We departed from Manasquan, NJ at 0830 hours and our plans were to travel to Atlantic City, NJ today. The forecast was for 10-15 knot winds out of the west and rain... the wind from the west would allow us to hug the coast and not have a lot of wave action. Well, that is what I had planned for... :)

We exited the inlet and things looked good... small rollers from the Southeast and the 10-15 knot winds were non existent... winds were 4-6 knots... BUT they were not coming out of the west as predicted... instead they were out of the south almost directly on our nose.

As the day progressed we started seeing other boats traveling south... most were larger SeaRay type cruiser moving along at a good pace... we did pass ne sailboat just before Barnegat Light Inlet... 25-26 foot... we heard them on the radio later asking about Barnegat Light Inlet... the winds had increased to the 10-15 knots as predicted but not out of the west... they were directly out of the south and they were helping the rollers to increase in size... soon we had 4-6 foot rollers... they had about a 6-7 second period which smoothed the ride slightly and we were not pounding as we had in Long Island Sound.

We had gone several miles past Barnegat Light Inlet when we heard the small sailing vessel we had passed hailing the Coast Guard... they were hailing for assistance and were in trouble in the inlet... we tried to listen to see what had happened but the communication between the Coast Guard and the small sailboat stopped... so not sure what happened... that's just a bad inlet to attempt in rough seas... hopefully, they were ok... never heard anything more about it.

The conditions continued to get worse and worse and soon the ride was uncomfortable. We still had about 3.5 hours to go and we continued on passing only fishing boats running what appeared to be nets.

As we approached Atlantic City the gray skies started to change to blue in front of and we could see the large casinos looming up into sky on the horizon. They appeared as if they were just moments away but we still had 10 miles to go... and at the speed we were making that was equating to 1.5 hours... :(

At approximately 1720 hours we were safely docked at the City docks adjacent to the Aquarium in Atlantic City, NJ. We had traveled for 8 hours and 50 minutes covering 53.0 nautical miles averaging 6.0 knots.

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 251.6 nautical miles
Hours: 40 hours 21 minutes
Avg Spd: 6.23 knots

We departed from City Island, NY at 0700 hours just as the sun was rising… the forecast was for 10-15 knots winds out of the SW with late morning and afternoon rain. We had to go down the East River through New York City and new York Harbor and out into the Atlantic Ocean… there is not really any inside passage for the Jersey shore… we had to go to at least Manasquan before we could bail from the Atlantic and take and inside route. But with the SW winds we should be ok if we stayed close to the shoreline and in the lee of the wind.

The East River can pretty intense with current and you want to try and transit it with a following current… as the currents can be 4-5 knots in places… when your boat cruises at best 7.5 knots you really do not want to have a 4-5 knot current against you… but today we would… the worst area is called Hell Gate and is where the Harlem and East Rivers meet,,, the slack current was predicted for 1000 hours and it would only take us about an hour and a half to make it to Hell Gate and we would still have 3 plus against us… but it was either wait until 0900 to leave, go really really slow from City Island to Hell Gate or just go for it… we chose to go for it… ?

We experienced 3.5 knots against us just before Hell Gate and all the way through it past Roosevelt Island… then the river widens and the current velocity decreases… but we made it unscathed and soon the tide had switched from flood to ebb and we were flying along between 8 and 10 knots… YEP… 10 knots… as we passed under the Verrazano Bridge we were doing 10.2 knots… it was awesome… ? We maintained a good boost from the ebb current to well outside New York Harbor and it’s approaches and down the Jersey shoreline… it was after noon before we lost our boost.

The seas were not bad with the SW winds… we hugged the shoreline and had a few places where it was a little bouncy but there were no 4-6 breaking waves as we had seen the day before… thank goodness… really did not want another rough ride. We decided to stop early today and set our goal as Manasquan, NJ… coming north this spring this inlet had been closed due to a capsized 70 foot fishing vessel and Susan was a little concerned that the inlet would be a challenge… especially after our experience with Barnegat Light Inlet on the trip north… I assured her it would be fine and it was… smooth as silk… could not have asked for a better passage through the inlet.

One of the biggest differences about today’s leg fo the trip was that we saw a lot of other boat traffic… the minute we entered the East River we started seeing tugs with barges, fast ferrys, water taxis, a large motor yacht that passed us and sent a 4 foot wake our way… not very considerate boater… and of course New York harbor was filled with traffic of all types… mostly commercial… a huge ship passed us we were approaching the Verrazano Bridge… and one of the Stanton Island Ferry’s was being escorted by two US Coast Guard boats… must have been someone important on board…

And as always one of the best things is seeing the Statue of Liberty… so beautiful!!!

At approximately 1550 hours we were safely docked at the Shrimp Box Restaurant at Manasquan, NY. We had traveled for 8 hours and 50 minutes covering 55.33 nautical miles averaging 6.28 knots.

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 191.07 nautical miles
Hours: 31 hours 31 minures
Avg Spd: 6.06 knots

We departed from Westbrook, CT at 0645 hours just before sunrise and the winds were basically non-existent… the forecast was for 10-15 knots winds out of the NW increasing to 15-20 knots… seas 2-3 feet… figured it would not be too bad as the trip would in a westerly direction all day and we could stay closer to CT southern shoreline and more in the lee of the NW winds… sadly but not surprisingly the forecast was wrong… the winds started to pick up and by 0730 we had 15 knot winds out of the west… directly on our bow and the current was flooding… which had it moving in the opposite direction of the wind… this makes for some short and steep waves… very rough ride!

The ride was rough but at least we had the current with us giving us a slight boost… but this soon was lost as the winds picked up to a steady 25 knots by 0900 hours and what boost we were getting was taken away by the wave action… we soon were moving at between 4.5 and 5.5 knots… at times I saw the speed below 4 knots and we were pounding in the waves… decided to try and ease the ride and we began to tack back and forth across our desired path… this helped somewhat eliminating the hard pounding but the waves were still 4-6 feet with some large rouges every few minutes… the spray was flying over the top of the pilothouse… that makes it flying over 20 feet in the air… the pilothouse windows were being continually hit with the spray as if someone had a fire hose pointed at them… and we only had another 8-9 hours to go…. :)

As the afternoon hours came upon us we wer now getting gusts to over 30 knots… only good thing was that the current had switched from flood to ebb making the current and wind in the same direction… the waves remained at 4-6 but they were now not as steep and close together and the ride got a little better… and as we moved to the west we were also moving closer and closer to the west end of Long Island Sound and some bit of a break in the wind and waves… by about 1700 hours things had actually smoothed down to a very tolerable ride… but we now had a full ebb current against us so we were still only making 5 knots… :(

The thing that I will never get over wondering “why” is… we passed a lot of small recreational fishing boats… they were bouncing up and down like small corks… why do these people put themselves through this just to “fish”…

At approximately 1830 hours we were safely docked at the North Minneford Yacht Club on City Island, NY. We had traveled for 11 hours and 45 minutes covering 66.18 nautical miles averaging 5.63 knots.

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 135.74 nautical miles
Hours: 22 hours 41 minures
Avg Spd: 5.98 knots