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.