Jersey Shore: Northbound

22 June

Friday turned out to be a late night, and the forecast wasn’t great for sailing Saturday, so Bowe and I slept in.  We re-provisioned, returned his rental car and spent a good bit of time in the engine room addressing another leak in the fresh water plumbing.  Not a big deal just time consuming.  We’ve already put more than 60 hours on the diesel this trip which is getting close to the normal total for a full year!  The girl’s holding up well but things do happen.

Sunday turned out to be beautiful and we nosed out into the Atlantic Ocean (!) for the first time, heading 045 degrees toward Atlantic City, again motoring all the way.  We did set the Genoa for a couple of hours but never shut off the engine.  She made good time, averaged a little over 5 knots for the nearly 40 miles and–once through the slop-and-chop of Absecon Inlet–we turned into Clam Creek about 1530 to tie up at Kammerman’s Marina.

This shot gives you an idea what Kammerman’s is like.  Cape May has the famous “Painted Ladies,” colorful homes from the Victorian Era.  Atlantic City has these “Tired Ladies” (the brown structures in the background, leaning eastward) along the waterfront across from the garish glare of Harrah’s, the Golden Nugget and others.

Though not far from the casinos, Kammerman’s has something of a “rustic” feel.

But the Kammerman’s staff and the neighbors all were friendly and helpful and the rate–$2 / foot–is half the rate across the way at the Trump Marina.  After Monday’s off-and-on rain and thunderstorms, we headed out this morning…around the bend and into Gardner’s Basin, a much newer, cleaner marina which we learned charges even less than Kammerman’s!

So here we sit as the wind blows out of the north at 15 – 20, gusting to 25 or 30.  The forecast is for more tomorrow!  It’s been a rough couple of days, walking around AC.  Fortunately, there’s Gosling’s aboard ’cause it looks like it could be a Dark & Stormy night.  Arrrrrrrrrgh!

Steadfast, out.

29 June

The simplest of pleasures are not to be overlooked, as in sipping that morning cup of Joe on the back porch–or in this case, the cockpit–as the shower clears and the sun brightens the haze over Atlantic Highlands, NJ.  The setting, with tidy hillside homes overlooking more than a hundred sailboats in the mooring field below, has the feel of many New England harbors.

The handsome waterfront homes of Atlantic Highlands, NJ, keep watch on the harbor full of yachts.

The setting was not fully appreciated–heck, it wasn’t appreciated much at all–when finally making the turn into the harbor at 2005 (8:05 pm) last night.  At that point, the sweetest sound that could be was the voice of the harbormaster responding, “Yeah, cap’n, we got a mooring for ya. Come on in.”  Sweet, indeed, since Atlantic Highlands is first come-first served; and at that point, it had been a 16-hour, 86-nautical mile day.

Sitting at the pier in Atlantic City the past few days, waiting for the weather to shift, this leg of the trip became more and more daunting to my mind: small boat, ocean swells, no real good place to go in a pinch and…no crew.  Sheesh!  “What am I thinkin’?”  Turns out, I was just thinkin’ too much.  There’s a point where you just gotta do it and in reality, the trip was no big deal.  The boat did fine, of course; she always does.  It’s amazing the engine just keeps plugging along, all those hours (yes, the westerly winds forecast for the day–which would’ve been perfect–had a lot of north in them, when they blew at all).  There were a few other boats out there, so I never felt alone-alone.  And…there’s always TowBoat, “standing by one-6.”

So, good trip.  Good to see the Manhattan skyline when I turned at Sandy Hook.

Turning Sandy Hook at dusk, the Manhattan skyline is barely discernible but unmistakeable nonetheless.

And good to be tucked in  here for the day.  Bowe’s trying to work out logistics to re-join me tomorrow and then we’ll make the run through NYC, up the East River and into Long Island Sound.

This is the day the Lord has given us.  Be glad in it.

Steadfast, out.