7/29/18: After a week of gale warnings, small craft advisories, and severe thunderstorms, we finally got a break in the weather. It was only a couple days, but we decided to take advantage of it. We had to decide where our next stop would be, and our options were limited. New Jersey is not a great place for sailboats, especially deeper draft vessels like ours, which limited us even further. Our ultimate destination for this leg of the journey was Cape May, which would put New Jersey behind us, and the Delaware Bay ahead of us. But getting there was going to be dicey, as our weather window was small, and wasn’t the best to begin with.
This would be our first time on the ocean, and needless to say, we were both a little anxious about it. For our first experience, we wanted it to be somewhat calm. That meant no thunderstorms, which can whip up the winds and waves in moments. It also meant relatively calm seas – preferably 3 foot waves or less with a period of 6 seconds or more. The wave period is the time it takes for two wave heights to pass under a non-moving object). Shorter periods mean steeper waves, which gives a much rougher ride. We (finally) saw two or three days with the right seas, and ok weather. We jumped on it.
For deeper draft vessels, New Jersey is only passable from the ocean. The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) starts here, but hurricane Sandy and lack of funding has made all of the internal waterways virtually impassable by any boat over 3 feet deep, and we carry 6 feet. To get to the marinas and anchorages, you have to use the inlets, which lead to protected lakes, rivers, and bays There are about 10 inlets along the New Jersey coast, but only 4 are navigable by deep draft vessels. The first, Manasquan, was about 35 miles south of Sandy Hook (the northernmost point of land along the coast of New Jersey – about 7 miles from Staten Island). This inlet is notorious for extreme tidal currents, and the marinas aren’t well suited for sailboats. The next, another 35 miles south, is Barnegat. Many people we talked to, and several books we’d read, warn about using this inlet. Shallow shoals in the inlet constantly shift, forcing the coast guard to frequently move the channel bouys. Waves can reach 7 or 8 feet in the inlet alone due to wind, current, and intense boat traffic. Once inside, there are only 2 (very small) places to anchor, and one iffy marina. Another 35 miles further is Absecon (Atlantic City) and 40 miles after that, Cape May (the southern most point along the NJ coast).
Unfortunately, in the day we wanted to leave, Atlantic City was booked solid due to some regatta that was passing through. And the following day had afternoon storms predicted. So, we opted to make some forward progress, which meant going to either Manasquan or Barnegat. With storms the following day, Manasquan didn’t seem far enough along, so we decided to roll the dice and try Barnegat, even after hearing all the horror stories about it. To be fair, we did read a couple blogs of people making it through on boats with 6 and 7 foot drafts, and the marina claimed to have at least 8 feet of water at low tide. Plus, we called the Barnegat BoatUS towing company for some local knowledge and they said we’d have no problems whatsoever navigating the inlet, the waters inside the inlet, or the marina. We felt comfortable using the inlet for an overnight.
We left Great Kills Marina around 5:30am, after a sleepless night for both of us. We were going to have our first ocean sailing experience today, and our anxiety levels were reaching new heights! But go forward or go home, and right now we don’t have a home, so it’s forward! We crossed lower New York Harbor to Sandy Hook and saw an ominous sight: a sailboat, probably 40 feet or so, washed up on the beach at the very tip of the hook. They were certainly not having a good day. Hopefully ours wouldn’t turn out the same! As we rounded Sandy Hook, we officially entered the Atlantic Ocean. Huh. It felt pretty much the same. Well, wasn’t that anti-climatic! All that anxiety for this? We did notice one thing different, though. The waves (swells). They were big. Real big. But not in a scary way, like big Great Lakes waves. They were mostly 3-4 feet with a few rogue 5 footers mixed in. But the long wave period made their bases really wide, so you just slowly rode one swell up, and slowly rode down the other side. Some had shorter periods, so the ride up and down was a little faster, but they were nothing like Great Lakes waves. After a couple hours, we both decided that we’d MUCH rather have these kind of waves for 8 hours, rather than Great Lakes waves of the same height.
The entire coast of New Jersey (at least up to Barnegat Light) is nothing but one big, long beach. And every square foot of it has been developed, save one or two small areas that we guessed were public beaches. We saw nothing but houses, condos, beach houses, and motels, mile after mile after mile. The houses were packed so close together that you probably couldn’t walk between the houses. It was shocking that there was absolutely no natural area left along the entire coast.
We arrived at the Barnegat Inlet around 2PM, and the boat traffic going in and out was insane. Hundreds of boats were zipping in and out, and also everywhere in the inner bay. The wakes they created collided with other wakes and also the natural ocean swells, causing huge waves to pile up and ricochet in every direction. There were even people fishing right in the middle of the inlet. It took all our concentration to maneuver the boat through the waves while also trying to miss the idiots fishing in the inlet. After we passed through, though, we saw the marina about 1/4 mile away, and we were situated at their transient slip within minutes. Our first day ever on the ocean was over, and we were relieved that it wasn’t near as bad as we feared. But we were both exhausted from the lack of sleep and the 9 hour journey to here, so we just sat on the boat that night and turned in early. Tomorrow we head for Atlantic City where, by all looks at the weather, we may be for a few days. We’ll see what happens!
Pics of Barnegat
