Making Wake Everyday Part 3: New Jersey

June 8, 2011

We have gone from Cape May to Sandy Hook, NJ in one LONG day before, but that was when we left from a marina in Cape May. We have never anchored in Cape May because we don't like the looks of where you have to anchor (we would get too crowded), so now we divide the run up the coast in the manner I will be describing.

Morning and Evening

These two fishing boats were in Delaware Bay right outside of Cape May. The smaller boat was offloading fish into the bigger boat. I could see the fish getting picked up with a big crane net. A guy with a little hand net would scoop up the ones that dropped out of the big one. MORNING STAR, I'm sure to their disappointment, got stuck behind us going through the Cape May Canal back to their home dock after their work night of fishing. It is mostly too narrow for them to go around us at the same time.

Tight squeeze through the railroad bridge

Obviously, they couldn't have passed us through this bridge, especially with the strong current associated with the tidal flow. In fact, a small powerboat wouldn't have enough room to go through with us at the same time. I decided to try to take some shots from inside the helm area to give you an idea what we see.

Cape May beast

When you are coming into the Cape May Canal from Delaware Bay you will immediately pass by the ferry terminal. Ferries run from Cape May to Lewes, DE throughout the day. They are fast, so you need to pay attention to them when they are coming and going and backing out of the terminal. Various types of residential homes line the Canal once you get a short ways beyond the terminal land. Some of the residents have an unusual sense of humor or are real Jurassic Park fans.

This is the first time we have gone through Cape May harbor proper when there wasn't a dredge operation going on to where we had to go through a maze of temporary channel markers, and we would always have our low water alarm beeping.

The Cape May inlet to the Atlantic Ocean is a nice one: deep, wide, well-marked, with a short run to the ocean. Even though we had some wind and tide conflict, like we see in the inlets, it only lasted a short time. Once we made the turn north, we had following seas. FLUKE does very well with the wind on her big, wide stern and gives us a nice ride.

That means we can spend the day doing chores. With the engine running, I can vacuum the boat (takes about an hour) because I'm taking power from the alternator. If we were not running, I would put a big demand on the batteries or else we would have to start the generator. I made a batch of brownies. I must say, we have made great strides in finally figuring out how to cook things in the gas oven which only heats from its bottom, way too close to the food you are cooking. My brownies turned out yummy.

The muffin maker

Wayne has to start his English muffin baking even before we haul up the anchor to leave. The process starts with mixing up his starter and letting it rise to the point where it can be incorporated into a dough mix. With all the humidity in the boat, the dough can be VERY sticky, and it has to be divided into 12 individual piles. The result is what you see getting cooked in the electric frying pan which takes about half an hour. That means the generator has to get turned on because running the watt hog frying pan for that long puts too much demand on what the alternator can produce while we are underway.

The XM addict

Eddie passes time in the calm open ocean by listening to XM radio using his Bose stereo from the house. He took the XM receiver out of his car and plugged it in to the Bose stereo. He sent the antennae wire out of his port and attached it to the upper deck railing for improved reception. So, he can listen to any talk show or music that he wants.

Hazy skyline

No one does anything else but look landward when we are approaching an inlet. In this case, we were headed in to Atlantic City around 5:00 p.m. We had been plagued by the haze and fog all day, but at least we had decent visibility to where we didn't have to worry about safety issues. Getting into the inlet went well, even though the tide was coming out with the wind slightly behind us.

Please be deep enough

We planned to anchor in the Brigantine anchorage area. It is accessible by going through a very narrow channel of water that flows into the inlet. You have to swing around a huge sandbar that you keep to starboard, and then just hug the marsh shore line to port, hoping that the water stays deep enough. There are some markers on sticks that help keep you off shallow spots as the little channel widens out in the anchorage area. This photo shows Eddie looking over the side for obstructions that might be sticking out from shore. You can also see some other boats already anchored up ahead of us. We found an isolated spot on the side opposite them so we could have plenty of room. This would mark the second time we have anchored in here. It used to be we wouldn't stop here because we thought there wouldn't be enough room for us and it would be too shallow. After we had talked to other cruisers with similar size and draft boats as FLUKE, we decided to give it a try. Being able to stop here has made our lives easier.

Night lights

The anchorage is in close enough where you can see a lot of the fully lit buildings of Atlantic City. I can never get any clear night shots with the boat moving; plus a lot of the buildings have lights that move and/or change color too. The nearby busy road makes a lot of traffic noise until the very wee hours of the morning. While we were asleep, another boat came into the anchorage and anchored very close to us. We started our engine at 5:25 a.m., and to pull up our anchor we had to get near the other boat. There is no way they could have slept through our bow thruster noise.

A dragger

We had another long day of foggy skies, but mild seas. We had to pass several fishing boats trailing their nets in the water, but we could always see them without worry. Plus, they go very slowly when they are actively fishing. However, one fishing boat was on an intersecting course to ours, so I had to alter course and pass behind it. We never know how far the nets are really trailing behind the boat, so we can only guess how far to pass behind to avoid the nets. Right when we were astern of the fishing boat, wondering if we were far enough away, our off-course alarm starting blaring, really startling us since we were so focused on the net issue. Then, we just started laughing!

Fishing party

It is a welcome relief to see the massive bluffs of the Atlantic Highlands area as they signal the end to a long ocean run. Rounding Sandy Hook at the mouth of New York harbor always brings a lot of fishing boats, private and party, plying the rushing waters that flow from ocean to inland bay areas. The fishing must be good because the boats are always there, any time of the day that we've traveled by.

Good-bye New Jersey, hello New York.

(A quick note: Thanks to all who comment, we appreciate them.)