meanwhile, he could see sections outside of the channel without waves breaking. He decided that the marked channel was probably not the deepest water to exit the inlet. After he got us on route out in the ocean, he called Sea Tow to inquire about the inlet and learned that those in the know turn north after marker Red "6" to avoid shallower water in the channel.

I was so glad that I had been oblivious in the salon instead of stressing up top. Unlike the breakers of the inlet, we had 5-foot swells out in the ocean with not one whitecap in sight.

Given that today was the last day of this voyage, I decided to look at some statistics. Since this is the fastest we have ever made it home from Florida, I thought it would be interesting to see how far we went on average and how fast we moved.

Days	Total NM	Equiv Statute Miles	Average NM per day	Average Hours per day	Least Miles in 1 Day	Most Miles in 1 Day
21	1499	1718	71	9	38	101
Fuel purchased on trip
1004 gallons

I was doing well until Clark asked me to look at fuel stats as well. Then I had some problems with the math. He wanted to know the NM per gallon. For that I had to know mileage between fuel stops and had to extrapolate to get some of the numbers. It gave my brain a workout.

I worked on the mpg problem until I got too frustrated. Then I left it and went to get lunch. I continued to work on the numbers like solving a puzzle while I munched and finally figured out the issue. When I returned to the upper helm, I knew how to do the calculations properly. It came out to 1.3 nm pg, which sounded absolutely dreadful to me. Using that number Clark figured out that our range / distance limits with our fuel tanks is about 800 nautical miles.

While I had been fussing with math problems, the boat had continued up the Jersey coast. When I got up top, Clark said, "Do you recognize anything?" I correctly identified Long Branch. He said we passed Asbury Park while I was eating lunch below. Actually, what he wanted me to notice was the fact that we were passing Sea Bright.

Asbury Park Convention Center
on the Jersey Shore

Highlands Bridge from ocean view

Sandy Hook!

The entrance to the Shrewsbury River which leads to our creek is marked by Red "2"!

We passed the anchorage where we go on a hot summer's day and saw a chartered fishing boat that looked to us to be in an area with rather shallow water.

We passed the terminal for the ferry to New York City.

We passed some small beach areas in residential sections. Some folks had decided to start celebrating Memorial Day weekend early.

Small beach party here

Intrepid swimmers here. 3 kids in the water.
Probably 50 degrees or so, and they were loving it!

We passed Sandy Hook Lighthouse.

Sandy Hook Light

As we traveled along the river, I kept looking to see if I could get a reasonable picture of Twin Lights lighthouse. Most of it was obscured by trees, but I got the towers.

Twin Lights lighthouse 

Impossible to see the huge building connecting those two towers.

I tried to get a full picture of the Highlands Bridge, but I could only get a section at a time.

Highlands Bridge - Sandy Hook side

We passed by the entrance to the Navesink River where we had our first glimpse of Rumson on the left side of the river.

Oceanic Bridge connecting Rumson (on left) to Locust, NJ
Huber Woods Park is on the right.

As we approached the Sea Bright bridge, Clark called the bridge tender to inquire about an opening. Unfortunately, the opening schedule was changed to "on the hour" a couple of years ago. We found out that we would have a 50-minute wait for an opening. Then Clark asked her what vertical clearance the bridge offered. She read 16' off the height board.  We need a little over 17' of clearance.

While we moved at idle speed towards the bridge, I snapped some pictures of Sea Bright.

McCloone's Restaurant in Sea Bright

Sea Wall in Sea Bright
(Sea Bright sits on a very narrow strip of land
between the river and the ocean.)

One of several Sea Bright Beach Clubs

One thing Clark cannot stand is wasting time waiting for bridges. He decided that we should see if we could get under the bridge instead of waiting for an opening. He ran down to get tools to lower our mast as I drove the boat ever closer to the bridge. Eventually I got close enough that I could read the clearance board using the binoculars. It appeared to read 17' on the board.

At low tide, we used to drive Sea Moss under the bridge without lowering. That boat needed 18+ feet of clearance. Clark decided that even though the tender said the 16' was the clearance at the center, it was really the clearance at the side. We figured we must have at least another 2' at the center. Once again, Clark had me drive the boat under the bridge while he spotted. As we easily passed under the bridge, Clark said we had at least two more feet over head. Good to know for next time!

It really was low tide. As we continued down the river and into Pleasure Bay, we saw very little water under the keel. Clark bemoaned the fact that we would be struggling to get the boat home. The entrance to our creek is shallow at the best of times. Sure enough when we tried to get into our creek, the depth finder quit showing numbers.

I could see black muck being stirred up behind the boat. At one point I wondered if we would be able to make it through, but Clark persisted and we got past the lowest spot. It wasn't the first time we dredged the end of our creek.

Normally Clark turns the boat around and backs up to our dock because there is no room to turn around at our dock. Today, because of the depth and the predicted rain, Clark decided to skip the turning around part. I had already started setting up fenders and had to move them to accommodate this change of routine.

The rain held off until we got to our dock. As soon as we got there, it started to drizzle. We got our lines tied and then it stopped raining. Because we are tied up opposite to our normal positioning, I cannot get off the boat. Clark managed to jump off to the dock, so he could walk up to the house. He came back with a step ladder, which I have no plans to use. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a break in rain near high tide, so we can turn the boat around and tie it in our normal fashion. Although I am not in a hurry to move back into the house, I would like to be able to get off the boat to stretch my legs.

NOTE: Given we are home now, blog entry publications will be suspended until we commence boating travels. At present, we do not know when that will be.

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