2022: Heading south

 19 October 2022

Depart: Rumson Dock 10:15

Arrive: Barnegat Anchorage 6:15

Distance:  60 nm

The leaves started changing colors in Rumson, so it was well past time to get the boat moving south. Doctor appointments, tests, and such stood in the way of an earlier departure.

We thought we were ready to get underway. We moved everything onto the boat on Tuesday and closed up the house Tuesday night for an early casting off of lines on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, the boat had other ideas regarding our plans. We discovered when we flushed the toilet and tried to wash our hands, we had no water. The water pump had failed! 

Before we could drop the lines, Clark had to climb into the bilge of the boat and swap out the existing pump for the spare we luckily had on hand. For many this would have meant the end of travel plans. Although it made us reconsider our destination for the day, with my exceptionally talented husband, this "disaster" resulted in a delay of departure only.

Only Clark's feet can be seen
as he works on exchanging out the water pump.

Clark wanted to take on enough diesel fuel to get us to Virginia. Before the pump delay, he planned on stopping at Atlantic Highlands to take on fuel. With the delayed start, he decided to check on the price at Bahr's since Bahr's is on our way and AH is a side trip. 

AH gave us a price of $5.95 / gallon. When Clark called Bahr's, he talked to someone who told him $4.99 per gallon. After tying up at the dock at Bahr's, we rechecked the price and was told by the attendant that it was $6.59 a gallon. Clark explained that he was told $4.99, and the attendant said that was impossible because there was no one there in the building or on the dock except himself. No one else could have spoken to Clark on the phone. Clark confirmed that he pressed 3 for the dock and all were left mystified by how that was possible. 

Last year when we traveled south, I was convinced we had a gremlin on board giving us a difficult time. With two weird events in one day (sudden pump failure and ghost answering Bahr's phone), I am concerned that the gremlin had so much fun last year that he is back traveling with us again! 

After picking up a modest amount of fuel at Bahr's, we continued on our way. As we rounded the end of Sandy Hook, we found a dredging operation underway. 

For Forrest Gump fans, the boat's name was 
"Captain Dann"!

It was a race with the sun to see who would win - anchor down or not before sun went down. We tied. We dropped the anchor as the sun disappeared. 

Sunset at Barnegat Light

20 October 2022

Depart: Barnegat anchorage 8:00

Arrive: Cape May anchorage 5:40

Distance:  68 nm

When we passed by Barnegat Light last time, it was covered top to bottom with scaffolding. The project is now completed, and the lighthouse looks great.

Barnegat Light

Yesterday, we took the shortcut in to the inlet breakwater R"6" marker from the NE and found plenty of water. Today, we were heading south so planned on exiting the normal route through the channel markers. As Clark approached the G"3" R"4" marker pair, the seas appeared to be breaking suggesting shallow water. He slowed down to a crawl watching the water depth drop to 5' in the channel. With the 2-4' seas, he stopped and backed hard to avoid bottoming out in the swells. The tide was at just under half tide at the Barnegat USCG tide station. So the marked channel could not be trusted, especially for 5' draft vessels at low water. I thought he was going to back all the way back to the inlet, but he eventually turned around and exited the channel east of R"6" breakwater marker and headed NE until well clear before heading south past RW"BI" marker.

Later, as we passed Long Beach, I saw a water spout and then something black come out of the water - a whale! It breached multiple times, but the camera was not immediately handy.  Clark stopped our forward motion and ran out to take pictures. The two below were the best he could capture. 

Some research on Google indicated that the two I saw were most likely juvenile humpback whales. 

whale on left and spray of 2nd on right

As we traveled down the cost at a little under 8 knots, I predicted that we would get to our Cape May destination at 6:00 - once again, just in time for the night's sunset. Clark said he thought it would be more like 4:00 to get to the inlet.  

We arrived at the inlet at 5:00 and had the anchor down by 5:15. Clark decided that we needed to move to a different location. We looked around, found the anchorage too crowded to pick a better spot, and finally went back to drop the anchor in practically the same place as the first time. We finally called it a day at 5:40 - much closer to my 6:00 estimate than his 4:00 prediction.

Sunset at Cape May Coast Guard Station