13 May 2022 - Friday the 13th
Depart: Barnegat Bay anchorage 10:30
Arrive: Rumson, NJ Private Dock 7:00
Distance: 66 nm
Conditions: Dense Fog; Chilly & Damp
When we woke up this morning, Clark checked the weather and looked out the window to see "pea soup fog" surrounding us. We knew there was land out there somewhere nearby, but we could not see it. The scenery appeared the same in every direction.
We calculated we had about 5 hours of travel time from here to the tip of Sandy Hook, so we decided to relax for a while to see if the fog cleared. At 10:00 we decided that fog or no fog, we should pull up the anchor and start on our way. The weather for the next few days appeared to be as bad as today.
Just before Clark stepped out the door to start on the anchor, it started raining. Radar showed it to be a short storm, so we sat back to wait once again. Finally, at 10:30, we had our anchor up and were making our way through Barnegat Bay to the inlet. We slowly and carefully maneuvered our way through this twisty-turny waterway peppered with shoals to reach the exit to the ocean. As we got closer to the inlet, we actually saw land come into view.
As we wove our way through the bay, we saw a few fishermen out in their boats. They must be real diehards to be out in the damp, chilly fog.
Whenever we come near Barnegat Bay, I delight in seeing the lighthouse here. I like its simplicity and its colors. To say I was disappointed with today's view of the lighthouse would be a gross understatement. Looking through the fog, I could not figure out why it looked so wrong and so ugly.
 |
| Barnegat Light |
We could not interpret what we were seeing through the fog until we got very close to the lighthouse, then it became clear why it looked so unusual.
 |
| Barnegat Light covered in scaffolding getting a facelift! |
As we made the turn and traversed the inlet to enter the ocean, we saw a number of trucks at the jetty.
 |
| Where did the trucks go? Hidden in the fog once more |
Last time we came through here, Clark called a tow boat operator to discuss the best passage out of the inlet. We used that local knowledge today. He was told that we should turn north as soon as we were past the last rocks of the jetty. We did that, and it saved us from getting badly bounced on waves we could see crashing between the markers further along in the inlet.
 |
| Turned north just after these rocks of the jetty. A red marker helped identify where to turn |
After entering the ocean, Clark selected a waypoint from past travels and put the boat on autopilot. Although it would be nice to then sit back and relax, we cannot do that as we never know what we might encounter on the water.
Yesterday, we got set up, and Clark said to look for crab pots. Sure enough he found one on our path. Today, I was watching for crab pots and thought I had found one. I yelled for him to make sure we avoided it. When we got up close, we found it was a broken off pole about 12 inches in diameter and sticking up above the water by several inches. Although it sat in 40 feet of water, it appeared to be standing upright and stationary. Thank goodness we did not hit that, or we would have had serious hull damage.
Clark quickly marked the spot on our chart plotter and called the Coast Guard to report the obstruction to safe navigation. He read them the GPS coordinates and told them the time we had seen it. It was not clear to me what they might do with the information, but they were definitely interested in the report. Later, just after Clark stepped away from the helm to use the head, they called and asked more questions that I could not readily answer about the position of our siting.
I told the caller that Clark was at the head, and he said he was happy to wait. As we talked, our fog horn that we had set up to blast one long blast every 2 minutes kept going off. I apologized for the noise and the delay. I was glad when Clark came back and could talk on the phone. I handed it to him in a real hurry.
After that bit of excitement, we had nothing to do but watch the waves in the fog. Fortunately, the waves were an acceptable height, period, and direction today so as to not be too uncomfortable. We exited Barnegat Bay onto the ocean at 11:35. We rounded the corner at Sandy Hook about 6 hours later.
Normally, when we travel up the coast, we enjoy identifying where we are by what we can see along the shore. Today, we could make out almost nothing. We knew where we were because the charts told us.
 |
| Clark identified this stretch of the coast for me as The Highlands I would never have guessed! |
As we rounded the tip of Sandy Hook, I could hear the bell of a green marker as it wobbled on the water. The first sound in the video I took is the noise of our boat's fog horn. Listening carefully, one can then hear the clanging of the marker bell due to the gentle rocking of the water.
Visibility improved off and on. Every time we thought it would clear, the fog rolled back in to obscure our view once more. We did get to enjoy some views of Sandy Hook as we passed by.
 |
| 2 men fishing on Sandy Hook Moments after I took this picture, it started to rain. They must have gotten drenched. |
The picture below shows why Clark had an auto fog horn blasting every 2 minutes all day long. (Oh my head!)
 |
| Boat traffic at Sandy Hook |
 |
| Here is the closeup view of one of the two above. |
The sun struggled against the fog, but the fog won the fight today. The pictures below show a battleship docked at Earl Pier. It is just barely visible under the fog bank.
I had to give the sun points for fighting the fog and trying hard to appear. For one magic moment, I actually saw the sun clearly. The view was so brief that I could not capture it with my camera. No sooner did the sun's window open than it closed once more to be gone for good.
 |
| My one view of the sun today |
Clark and I have been boating on the Shrewsbury River together for 30 years. Today is the first time I can remember not being able to see the Seabright Bridge when Clark called the bridge tender to ask for an opening. Clark told the bridge tender we were waiting beside Mcloone's Rum Runner restaurant - a place normally easily visible to the bridge tender. If we couldn't see the bridge, she sure could not see us. I wondered if we would even know when the bridge was opening.
 |
| Clark got close enough to see the bridge |
As we passed by, we saw that a crane and construction equipment were on site for work on the long-awaited replacement bridge.
 |
| Signs of a new bridge to come |
Having gotten this far, we turned off the Shrewsbury River towards Pleasure Bay. Clark expected this area to have heavy fog. Using charts, radar, and well-peeled eyeballs, we made our way through the bay one marker at a time. The hard part here was finding the turnoff for the channel markers of the channel that would be the final leg of our journey.
Every spring, depending on the severity of the winter, some or many of the day markers for our main channel disappear. Generally they are replaced by the 4th of July only to disappear once more. We did not know which, or how many, channel markers we would find. Fortunately, more remained this year than we expected, and we were able to move marker-by-marker closer to home.
Finally, I saw the turn off for our creek, and unbelievably, the red and the green marking the entrance to the creek were still in place. We had markers and we had good water under the keel. We could not be happier. Another 20 minutes and we were able to tie up to our very own dock for the night.
 |
| Tied up on our creek! |
We knew it would be late when we docked, so we had a snack around 5:00. After we docked, Clark went to the house to turn on water and water heater, turn up heat, ... While he was gone, I made dinner. Tomorrow, we will start the transition from boat to house. My first agenda item is to clean the house of several months worth of dust!
