Depart: Hoffman's Marina - Manasquan Inlet 9:15
Arrive: Farley State Marina - Atlantic City, NJ 2:45
Distance: 54 nm
A boating friend of ours likes to post her favorite boat names in her blog updates. Well today I found one I liked at Hoffman's Marina .. "Tickee Tockee".
Before leaving the marina Clark spotted a kayaker heading for the bridge. I just hope that if he planned to go under it, he remembered to lower his fishing poles first. Going under that bridge in a kayak is something Clark would "convince" me do.
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| I wonder ... does he plan to go under or not??? |
For today's travel, Clark made the decision to try going "on the outside", i.e. in the Atlantic Ocean, today despite the ominous forecasts of 6-foot waves. My conversation with local fishermen, as I threw off our lines today, basically summarizes it.
Fisherman: Going to Florida?
Me: Yep
Fisherman: What's your next stop?
Me: Atlantic City
Fisherman: Going via the Intracoastal I hope!
Me: Nope! But that is our Plan B if it gets too bad out there.
(For this I got a thumb's up.)
Clark held jumping back in at Barnegat Inlet as Plan C, should we need it. When reviewing the wave situation, Clark saw that, at the weather buoy 5 miles out at Barnegat, the waves registered at 6 feet. Given the direction of the wind, Clark figured that if we stayed close to shore, we would get less action. That indeed turned out to be the case, and we found the rollers in the ocean to be quite acceptable for travel offshore to Atlantic City.
Shortly after Barnegat Inlet, we passed a sailboat, "Prevailing Winds", who haled us on the radio to say hello and ask if we were enjoying our trip. The owner, Gary, proudly exclaimed in response to a comment from Clark that, no, he was not traveling under motor power. With just using his jib, he had seen speeds of up to 10 knots which to a sailboat is flying! We did indeed have a good tailwind today.
We experienced sustained winds of over 20 knots and gusts as high as 45 knots on today's ocean voyage. The 45 knots occurred as we passed Great Bay where we had no land protection. All-in-all, other than a significant chill in the air, we had a rather pleasant trip along the coast.
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| Approaching Atlantic City (Note the swells and choppy water) |
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| A.C. Getting Closer |
Due to the winds and waves, Sunset Delight received an extensive salt-water shower during the course of our travels today. Heading out of Manasquan Inlet we got salt spray from one side, heading south we had spray across our bow, and heading in at Atlantic City, we got spray from the other side. Basically, the whole boat got covered in salt. At one point a big splash (not spray) reached the 7 or so feet up from the ocean to seriously clean our anchor! Multiple times spray came up and showered the full enclosure.
Once we got tied up and checked in, Clark made it a priority to wash down the boat to get most of the salt off. Having just spent a good deal of time washing the panels of our full enclosure the night before, I was disappointed that everything was coated in salt less than 24 hours later.
By the time Clark declared himself done cleaning the boat, the sun had dropped quite low in the sky. Gary, from "Prevailing Winds", stopped by to introduce himself. He came on board and talked with us for a while. Clark had promised me a walk after the boat wash, and Gary's wife called to move him along, so we all left together to walk up to the marina office to find his wife. From there, we said our goodbyes as they went on their way to find dinner, and Clark and I set off to check out the local points of interest.
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| Sunset view from Farley State Marina in Atlantic City |
We climbed the steps to the top of the building, containing the marina office and a restaurant associated with the Golden Nugget, to get some views of the area.
We did not "walk the docks", but we did walk to the far ends of the marina to check it out.
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| We found these sailboats in rather shallow water! |
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| Casinos at night |
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| Big, Flashing Lights |
After our brisk walk, we returned to the boat to watch some Sunday night television. Since we could find no digital television stations other than HSN, and cable TV was not available, we watched our favorite shows via the internet until it was time to call it a night.
10/22/2018
Depart: Atlantic City, NJ 9:30
Arrive: Utsch's Marina, Cape May, NJ 2:05
Distance: 36 nm
We had a delay leaving the marina this morning as the charge that appeared on my credit card did not match the amount the marina said when we checked in. We waited until they opened at 9:00 to discuss the charges with the dock master. He explained that the charge included a $100 authorization fee that would be removed when we checked out. Too bad I did not have that information last night!
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| Coast Guard Station |
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| Leaving Atlantic City |
As we headed out into the Atlantic Ocean from Atlantic City, we saw numerous dolphins playing in the water - so many in fact, that I lost count. Try as he might, Clark could not get the dolphins to pose for a picture!
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| One of many dolphins playing in inlet (Note the calm waters - nothing like the day before) |
Although the waters were much, much calmer than yesterday, I found the travel a lot less pleasant. With the in-the-face wind, the weather was far too cold. For the most part, I stayed below. When I did take a turn at the wheel so Clark could use the restroom, I quickly became chilled to the bone in spite of the 5 layers of clothes covering my torso.
Consequently, as I stayed warm in the salon reading a book, I missed all the chatter Clark enjoyed on the trip. He once again passed "Prevailing Winds" and talked with him. In addition he caught up with "Cha Cha" - a boat whose owners we met in Marathon back in January of this year. "Cha Cha" became our unexpected traveling companion for the trip into Cape May. We stopped at Utsch's and they continued on to South Jersey Marina.
After settling in at our slip, registering, etc. etc., we walked over to South Jersey Marina to visit with Craig and Sherry on "Cha Cha" for a while. On the way I saw a cute little boat.
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| "A Tiny Cruise Line" |
We invited them to join us for dinner at the Lobster House restaurant. As we tied up our boat, we met Dan and Jodi on "Done Diggin" in the slip next to ours. They are soon-to-be loopers and proudly displaying the AGLCA burgee. We invited them to join us for dinner as well.
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| Looper Dinner at Lobster House Ev & Clark - Sunset Delight Sherry & Craig - Cha Cha Jodi & Dan - Done Diggin |
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