Trip Day:
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87
|
Latitude:
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39°22.89 '
N
|
Locks Today:
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0
|
Miles Today:
|
39
|
Longitude:
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074°25.35' W
|
Locks Total:
|
8
|
Total Miles:
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1,697
|
Location:
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Atlantic City,
NJ
|
||
It wasn’t raining so we cast off lines at 5:30 a.m. before we even had a cup of coffee, wanting to head up the coast before the weather turned sour. A couple of other boats were getting underway at the same time so at least we knew we had company for a little while. Going out Cape May Inlet was one wild ride—there were large swells close to shore left over from the heavy winds yesterday. Those swells converging together as the water was squeezed into the narrow inlet made for very, very rough water. We tossed back and forth, things falling off walls and shelves, then once we cleared the inlet we were met with 2-3 ft gentle rolling swells. We shortly realized our winds were northeast instead of the predicted southwest so Ron was on the computer checking sea buoy data further up the coast. After an hour or so the winds began to shift further west and we settled into the rolling seas. We were able to fly sails which helped stabilize and reduce the rolling, but then the winds died down and we got nothing from the sails.
We saw several boats on the same rhumb line about three miles offshore, but of course they all passed us and eventually fell out of sight.
Normally we would be excited as the tall buildings of Atlantic came into view, but as we approached it was raining and somehow the view was just not that exciting. Jean tried to keep the front window cleared with her trusty squeegee to give Ron better visibility as we headed into Absecon Inlet. This inlet is quite wide, so although we had 4-5 ft swells, the current was with us and we had a smooth ride into the channel. We anchored just before the first bridge to wait for the rain to end.
By four o’clock the weather had lifted so we were off in the dinghy, then caught the shuttle bus to the Boardwalk and the casinos.
Wow, it's starting to feel like you two are really A LONG WAY FROM HOME. Be safe. And don't have so much fun in AC that you neglect to post on the blog for five days again. I was getting worried about you last week!
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