New Jersey Coast (continued)

Atlantic Highlands continued We had a nice sailing day with little wind, but a strong current with us.  We made good time and arrived about 2:00 p.m. and picked up a mooring at the local yacht club.  New Jersey continues to be our least favorite sailing grounds.  With this in mind, we were in Atlantic Highlands, a relatively well protected harbor, which was important as the forecast was for a thunder storm to move through Monday night and Tuesday.  We weathered the storm and ended up staying until Tuesday evening when we left at 6:00 p.m. with plans of sailing the 87 mile stretch (about a 14 hour sail) to Atlantic City through the night.

Atlantic City, NJ – Wednesday Sep 24 We arrived in Atlantic City just after 8:00 a.m. after sailing through the night from Atlantic Highlands.  We had a nice sail through the night with winds out of the northeast at 15 to 20 knots, allowing us to make great time, sailing at about 7 knots for most of the trip.  The night was cool and the sky was clear with millions of stars, the only thing that would have made it better would have been a full moon.  We pulled into the Gardner Basin Marina, the same quaint marina we stayed on our trip north over the 4th of July.  The historic Gardner Basin has been completely renovated and restored back to the fishing history of a century ago.  There are nice restaurants, shops and plenty of tourists in this area.  The one thing it doesn’t have, given it’s in Atlantic City, is the gambling aspect, which suits us just fine

Docks at Gardner Basin

Monica at the Aquarium

Atlantic City Skyline

Neptune's Statue on the docks

We cleaned the boat inside and out and then took a nap.  After not sleeping the night before, a nap was essential.  We woke mid afternoon and took a short walk through the area.  We ended up grabbing a quick “cold one” at the local pub and headed back to the boat.  We prepared an early dinner and called it an early evening as we were exhausted from the night before and had a full day’s sail in front of us to Cape May the next day.

Cape May, NJ – Thursday Sep 25 We left Atlantic City around 7:30 a.m. and faced a grueling 45 mile leg to Cape May with the winds out of the southeast and a tide against us, it took us over 9 hours to sail.  Most of the day, the wind was on the bow and we had rollers (rolling waves) that continuously crashed off the bow impeding our progress. Cape May is the southern most city in New Jersey.  It is an old fishing town that has been a summer tourist destination  for nearly two centuries.  It draws crowds from NYC, Philadelphia, and other major metropolitan areas.  The main attraction is the Victorian town with its quaint houses and interesting shops, its pedestrian mall seaside vistas.

Seaside vistas of Cape May

We finally entered the anchorage in Cape May about 5:00 p.m., and what a crowded anchorage it was.  There were approximately 20 boats in what normally comfortably holds around 10 boats.   We felt a wee bit crowded.  Nevertheless, we through out the hook knowing it would be a quick visit.  Our plan was to leave the anchorage at 4:00 a.m. on Friday morning to make low tide at the bridges through the Cape May Canal.  (If you recall from earlier accounts, Cape May is the spot that has the two bridges that, on our way north, we had an unpleasant encounter with as we swiped off the top of the mast and took with it all the navigation lights and instruments.)

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