Crew Log for October 14th and 15th, 2022
Trip Summary:
Atlantic Highlands, NJ to Cape May, NJ
Trip Distance of 115 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 1,275.3 NM
Departed at 0900 hours and arrived at 0900 hours + 1 day
When I started route planning last winter, this stretch was going to be our longest and arguably our most challenging leg of the entire trip. In reality, it was neither.
Our longest leg was the crossing from Port La Tour, Nova Scotia to Northeast Harbor (Mt. Desert Island), Maine, a total of 136 nautical miles. Given that it was across the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, there were no options to break it up, short of abandoning the leg and plotting a different route.
Most people opt to pick a 24 hour weather window and do the Jersey Coast in one hop. In fact given the 2 day weather window we had, several boats were planning to do a 36 hour trip from Atlantic Highlands and head directly for Chesapeake City. Our plan was to leave Atlantic Highlands early in the morning, which would put us in Cape May sometime after first light the following day.
There are a couple of spots along the Jersey Coast that we could duck into if we had to. In fact, we met one Old Salt along the way who insisted we should stop into Atlantic City, given slip fees were relatively inexpensive. I suppose the real money was made in the casinos and dockage was a lost leader. Bright lights and gambling aren’t really our jam, but it was good to have a “Plan B” option if we needed it. A section of the ICW does run down the Jersey coast, but the bridges are too low for our air draught so it isn’t an option.
The weather the past couple of days wasn’t great with strong winds out of the south. We were worried about a lingering sea swell, particularly since we would be in lighter winds, which would mean more yawing and rolling. Luckily for us, the winds shifted throughout the night and blew hard out of the north, which seemed to have flattened out the sea state.
We weighed anchor at 0900, which was firmly set, so it was actually a bit of a challenge getting it up. We were joined by sv Magali, along with several other boats and sv That’s It and sv Blue Whale would be leaving a couple of hours after us, give they are considerably faster.
The first part of the trip was up wind towards the “hook”. It was absolutely chaotic as we rounded Sandy Hook. There was a washboard like swell, lots of commercial traffic, barges and dozens of sport fishing boats of all sizes and shapes that made our route planning “interesting”. It was also amazing to look over and see people fishing on the shore. It looked like they were standing on the water.
We were very quickly around Sandy Hook and set a course for Cape May. The conditions were perfect. The winds were 10 – 15 knots, on the beam. We sailed with single reefed main and full jib. The swells were 3 – 6 feet, but the wave period was about 8 seconds, which created an almost hypnotic feeling. I was reflecting back to a sea kayak trip we did in Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland several years ago when I had the same feeling, as we gently made our way around Exploits Island, powered by the rise and fall of the waves.
There was a literal flotilla of boats heading down the Jersey Coast, with well over half of them from Canada (and most of those from Quebec). One of the Canadian boats, sv IMOK II, went past us flying their spinnaker. We briefly thought about taking ours out but decided against it. As they went by, we commented on how small their boat looked compared to most of the other boats. Turns out, it was a C&C 33, the same size as us. We are definitely one of the smallest boats out here.
Side note.
Judy has been taking note of boat names along the way, and I am looking forward to her “Musing from Sea” in the future. As IMOK II went by, I wondered how you would pronounce it and what it meant. Judy said, “how do you spell it?”. “I.M.O.K.”, I replied, at which point we both commented that it was like that Laurel and Hardy comedy bit, “Who’s on First”. Imagine radioing the Coast Guard and saying “I’m OK”, “Well why are you calling us then”. They actually thought it was a witty name twice, given the boat was IMOK II.
But I digress.
We had a comfortable sail until about suppertime. As forecasted, the winds would be lighter for most of the evening, which we didn’t mind. We did leave the main up for the entire trip and actually sailed for 3 – 4 hours around midnight. It was a beautiful moon lit night, clear skies and calm seas. In fact the visibility was so good that during our shift change, Judy and struggled to figure out what the odd configuration of lights was in the distance. Nothing was showing up on the radar or AIS. I stared at them for a long time before I figured out they were the lights from Atlantic City, 20 miles away.
We stayed about 3 – 5 miles off shore and luckily the barge and commercial traffic was light. Other boats had reported spotting whales and porpoises, but despite being the perfect conditions for seeing wildlife, our trip was uneventful. The evening sunset and morning sunrise were however, spectacular.
We arrived at the anchorage at Cape May shortly after 0830 which was already full. We negotiated our way to the inside of the other boats and dropped the anchor, which started to drag. When I raised it up to re-anchor, there was a large wire cable 2 – 3 inches in diameter caught in our anchor and chain. Fortunately there was a rope wound around the cable that I could grab on to and untangle the anchor. Apparently, another boat brought up an old wheel and axle the next morning.
We were both tired so decided to take a slip at Utches Marina, which got good reviews on Active Captain and Dockwa. They didn’t have a empty transient slip but accommodated us in one of the fuel dock slips, which turned out to be perfect. Every boat receives a welcome basket full of information about Cape May, some treats and even a bottle of local wine! Judy and I both feel asleep in the cockpit in the sun.
Shortly after we arrived, sv Blue Whale also came in from the anchorage and took a slip. It was amazing to watch Captain Dean negotiate the tight conditions on their Catalina 47!
We headed of towards Cape May in the afternoon and had lunch in what was reported to be the oldest bar in the state of New Jersey. It was originally built in the early 1800’s. The initial design included a tough that ran along the front of the bar for the patrons, all men of course, to relive themselves. Thankfully, the trough was gone, as was the rule of men only.
Given we arrived here by water, it is really easy to forget how close we are to large urban cities. Philadelphia was a short distance away, which explained the steady stream of Penn State Football fans and Phillies baseball fans coming into the bar to watch the Saturday afternoon games.
We didn’t see much of Cape May given we were planning to leave the next morning to head up the Delaware, so we are already looking forward to stopping here on the return trip and exploring more. Our first impressions of Cape May were that they must have the largest number of bait and tackle shops of anywhere in the US, and it was one of least pedestrian friendly places we’ve been. Crosswalks are scarce and everyone seems to be a rush.
The wind was forecasted to be very light the next day, and while we were tired from our trip down the Jersey Coast, no wind on the Delaware is better than the wrong wind.
But, more about that, next time.
Additional Photos:
Your comments regarding the boat IMOK II, reminds me of when one of my uncles was lobster fishing off the east end of PEI. The boat was called “This is It”. Their engines stopped, were taking on water, no pump. They radioed in to the Coast Guard of course, when asked their name of course they replied the ‘This is It’, ‘This is It’, ‘This is It’. After assuring the fishers that they were some distance away, and hearing them continue to say ‘this is it’.... they kept assuring them that they would be rescued - not to worry! Long story made short: other fishing boats rescued them, put them up for the night in Arichat and drove …