We are traveling with Something Special and Glory Days today. They are leading the way as they both have keels that slightly protect their props. If we should run into (no pun intended) any shoaling in the ICW, they could hopefully back off the shoal without any serious damage. With our mostly flat bottom on Boreas, the first thing to hit a shoal would probably be the props which would not be a good thing.
The weather today is slightly better than yesterday – the wind seems to be blowing just as hard, but there isn’t any rain. To take maximum advantage of the tides and to mitigate our wait for a bridge near Atlantic City that is closed during rush hour, we depart at about 11:00am. Fred and I were planning on a noon start, but when you travel with others (who are willing to lead your through the shallows), you compromise.
The NJ ICW is just as advertised – narrow, winding and shallow. We had current with us and current against us. Much of the trip is traveled at slow speed through “no wake” zones. There were a number of extremely shallow spots where we saw less than two feet of water under the props. It was a bit nerve wracking, but no one hit bottom and there was just the occasional occurrence of mud being kicked up.
Most of the bridges we encountered today did not have to open for us. The first two bridges that did have to open were “on request” bridges, so they basically opened as soon as all three boats were lined up and ready to go through. The last few bridges that had to open were on schedules, so they only open on the hour and half hour or at 15 and 45 minutes after the hour. That requires my favorite “hover and wait” maneuver – Fred is very good at it, but it makes me kind of nervous. We also arrived a bit early for the bridge that is closed during rush hour (no openings between 4:00pm and 6:00pm), so we dropped anchor in a little bay just before that bridge and waited for 6:00pm opening.
To add insult to injury we got to spend the last hour or so of the trip in a heavy mist – not really rain, but enough precipitation to make us wet and uncomfortable. And although the wind was scheduled to subside as the day went on, it increased instead, so we had lots of wind (along with the mist) for docking. Fred did a great job getting us into our slip in spite of the wind and we are in a nice 65’ floating dock. Because we signed up for a MarinaLife discount card we are getting 25% off our dockage here at the Farley State Marina which is managed by the Golden Nugget casino. The first night’s savings covered the cost of the discount card and we’ll be able to use the discount again in New York.
Miles: 45.6 Bridges: 18 Locks: 0
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| looking out to the Atlantic Ocean under the bridge that crosses the Hereford Inlet - you can see how big the waves are and that the wind is blowing to tops right off the waves |
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| much of today's trip looked just like this |
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| looking out the Great Egg Harbor Inlet at the Atlantic Ocean |
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| this is Great Egg Harbor where we sailed National's in 1996 - the bridge you can see is new since we raced here - back in 1996 this was not a high rise bridge, but a draw bridge that had to open for us to go out into the ocean |
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| our racing area in Great Egg Harbor |
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| many of us stayed at the Harbor House Hotel & Marina (although I think it was painted a different color then) - do you remember the Murphy beds? |
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| Ocean City Yacht Club - our host yacht club |
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| Ocean City Yacht Club |
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| Fred and I appeared on the sports page of the Atlantic City Newspaper - this is a picture (and a sailing event) we will always remember |
I remember that Nationals, they had real US Sailing Judges and we had to sail inside at least 1 day.
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