Sandy Hook to Atlantic City...."That Sucked!"

  
                                                                       

                                                      
                                                   Atlantic Highlands Marina


                                                                                 

                                               
                                                 Marina with NYC in the background

                                                                                

                                         
                                          Another beautiful sunset @Atlantic Highlands


                                                                                   

                                               
                                            Blue Moon at Atlantic Highlands Marina
                                                                                

                                                                                

  Our plan seemed good.  Up early. Catch an hour or so of an incoming tide than get a 4 to 6 hour boost in speed with the outgoing tide all the way to Barnegat Inlet some 40 miles south. If the weather and sea conditions were acceptable we would go all the way to Cape May (120 miles). We plotted in two "outs".  One at Manasquan inlet (about 20 Miles) and the other at Atlantic City (about 80 miles).  Ha! We make our plans and the Gods laugh!
     Leaving Sandy Hook we fell into a lazy and comfortable ocean swell as we pushed into the tide at 9 knots. When the tide turned we got a boost in speed to 10.5 knots with an easy undulating ride that allowed us to view the shore passing by, just 3 miles to our east.  Passing Manasquan Inlet Danny and I both grinned with the anticipation that wow, we might be able to knock out a big day since the ride was pleasant.
      Unfortunately, things turned sour 10 miles past our last "out".  The breeze stiffened and the ocean swells.....swelled! Danny and Beth had rested most of the morning so I, feeling a little queasy, took a couch break while they took the helm. I could hear them talking about how "This isn't too bad. If it doesn't get any worse we might be able to go all the way to Cape May."
     Things started to get worse. First, we heard distress calls to the Coast Guard and Tow Boat US.
"We are a 27 foot Catalina. We are going to need a tow!"
"We have a boat on fire....smoke pouring out of the engine room. It may be just a ruptured hose!"
"There's a boat on the rocks with a kid trying to hold it off!" and worst of all........
 "We have a child overboard!"
   It was the weekend and the marked fishing areas were littered with small and larger fishing boats that we had to thread our way through.
     Docs' Holiday began to pound into the head seas and we heard, "South bound boat with the black hull. You are getting close to the shoals. You need to head out!"
Indeed we were in 20 feet of water and thrashing all over the place.  I took over the helm and we headed out. It wasn't a whole lot better but at least we had 30 to 40 feet of water and didn't have to worry about going to ground.
 Danny commented, "Sky. Water. Sky. Water. White caps.  It's rough but the boat isn't in any danger."
 I replied, "Take over the helm a minute while I puke over the side.....and did!!"
     Beth, exasperated and feeling nauseated went to the couch with the dogs and held on. She later told me that when I got sick both dogs got scared and started to shake.  We had to head back into shallow water to get to the Atlantic City Inlet and what we were doing wasn't easing the situation much. Curiously, we passed sailboats and a trawler heading north with the swells and they seemed to be doing fine.   As we turned west into the inlet the swells began hitting us from the port beam and rolling us from side to side.  I heard Beth groan. This was the motion she really didn't like!  Within  what seemed like an eternity but actually was a few minutes, we were safely inside and anchored right in front of the Golden Nugget Casino.  We were feeling unwell, exhausted and ready to sell the boat but, we were safe.

                                                                         

                                                               
                                                          Golden Nugget Casino
                                                                             
                                                                                 

                                                                 
                                                                Taj Mahal

                                                                               

                                                     
                                                   Golden Nugget Night Lights

     What went wrong? The first error occurred in the morning as we were leaving Sandy Hook.  I inadvertently moved (still don't know how I did it!) the entire route track on the  map plotter. I quickly reassembled the upper part of the route and should have checked the destination waypoints. Second, our plan violated one of our previous learned dictum's...."Be off the water by two in the afternoon that's when the storms come up!"  There wasn't a storm but the wind came up and with us pushing against the wind, the tide, the ocean swell and being in the shallow water.....well....you see what happened!
     A lesson relearned and not soon to be forgotten!
     At least we had a very good anchorage.  We could see the pool bar especially well using the binoculars. Good thing we had two. Danny is bigger than me and I might have had a struggle un-gluing those binoculars from his eyes. The music was a little loud.....wait did I say music!  Very little music.....a lot of "Rap Crap!"  Fortunately it quieted down around 10 pm.  The boat remained motionless once the sun went down and we had enough air flow that we didn't have to use the generator to run air conditioners.
     Grilled chicken Caesar's salad and a few cocktails later and even Beth was smiling again.
     Let's see if we can get a better outcome tomorrow.
      It's only 40 miles to Cape May.