Fortunately the weather looks really good for a direct over night to New York City; so we got up and headed out the Cape May inlet. We had heard that going around Cape May was going to be a difficult passage but we had no problems and had a great sail out. Our plan was to go towards Atlantic City and if we felt like continuing we would head up to Sandy Hook (just south of Manhattan). The sail was going very well; we had 15 knots on the beam and a nice gentle 9 second roll on the swells; so we decided to continue.
Atlantic City
About 7 mile passed Atlantic City I checked the weather again and there was a dense fog advisory in New York Harbor the next morning so Garth turned the boat around and we headed into Atlantic City; there was no way we were going to try New York Harbor with less than a mile visibility. We were a little disappointed because that was the last good ocean going weather for a few days. This means that we have to go up the New Jersey Intercostal waterway or wait here a week. We were going to avoid this section because it is known to be very shallow and shoaled in places to make it impassable. We took a day to look over the route on Active Captain (a resource we use every day for navigation) and we also called Tow Boat US and asked them if it was even possible for a 5 foot draft boat to make it through. They said to make sure we go on a rising tide and the water is very skinny. He also repeatedly said go slow be safe. So the next day we waited for the rising tide and off we went.
Harrah’s hotel and casino
On our way in to the ICW channel another sailboat yelled “be careful it is very shallow” a wonderful vote of confidence to try this out. We found out very quickly that our GPS and paper charts were useless. Since hurricane Sandy came through here they have moved the channel in places and the depths were not even close to our information. Our fist hairy part was where there were reports of a police boat running hard aground at mid tide. We made it through barely. The whole day was full of skinny water and white knuckle driving. Surprisingly we were able to carry the rising tide all day and put in about 50 miles. We decided we had had enough and stopped just north of Surf City. Even getting into the anchorage was a challenge; we had to go over a 4.9 foot section to get to the 10 foot area to drop the anchor.
Day 2 of the trip up the ICW was going to be even more interesting because it is charted 4 feet at low water and there are a couple of lift bridges to wait for in a narrow channel. Our biggest problem was that our cell phone died and would not turn back on or take a charge so we have no back up navigation and no way of communicating with our families.
At the end of the day we decided to head up into Metedeconck River just before Point Pleasure Canal and the inlet to the ocean. About 3 miles up the river we saw a big screen set up on the beach. We had arrived just in time to watch Back to the Future on a big drive in screen.
In the morning we went ashore, we were lucky there was a farmers market there because we needed some groceries. I was able to get everything I needed and it was all farms fresh and homemade; I loved it. While we were ashore we also needed to figure out our broken cell phone situation so I asked a nice lady in the park where there was a Wal-Mart or Office Depot in hopes that we could get a replacement unlocked phone. I also had to ask her where we were. It was only at that moment that I realized we had no idea what town we were in or how far we were from anything. She told me we were in Brick New Jersey and that the Wal-Mart was 2 miles away. She gave me directions and the number for a taxi; she also offered to call the taxi several times but we had found a working pay phone so we could call on that if need be.
After some discussion we decided that Garth would get the bike off the boat and ride to Wal-Mart while I stayed at the park with the kids. He was gone for a few hours and when he came back he did not have a new phone but he was able to fill out the grocery list. The boys and I had a great day playing with all the kids.
We ended up spending 2 more nights here waiting for weather to go out and make a passage to Sandy Hook. During that time Garth miraculously got the phone to work again so we could contact our families.
Daily entertainment in the anchorage
sunset in the river
The last portion if the ICW was Point Pleasant channel and it has 2 bridges with a 4 knot current whipping through it. We called ahead to the first bridge and told them we were entering the canal. They were ready for us when we got there and lift the bridge; the water under the bridge was like white water rafting in the narrow canal. The second bridge was also ready to lift when we arrived. Last thing was to exit the Manasquan Inlet and head north. We had a nice motor up to Sandy hook and spent the night there. We could see the lights of New York City off in the distance.
All in all the trip that was supposed to take 24 hours took about a week and went well. We did not touch bottom once. I told Garth that it was a good thing we went down to the Bahamas through The Great Loop because if we had gone through this ICW first we may have just turned around and went back. Going around the loop has given us time to test the boat and ourselves to see what we will bare. Before we left if the boat was in less than 10 feet of water it would be a white knuckle ride; it was rare to see anything more than 10 feet all the way up from Florida.
Once we dropped the anchor in Sandy Hook Jason came up top and said “this is New York City?” I had to till him it will be one more day.
Thanks for Following.
svdabulamanzi2 