We took a slow start on our departure from the South Jersey Marina as we were only planning on going about 45 miles to Atlantic City. Everyone we talked to said that we needed to go "outside" -- meaning in the North Atlantic Ocean, not in the ICW. Wednesday's forecast was the best in weeks for such a trip. Lots of boats in the Marina left at the crack of dawn to take advantage of the good sea conditions and go all the way to New York.
When we exited the inlet into the ocean about 10 o'clock, I was thrilled to see the weatherman was right. The ocean had some small (one to two foot) swells, but they were 9 seconds apart and not breaking. We pushed down on the throttles and Invictus bobbed through the swells at 20 miles per hour like a playful dolphin.
We could see the high rise buildings of Atlantic City for most of the trip.
We turned into the Atlantic City inlet and found our Marina very close to the board walk. We tied up and plugged in, even though it looked pretty grim. I strolled over to the bath house and was reminded of a gas station bathroom in the 1960s. I walked toward the board walk and felt like I should go back to the boat for my pistol. By the time I got back to the boat, Linda handed me a plate of baked clams and said, "Maybe we should just blow this place off and go further north while the weather is so good." My sentiments exactly!
I tipped the Marina owner for helping us tie off and told him that we had decided to take advantage of the good weather. We were off like a prom dress -- pretty darn fast.
We turned Invictus to the Northeast once again and pushed the throttles down running parallel to the beach about 4 miles off. I texted my buddy John Walker for advice while I studied the charts as we were underway. What would be a good place to anchor for the night?
After considering several options I noticed that the swells were now coming more out of the south and our track was turning more to the north. We were making great time. We could actually be at Sandy Hook by 6:30. We called the Marina and they said, "Come on, Captain, we'll have somebody here to help you tie up."
As we rounded the tip of Sandy Hook, we could see the New York City skyline laid out before us. What a thrill. Olive wagged her tail at the thought of taking a bite of the big apple. Or maybe she just needed to pee.
We pulled in a little after 6:00 p.m., having run 145 miles from Cape May to Sandy Hook. The Marina will be very nice sometime later this year when they finish their massive reconstruction from the ravages of Sandy. For our night, it was like camping in a construction zone.
Linda improved the ambiance by making a fabulous Coq au vin. We saw a little sunlight before the sun set and got excited about the forecast of sunshine for Thursday as we would be entering New York Harbor.
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