New Jersey - A Continuing Saga

Monday, 20 May – Farley State Marina, Atlantic City

After breakfast, AJ gave us a ride back to the marina from the beach house, then headed to New York City for business. We prepped the boat and planned alternative routes to continue our voyage.

If they lift the small craft advisory, we may go outside to Manasquan. If the seas are too rough, we considered taking the NJ ICW. The Coast Guard and TowBoatUS both reported that the ICW was open, after debris was cleared from hurricane Sandy. We were advised to travel at high tide and stay in mid channel. We were surprised to see the Falado du Rhodes pull up to the dock behind us.
This is the old brigantine sailboat we saw in the ICW at Hilton Head. It was flying both US and German flags. Turns out that the boat belongs to a German club who sail around the world, changing crews every two weeks. It is 42 years old, and about the same size as Columbus’ Pinta. Nice folks on board, having quite an adventure. After plotting our routes, we went to dinner at the Grotto, an Italian
restaurant in the Golden Nugget Casino – quite nice. Then we hit the
slots for a bit. Al won $131.50 on a $20 “investment.” Not enough to pay for the trip, but it helped to cover dinner.

Tuesday, 21 May – Atlantic City to Beach Haven - 20 mi.

Cloudy, foggy, 72 degrees. We woke up early to check the weather. Looked like there may be a morning window to cruise the north Atlantic. Went out the Absecon inlet and found ourselves being tossed about in 5-6 ft waves. We returned to the Farley Marina to plot plan B – ICW at high afternoon tide.  We bid “bon voyage” to Falado, as we watched her leave the dock, presumably also headed north. We found marinas along the ICW at 20 mi. intervals, planning a 3-day trip, thinking we may be cruising at reduced speed. The ICW was reasonably well marked at first, with water deep enough for bigger boats. We met Falado returning south on the ICW. They didn’t respond to our hailing them on the radio, so we never did find out if they tried to go outside and quit, or whether they found the ICW too shallow, or perhaps on a short practice cruise with a new crew.
There were some shoaled places at markers the Coast Guard warned us about, but the most worrisome part of the ICW was at Little Egg Harbor where the ICW takes several abrupt turns. It wasn’t clear where the channel was, and we did find some shallow water.  We didn’t run aground, but I wonder what condition our props are in after a little plowing in the sand/mud. The Beach Haven Yacht Club was right off the ICW. Chris, who ran it singlehandedly, saw us coming and talked us through the shallow water buoys to the fuel dock. Winds had picked up to 20-25 mph, so it was tricky to dock.  Chris was a big help in tying us into a slip. We found Teaghlach (our Scottish friends)
and Tranquility in neighboring slips. They had come up the ICW from Cape May today and had interesting tales of going aground in shallow water. We compared notes on weather, tides, and Coast Guard and TowBoatUS advice. Heavy thunderstorms were predicted for Thursday, so the plan was to try to make it all the way up the remaining ICW to Manasquan tomorrow. We would travel together. Charli and Al walked into town from the marina to see the Atlantic beach. Saw several dumpsters in driveways, perhaps they were cleaning up
and remodeling after hurricane Sandy which had hit this area pretty hard.  We had dinner at Buckalew’s, one of few restaurants open on Tuesday night.

Wednesday, 22 May – Beach Haven to Manasquan – 45 mi.

Cloudy, foggy, breezy, 71 degrees. We decided to head to Manasquan. The winds were cranking up, but it was dry and the tides were in our favor. Chris helped us undo the lines. He was instrumental in getting the docks repaired after Sandy. They took quite a beating. He was really a nice guy. We followed Capt Gerry and Joan (Teaghlach) and Capt Dan and Sue (Tranquility) through the ICW maze in the morning haze.  There were some shallow shoaled spot, but
the water depth was over 4 ft all the way. (but just 4 ft too much of the way).  At Point Pleasant,we saw homes that were demolished by the storm in various stages of repair. We docked at Hoffman’s Marina West, recently purchased and under remodeling construction. Our slip was the end of the E dock which was on the river side – and where we felt the wake of every boat, next to an old railroad bridge.  We even watched the trains go by.  We met Scott Neilson who had a palm tree (artificially made by his friend) at his slip. It was really cool looking, we'd love to have one at the beach house.


We celebrated our successful journey today at the Sand Bar, food was good and company was great.