Wed June 2: Cape May anchorage to Farley State Marina in Atlantic City NJ

 We which we become seafarers ...

Yes, we did transit the Delaware Bay yesterday, and yes it is a big body of water, but today we left the confines of the coast and ventured out into the open ocean!  This had been much anticipated and worried over.  We even asked our friend, Kim, to keep watch over us so someone knew where we were.

We prepared a “ditch bag” - a bag with essential emergency gear including a spare radio, water, first aid kit, granola bars, sunscreen and the rescue kit from the dingy (flares, whistle, horn) - so that, if for some reason we had to abandon ship, we could release the dingy and have supplies for a few hours until we were rescued.  

I (Rick) had stressed about the weather, waves, tides and currents - and all signs pointed to today to make the jump.  It isn’t a long day, only 4.5 hours, but we did not want to be pounded by waves for even a few minutes of the trip.   You can see from the map below that the trip is broken into three parts - Cape May to Atlantic City, AC to Manasquan and then from there up into the NY area.  We are traveling with a couple of other “buddy” boats so that we are never alone on the ocean.   We decided to leave at 6 am to avoid higher winds and waves in the afternoon, so we were pulling up the anchor at 5:50!

Even though we are in the Atlantic Ocean, we are never too far off shore, although we did get out to 3 miles offshore at one point. We were accompanied by dolphins, dolphins and more dolphins and one of our fellow boaters actually saw a whale up close and personal!  

Leaving the safety of the Cape May anchorage for the unknown.

Dolphins using our wake for a little surfing.

 

 

So jealous we didn't see a whale!

As we moved northwards we began to see, in the distance, the towering monoliths that we figured could only belong to Atlantic City.   AC is the gambling mecca of the east with many large casinos. 

AC lurks into sight - as our architecture friend, Carolyn put it, 'that might be the ugliest city ever designed'.

 

 

Looper friends on Legacy 2 - the luxury boat

Looper friends and kindred spirits on Meander

Again even Mel had to admit it is amazing how much you can get done when you get going early!  We arrived before 1 pm, checked into the Farley State Marina and got ourselves organized.  The weather started to get rainy and cold, so we (literally) battened down the hatches.    

 

The storm came boiling through with 30mph gusts.  But passed quickly.

 

Once the storm had passed, we walked up to the office to register and get the 411 - information on bathrooms, laundry and wifi - the holy trinity of marinas. 

The other thing that happens when you get going so early is that you get tired early!  I think we were in bed by 7:30, listening to the light rain and feeling happy that we had made our first jaunt on the Atlantic Ocean without incident.