It's Monday, May 27th, Memorial Day, and we finally got a break in the weather and had a beautiful run off-shore, 79 miles to Barnegat Bay, about 2/3 of the way up the Jersey coastline. After a 6-day delay at Cape May, we were really glad to be moving again. We had a nice restful day yesterday, rode our bikes a couple of miles to First Presbyterian Church and picked up some groceries on the way back. The church was beautiful, inside and out.
The sermon was very good on the topic of the Trinity and the music was a first for us. We attended the contemporary service and were surprised to hear a jazz ensemble. I've been involved with church music now for about the past 30 years as either pianist and/or as a part-time music director and have never heard jazz in church. It was very good, especially the trombone player, and it gave a slightly different twist to some of the traditional songs they sang. Anyhow, back to leaving Cape May. We had been docked next to two Grand Banks all week that were traveling together - a 36' named "Third Reef" and a 46' named "Baleen." Here we are all docked side-by-side. "Baleen" is faster than "Third Reef" and us so she waited to depart after us.
We had a nice sunrise just before departure.
And shortly thereafter, Rhonda got a shot of the almost full moon. It's not often that you get a sunrise and a daytime moon shot within 30 minutes of each other.
Here's a shot looking back at the entrance to the marina after we departed. A couple of things to notice. They have a six-foot tide as you can see by the water line on the wall. You'll notice also how skinny the entrance/exit is (the opening by the lighthouse). That's not really a big deal except once you leave the marina you have to make a hard 90 degree left turn to stay in the channel which runs only out to about 30 feet from the wall. We left only one hour after low tide so there was not much wiggle-room.
There are several channels from the Atlantic into the internal waters of New Jersey. The one at Cape May is the southernmost one. Here's "Third Reef" leading the way out into the Atlantic.
There's not much change to the Jersey coastline - miles and miles of water, beach, and houses. This is Ocean City where they also had about 4 sets of amusement parks. It was hard to see the damage from Hurricane Sandy from our distance out, about 2 miles, but you can definitely see construction equipment among the rides.
About the only significant large town with tall buildings is Atlantic City - it really sticks out. Here she is from a distance and then a couple of close-ups. Don't ask me why there is a golf-ball-looking thing on the top of the tower - no idea.
There was lots of boat traffic out today, those that were running the coastline like us and lots of locals enjoying Memorial Day. There were even a few fishing boats out and we believe this was the first shrimp boat out actively shrimping that we've seen since Fernandina Beach, FL.
Most of the channels can be difficult to navigate, especially with shoaling from Hurricane Sandy and when the tide is running fast. The current in the Barnegat channel can be as much as 5 miles per hour. We followed "Third Reef" in. That's Barnegat lighthouse in the distance.
The beach was very pretty, clean sand and clean water.
And we have decided that there are Bubbas everywhere - notice the camouflage camper in the picture.
Things got pretty busy in the inlet with all the boat traffic so there were not any opportunities for pictures. We decided to anchor out and found a great spot with good wind protection and plenty of water, about 12-15 feet. We've got fishing boats to our left.
A couple of marinas to our left and right.
And the main channel behind us (we're at the very end).
We have an iffy weather day tomorrow and then several worse weather days after that. We are going to leave early and try to make New York City before it gets too bad. We'll keep you posted.
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