Glimmer Glass to Atlantic Highlands

On the evening of our 15 anniversary we set out for our last leg to Atlantic Highlands, NJ. The ocean waves  were forecast to be less than 1 foot. We radioed ahead to the Glimmer Glass bridge requesting a bridge lift. As Andrew pulled up our anchor he notice we picked up someone's old mooring of 3 large cinder blocks tied to together with heavy line. We ended up missing the opening and instead caught a later opening.  The Atlantic Ocean was the calmest I have ever seen it. I was hoping to get a glimpse of a Dolphin or Whale but none were out and about. It was a beautiful evening cruise. The air temp was in the mid 70's.

Looking back at our anchorage. 

The Atlantic Highlands Mooring Field. We anchored just outside of the mooring field so that we would be behind a break wall as well as using the Atlantic Highland's Launch service. We had a wonderful view every day and night. 

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean from our Aft deck on the hook in the Atlantic Highlands.

For those who loved Walter Cronkite, his former sailing vessel is the light blue hull. She looks like a nice boat to sail in.

Andrew and Paisley are returning back from shore via the launch service. 

 These are some pictures I took during the storm. This is our first storm while on the hook. The storm clouds were above us all day and by 6:00pm the clouds opened up and out poured hail. The kids had fun watching the hail hit our aft deck. The winds and rain quickly followed and within 40 minutes the sun was back out again. Andrew was in the middle of working on marking off our new anchor chain.

Atlantic City to Glimmer Glass at the Manasquan Inlet

We headed out early on June 14, 2011. The weather over the weekend was to foggy for us to get underway. We knew we had a 12 hour journey on the open Ocean and we knew where to duck in if need be. As we left Atlantic City the water was relatively calm. The first 4 hours rolled by pleasantly. The New Jersey shore is beautiful. The further north we got the wave size increased. After looking at our weather reports we knew this might be an issue. At 1:00pm we headed into the Manasquan Inlet. The waves were quickly approaching 3 1/2 feet and the wave height was going to continue to increase and not subside until evening time. We pulled in and had lunch and watched all of the commercial fisherman play boat shuffle on the dock opposite us. After lunch we pulled into Glimmer Glass set our anchor and got down the kayak so the kids could have some fun time. The water temperature was 71 degrees.

Sunrise

Aft view of Atlantic City

The Manasquan Inlet

Coast Guard Station 

a narrow fairway

The NJ transit

Atlantic City Week 2

 We did attempted to head out early on Saturday morning but we could not see the buoys or the rocky inlet until we were to close for comfort so,  for safety sake we turned around.We later found out that the fog went out over 3 miles. It only confirmed our decision on turning around. Sunday morning was worse than Saturday so we took care of boating maintenance and then cast off the dock. We decided that we were going to anchor out in the lagoon on the other side of the inlet so we could enjoy some swimming and kayaking.

 

This boat is coming in from being out at sea. Notice the fog is hiding the casino, wind turbines as well as a bridge. 

On our cruise around the Atlantic City Harbor we found a nice 118 foot yacht. They were refueling their 2,000 gallon tanks. 

 

Since the weather was not so nice the kids decided to build a fort in the forward stateroom.

Andrew kayaked over to say hi to some fellow Loopers from Charleston, SC.

After anchoring out the kids and Andrew enjoyed playing in the water. According to our readings the water temp was at 71 degrees.

The sun peaked out for about 30 minutes on Sunday. Luckily, we were sitting on the Aft deck enjoying our dinner.

Sabastian's entry on swimming with M/V Seascape

Today our friends Charles, Erika  and Lucy came over in their dingy and brought us to their boat. I also went swimming with my dad and my sister while we were on their boat in a lagoon. We jumped off the side, the bow of the boat and off the top. I loved swimming there it was really warm water. When I was swimming I went all around the boat.  When it was 8:30pm they took us home in their dingy and we went to sleep.

Sabastian's entry on The Delaware River

We started off at the Philadelphia Marine Center on the Delaware River. My mom and dad woke early and started moving the boat closer to New Jersey, our next stop. Today, I woke up  and the boat was moving so I went to the fly bridge and steered the boat for awhile. Then I ate breakfast went inside and played Lego whith my sister for awhile. Then I went outside and  helped navigated some more down the Delaware River. After that we got ready to anchor out in Cape May,New Jersey.

Paisley's entry on Pottstown

We spent the weekend over at the Smith's house. We had a fun time. We rode bikes and scooters. We swam in the pool next door from the Smith's house. Caitlin and I had fun playing with each other. The second night we went to be early. We left early the next morning to spend the day in the city with our dad. We played putt-putt and dad won. We also went to the Franklin Institute.

Paisley's entry on Philadelphia

We have a Dave and Buster's next to our marina. We went to The Constitution Center as liked the spies traitors and saboteurs exhibit. We saw a Philly's game. It was good. We saw the Liberty Bell. We also went to Betsy Ross's House. Philadelphia is the largest city we have visited by water. I like Philadelphia. It has been a fun week of school!

Philadelphia to Atlantic City

We all enjoyed our stay in Philadelphia. We loved how close we were to the historic district and several corner markets as well as the large Reading Market Terminal.  Inconceivable did collect a large amount of soot and other funk from being under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge with car and subway traffic. There was also debris floating down the river due to flooding further up the Delaware River. She is in the process of getting all cleaned up. 

 Saturday we were underway by 6:00am to head down river with the current. Heading against the current 2 weeks earlier we were cruising at 6 knots and with the current on Saturday we were averaging a little over 10 knots. What a difference!

Penn's Landing Marina

It was nice to see nature taking back over the docks!

We saw the Nuclear plant in Delaware for most of the day. 

Always nice to see the Coast Guard out and about.

Our sunset on Saturday night. 

We arrived at our anchorage north of Cape May by 5:30pm our charts read 10 feet depth but the actual depth was 5. This is all due to the shifting of the sand and NJ not maintaining their waterways.

Sunrise on Sunday morning looking out over the town of Wildwood Crest, NJ.  Due to the wave reports we decided to cruise the NJICW and leave on high tide. We were forewarned to cruise at high tide, watch the markers, crab pots in the channel, and keeping track of where we knew other boaters beached themselves. It was a long and slow move of 40 miles that took 8 hours. Over half of the travel was a no wake zone. 

The narrow channel leading back to where we anchored for the night.

New Jersey marsh area. We saw lots of birds.

A small group of boaters fishing.

This was more of the group of boaters we saw most of the day. Below is a cigarette boat that waked us along with all the other boats in the picture above speeding by at his top speed. We were all saying what a wonderful and thoughtful boater, NOT. But hey the police got him as he rounded the channel!  Our water depth at the time was 7 feet and we were in a tight channel. We were cruising slow so we wouldn't hit a sandbar. Neither Andrew or I felt it was safe to cruise fast with shallow depth readings. Our depth is 36 inches but still sand shifts quick and it forgiving up to a point. We had to pass the police and cigarette boat who were both drifting in the middle channel and it was TIGHT and scary to say the least. I took a picture after we passed them. We didn't want to hit either boat or ask to get boarded so we proceed as slowly/safely as we could.

One of the many cool offshoots to the ICW. 

We saw this pirate ship and thought it was cool. Although cheating a bit with the 2 outboard engines.

  While we were waiting for a bridge lift in Ventnor Beach we had some entertainment. A child on each side of the canal was playing with a remote control boat and it helped pass the time. The boat in front of us had to return one of the boats since it got out of range.

A view of the casinos on the oceanfront.

Atlantic City by night. These casinos back up to the ICW and is our port view. If the weather is looking good over the weekend we will be cruising in the Atlantic Ocean and not the NJICW if we can help it. We know that the next section of the NJICW is the worst maintained scection of the entire coast!