2026 October: Arrive Atlantic City NJ anchorage

 5 October 2026
Depart: Horseshoe Cove, Sandy Hook, NJ 8;15
Arrive: Atlantic City, NJ anchorage 6:40
Distance: ~  82.5 nm / 10.5 hours travel time
Conditions: 65 in stateroom / 56 degrees outdoors; slightly foggy

We targeted leaving Sandy Hook at 8:00 and missed the mark by a few minutes. Clark is concerned about the numbers he is reading related to our house battery health. He took some time investigating and diagnosing before we got going.

The day started with waves rolling in from the east that may have been 5-footers. The stabilizers kept us comfortable. As the day progressed the swells reduced in size. Occasionally, one would slam into the boat and we would hear a bang when it hit. Other than the unexpected noise, we really did not notice anything else.

Pictures I took at the beginning of the day showed the residual fog from yesterday. Although the fog lifted, clouds remained throughout the day. 

Starting at Sandy Hook ...

Sun trying to break through the cloud cover

Only Earle Naval Pier appeared to have any sun shining on it.

Earle Naval Pier, NJ

Boat passing in front of Earle

Tanker with NYC in the background

Foggy picture of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge

Rounding the tip of Sandy Hook, we had a better view of Sandy Hook than New York City.

Atlantic Highlands Bridge

Landmark -- Eastpointe Condominiums Highlands, NJ

Clark pointed out the next point of interest on our trip down the Jersey Shore - Asbury Park, NJ. Home of the Stone Pony where Bruce Springsteen got his start. 

Asbury Park, NJ

The sun tried to get out from behind the clouds. It only partially succeeded before the clouds won out on the contest.

Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel part of Asbury Park Convention Hall on the left

Clark pointed out the "rainbow" building as lying on the boundary of Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, NJ. Here, he said, was where the carousel entertained children of all ages for many years. 

Carousel Building where Asbury Park meets Ocean Grove

Current fuel prices are staggering when taking on large quantities of diesel fuel. Clark called around before we left home to check out fuel prices both in NJ and further south on our route to Florida. Local prices approached $7.00 per gallon which really hurts with the amount of fuel we need. He found a place in Manasquan, NJ that was selling diesel at $6.19 per gallon. 

Fortunately, Captain Bill's was open and located just off the ocean for a quick in and out for more reasonably priced fuel (considering the other options that is). On top of being a lower price in general, they also offered a 10 cents per gallon discount for Boat US membership. So... we got our 125 gallons of diesel for the "low, low" price of $6.09 per gallon. 

Still Clark got better prices from facilities further south, so we only brought our tanks up to 50% full. We will get more fuel later at a hopefully even better price. Fingers crossed!!!

We ducked into Manasquan close to 11:30 (not sure of exact time) and departed their dock with our fuel at noon. The pumps offered a fast fuel, and Clark loves a fast fuel!

Manasquan pictures ...

As we turned to travel between the jetties bordering the channel into Manasquan, I spied a lot of black "dots" out in the ocean by the beach. As I watched, one of the dots stood up on a surf board and rode the surf into the beach. 

Surfers at Manasquan, NJ

At one point I count 11 people in the water

Impressive jetty at Manasquan, NJ

As we exited the area between the jetty structures, we saw many houses / cottages bordering the water. 

Captain Bill's Landing was not well labeled. We saw the sign for fuel but weren't sure it was the place we needed.

Clark called on the radio and someone walked out to signal us to pull up to this dock - nice guy, talkative, friendly! When needed, we would definitely stop here again!

(picture compliments of Google)

Just after noon, we were back on the ocean and continuing south. Of course, the surfers were still having fun as we left the area.

At the beach in Manasquan, NJ -- waiting for the next wave!

When we left Manasquan, we did some distance and time calculations to decide where we would anchor for the night. If we stopped at Barnegat, NJ, we would be done for the day around 2:30 p.m. If we kept going, could we make Atlantic City before dark? We did the math and came up with an arrival at AC of around 6:30 p.m. That is close to sunset; however, we would have twilight until around 7:00 making this option viable. 

If the ocean permits, we are hoping to bypass the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay to cut a couple of days off our travel time south. The issue with bypassing the Chesapeake, besides weather worries, is finding ports of call where we can get off the ocean for the night to drop anchor. There are only a couple of places that work for our size boat.

Stopping in either Barnegat or Atlantic City instead of Cape May messes up the ideal stopping places, but at least Atlantic City gets us further down the coast. We decided to go for Atlantic City. Given that, I decided I would do dinner prep and pre-cooking so, that once the anchor was down, we could eat as soon as possible. 

Other than when Clark pointed out the Ferris wheel at Seaside Heights, I took little notice of the shoreline. Having seen the Ferris wheel on multiple trips up and down the coast, I did not pull out the camera. 

As we traveled south, we came upon 3 traps randomly located in the ocean. Two were marked with flags that matched them as a pair. The other was partially submerged and difficult to see. Given their peculiar location, we wondered if they were relocated by the Nor'Easter last weekend. Someone is probably wondering where they went. Clark found two more after I left.

I did, however, head down to the galley to pull out a steak to thaw for dinner and chop and prepare / precook veggies for tonight's dinner. 

We calculated our arrival at Atlantic City based on an average speed of 8 knots. Fortunately, we had 9 knots for a portion of the trip reducing our arrival time at Absecon Inlet. Unfortunately, the sun was low in the sky and "blinding" us as we tried to navigate our way into the inlet. I did manage to get some nice AC pictures as the sun set behind the buildings. 

Sunset over Casinos in Atlantic City, NJ

The above picture shows the Absecon Lighthouse to the far right of the picture. As I looked at the scene, it occurred to me that at some point in history, that lighthouse would have been the tallest structure on land to guide boats to the inlet. Today it is hidden and dwarfed!

Absecon Inlet Lighthouse located between tall buildings

Ferris Wheel at Atlantic City, NJ

More sunset pictures as we make our way to tonight's anchorage ...

As we exited the inlet waterway and turned into the Brigantine anchorage, we came face-to-face with a small boat exiting the anchorage. The passageway into the anchorage is narrow. As we entered, the boat in front of us made an "about face" and went back into the anchorage.

We came into the anchorage at high tide, so we had good water. On both sides of the channel in to the anchorage, we could see the marshes.

I took note of a large flock of birds that was taking advantage of a stretch of land as we entered the anchorage. 

Besides the beach-dwelling birds, I spied an osprey proudly perching on a marker.

Osprey

We found a lone boat in the anchorage. 

  

Once in the anchorage, I took a couple more pictures of the impressive sunset colors.

To the west, bright orange and yellow filled the sky.

To the east the sky had a blend of pink and blue hues blended together in the clouds.

With the anchor down, and the upper helm "put to bed", we retired to the galley / salon area where I continued where I left off making dinner. Clark, on the other hand, picked up where he left off this morning worrying about battery levels. 

Even though we had been running on the engine for over 10 hours, the battery charge did not live up to Clark's expectations. While I prepared dinner, he was investigating the reason the battery is not coming up to the preferred levels. He even ran the generator for a while to push more umph into the battery bank. It is not looking good. New batteries were definitely not on our "to do" list! Clark has some ideas to do further research into what is going on with the batteries.

Although we have never ventured in to there before, we are looking into the possibility of going into Ocean City, MD for tomorrow night. 

2026 October: Heading South

 The past week flew by with preparation to get underway by the 4th of October. We still had oodles of tasks to check off our lists before we could pull in our lines. We had last visits with friends, a dentist appointment for Clark rescheduled due to the hygienist being sick for the original appointment, and lots of last minute tasks to complete. No matter how much we plan ahead, there are certain tasks that cannot be done until the final hours before departure, e.g. empty the refrigerator. 

28 September 2026

The week started with dinner out with our long-time friends the Nicis and the DeMaios. Janet got elected to select a restaurant, and she picked MJs in Matawan. (It used to be Buttonwood Manor in the olden days.) The restaurant sits beside a lake, so it is a very pretty location.

Football Season at MJs

Scenery at the entrance

Fall colors inside

View of the lake out the back of the restaurant

After studying the menu, Clark and I both came up with the same idea -- share an eggplant and green pepper pizza, so that is what the two of us did. 

30 September 2026

The place where Clark takes our car for oil changes, etc. is, fortunately, located in nearby Fair Haven. He put one of our folding bikes in the trunk, took the car over for service, and peddled back home afterwards. He always does an oil change and puts stabilizer in the gas tank before putting the car up for the  winter. The last thing he does with the car before we get underway is to put the battery on trickle charge to keep it happy while we are away.

1 October 2026

In New Jersey, older cars such as ours require an inspection every two years. Since we bought the car in October, that is our renewal month. Clark checked the busy hours for the inspections and decided that going late afternoon was the better choice. Given that, we took a last run out to one of our favorite food places - Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck, New Jersey. They make great pies and other baked goods as well as having very fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Delicious Orchards was busy even though it was mid-week. The place was decked out for fall / Halloween season. 

Delicious Orchards Entrance

As we exited the store, we noticed some rather large pumpkins off to one side. The sign next to them read "Prize Winners; $100 each; Please do not sit on." Sitting on them would not have been my first thought, but then again, I am not 2 years old. I had to wonder who would spend $100 for a pumpkin!? Not I!

Prize-winning Pumpkins

Later in the day, after dropping me off at home, Clark took the car over for the inspection. Fortunately, the car passed with no issues. The inspector told Clark she approved of his radio station that plays oldies based in Eatontown, New Jersey.

2 October 2026

After the past weekend's storm, we had a lot of cleanup to do in our yard from the oak tree we planted there many years ago. It is now quite tall, and given the acorns, a favorite spot for a squirrel. No matter how many times we pick up branches of oak leaves and acorns, more appear moments later. 

My theory is that the squirrel is preparing for winter. Most of the acorns are missing their "meat". Once the meat has been removed, I think the squirrel throws the "garbage" shell on the ground. The deer appear to be loving the acorn and oak leaf diet as well. Our backyard is quite popular with messy eaters!

When not doing the thousand-and-one chores associated with prepping the house and boat for departure, I have been playing quite a bit of "Mah Jongg with Friends" online. I am practicing with hopes of playing more with real live friends when we get to Marathon. 

3 October 2026

Today, our neighborhood held our third annual block party - open to anyone who currently lives on our street or lived on our street in the past. We were able to attend the first annual two years ago, but last year, the organizers scheduled the event for the end of October making it impossible for us to attend. As soon as I saw the announcement for the party, I knew that we would not be leaving our dock before the 4th of October!

The invite said the party started at 1:00, but I had a number of tasks I was juggling at that time. We left our house at 1:30 to get to the party, and Clark was concerned we were missing the fun. It's about a 1/2 mile to the end of our street and the location of the event. When we arrived, we were some of the first to arrive. I correctly guessed that most folks would be "fashionably late" to the party. The homeowner where the party was held said that the only person there at 1:00 was the food truck they hired to serve up a barbeque. 

Ultimately, we had a good turnout. Attendees ranged in age from the elderly who had lived on the street for many years (like us) to new residents with very young children many of whom were less than one year old. I talked to one of the long-term residents on the street that talked about the difference now to the 1990s when we had children on the street. She said, at Halloween, there are so many children looking for candy, it is like the neighborhood has been invaded. I remember many years where having 8 kids come to the door was a lot.

As we enjoyed getting to know or to reconnect with our neighbors, Clark ran around throughout the party taking pictures. 

Bicycles appeared to be a popular transportation choice for the neighborhood children. I saw at least one scooter as well.

We had two food trucks come in for the event. 

Portable Barbeque ...

Ice Cream Truck as well ...

If ice cream was not of interest, we also had a very nice cake on a balloon-decorated table!

Cake anyone?

Neighbors:
Clark, Bonnie, Jeff, Ev, and Regina

Of course the face-paint station was extremely popular with a line down the street for artwork. 

Butterfly wings around eyes (I think)

A bounce house was also provided for the children.

A dock wagon appeared to be a favorite "toy" as well.

Towards the end of the party, one of our neighbor's, Garner, pulled everyone together for a "Kumbaya"-type moment to express what a wonderful street we live on. 

The party had no defined end time, but with work to do for departure on the next day, Clark and I headed our around 5:00 and got back to work on the house / boat. 

4 October 2026

Depart: Home, Rumson, NJ 12:15

Arrive: Horseshoe Cove, Sandy Hook, NJ anchorage 2:30

Distance: 11.0 nm

Conditions: foggy, rainy, and chilly

Even though we have been preparing since mid-September for this day, we both still had a bunch of tasks to complete before the boat could leave the dock. Over the last few days, I did last laundry, last garbage collection throughout the house, last cleaning / running the vacuum cleaner, etc. I like to thoroughly clean the kitchen so that ants or other insects don't move in while we are away. 

The major task this morning, however, was emptying and cleaning the fridge. I loaded bag after bag from the fridge and freezer, and Clark carried everyone of them down to the boat! I am so glad that I makes lists upon lists to help remember everything to be done. Otherwise, today, I likely would have forgotten to empty the ice cube compartment. I would have no ice and the fridge would have a giant puddle!

Unfortunately, by the time we were bringing the last bags down to the boat, it started to rain -- moderately heavy at times. On one of my trips to the boat, I noticed we had a "farewell committee" wading by the dock. 

Came by to say bye-bye!

We don't feed the swans that come to visit, but they haven't figured that out in all the years they have been checking us out.

Normally, when we are starting a voyage and motoring along the Shrewsbury River towards Sandy Hook, I am busy down below stowing all the "stuff" we have brought on board for our trip. Today, however, I had sentry duty. Our neighbor, as well as the US Coast Guard on Ch. 22, advised caution traveling the river as a 6x6 20' piling had been seen sticking up 2-foot out of the water in the middle of the channel.

With the drizzle and fog, visibility was extremely poor. I stood with my face as close to the front panel of the full enclosure as possible trying to peek between the rain drops to look for a hunk of wood we never saw. Living by the motto "better safe than sorry", it made sense to stand guard duty for the duration of the trip. However, we did see quite a few boards, pilings, etc. that had washed up on shore over the past week. Perhaps the advertised piling was one of those. 

Recently, we had dinner with our friends, Diane and Joe, who told us they had gone to a Yankees game via Seastreak. We saw the boat they traveled on as we passed by the commuter boat station.

"Home Run" 
Commuter boat to baseball games

Though it is hard to tell from the photos, the normal commuter boats are considerably larger. In fact the conditions for crossing from NY to NJ the day they attended the game were such that they had to change from "Home Run" to a larger Seastreak vessel to get back home to NJ.

Clark had two options in mind today for this evening's anchorage. We decided to check out the anchorage in Atlantic Highlands first hoping to find a spot protected  from the east winds. As we approached the anchorage, I could see four people in a dinghy floating in amongst the anchored boats.

Given the weather and their location, I wondered what they were doing. As I studied the dinghy, I noted that one guy was busy with the outboard motor while two others were using paddles to move the boat. It became quite clear quite quickly that the outboard would not start no matter how many times he yanked on the pull cord.

I was standing on the bow getting ready to drop anchor, so given the rainy conditions, I had a better view of the action than Clark. I told him what was going on, and as suspected, he said we should offer them a tow. As we approached them, they said, "We're heading to the docks." They seemed pleasantly surprised and readily agreeable when I yelled to them, "Do you want us to tow you?"  I got an enthusiastic, "YES!" from at least most, if not all, of the folks in the dinghy.

I ran to the cockpit to set up the tow. For convenience, so that I could talk to my captain as I worked with the folks in the dinghy to set up a tow, I suggested Clark and I don our headsets. I had no idea if the batteries were charged or dead. Fortunately, they were sufficiently charged to do the job. 

By the time I was ready to start work, the folks in the dinghy had paddled themselves over to be resting next to our boat. I easily dropped a line down into the dinghy for them to hold onto. After Clark rotated our boat to port, I told them to hold on tight as we got headed in the right direction. 

Towing the dinghy to Atlantic Highlands Marina

It took a while to get them to the drop off point. Clark said we were at idle speed and traveling about 4 knots. He asked if he should / could speed up. I recommended against it as they seemed to be working hard to hold the line at the current speed. I can only imagine how long it would have taken them to get to their desired destination by rowing the dinghy. 

By the time we got to the docks at the Atlantic Highlands marina, I was quite wet. My jeans were pretty well soaked, and even my shoes and socks were wet. The folks in the dinghy had on better rain gear than I did, but what a miserable day to get caught with an outboard that refused to start. They offered lots of smiles and friendly waves as we pulled in our line and they made their way the final few feet to the dock.

With that excitement over, it was now just after 2:00, and neither Clark nor I had had any food since breakfast. I was hungry and ready to get the anchor down and food in my stomach. However, looking at the AH anchorage, Clark decided we would have to anchor in a more exposed position than he would prefer. He was somewhat surprised by the number of boats in the anchorage. I reminded him that, being October, lots of folks will be heading south on the water.

He decided to choose option two and drop anchor at the Horseshoe Cove anchorage instead. At that point, I said I was going for a snack, but he said he would wait. We found a place to drop anchor. I went below and changed my pants, shoes, and socks, and  we finally ate lunch around 3:00. 

I took a few cloudy / foggy-day pictures at the anchorage. It was near impossible to see the shoreline, and NYC was nowhere in the picture.

After lunch, I continued to stow the various items brought on board. Instead of taking a nap, which I needed, I decided to update the blog with today's excitement.