JUNE 23 – Saturday
Up early and away from the marina by 7:15. Close quarters and a bunch of sport fishing boats moving about the harbor called for careful maneuvering to and thru the Cape May inlet to the ocean. The sport fishing boats showed us their mega horsepower and 30 knot speed capability as they threw 5’-7’ wake at us but it’s important to get to the fish first, I guess.
Once clear of the jetty we pointed FLIGHT at 040 magnetic and pushed “AUTO” on the pilot control and settled in for the ride to Absecon Inlet and Atlantic City. Seas were running 3’ for a while but settled down to about 2’ for most of the trip. Polly brought coffee and cereal to the bridge and we checked in with DOT COM and RENAISSANCE as we had breakfast. We spotted another trawler (Namaste)chugging up the coast so we hailed them and learned they too are bound for the NY Canal system and have owned their boat for 15 years and have been living aboard for 6 (with 2 large dogs that have to go to the beach at least once a day). We hope to meet them again tomorrow evening when we will all be at Sandy Hook, NJ.
As we passed by Stone Harbor we called son Matt who is there with his in-laws for a few days and he went to the beach and phoned back that he was seeing our little flotilla of 3 boats as we talked on cell phones – hooray for Verizon and modern technology.
The weather is wonderful and visibility goes on forever and soon 2 “ships” appeared on the horizon. As any captain would, I made them a priority in my scan and soon they were accompanied by several more “ships” which eventually became hotel/casinos and the sky line of Atlantic City which we watched for another 2 hours at 8 kts.
We anchored at 12:30 in a pond-like piece of water just off the north side of Absecon Inlet. Another long time cruising friend named Ed Sved told us about this gem so we will call this Lake Sved. Thanks Ed.