We left Philadelphia reluctantly on June 17,2002 with Alice and Jordan Blenner on board. We had a great sail down the Delaware River with a nice stop overnight at Money Island on the Jersey side of the Delaware Bay. The following day we made Cape May where our guests disembarked. During the following week we visited many towns and inlets along the Jersey shore.
Sea Isle Great Egg Harbor Absecon Barnegat & Manasquan
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SEA ISLE CITY
We had a grand reunion with the O'Neill clan. Julie and Rip flew in from Florida to catch up with us and and her Aunt Kathy arranged for a family get together. Even brother Hugh Hindman and son Brian were able to join us "down at the Shore".
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Great Egg Harbor
The last week of June we made our way north along the coast of New Jersey stopping overnight at various inlets. Stu had hoped to stop at Ocean City New Jersey. There is a place on the boardwalk there that sells his favorite Carmel Popcorn. Some people remember the winds, some the sailing conditions, Stu remembers the popcorn.
So much of the Jersey Shore is off limits to us and other sailing vessels because of the low fixed bridges and narrow bascule bridges at many of the inlets and on the Intercoastal Waterway. At Great Egg Harbor, our first stop north of Sea Isle, we expected to come inside into the network of creeks and channels behind Ocean City in order to get Stu's Carmel Popcorn. The charts show a Bascule Bridge just inside the Inlet. Reality was there was a new fixed bridge under construction in it's place. Calls to the Coast Guard proved fruitless. Since the bridge was not yet finished there were no fender boards showing the height above water and only a guestimate from the Coast Guard that it was "around" 60 feet. A friendly Boat Tow US Captain stopped by after hearing our VHF calls about the bridge. He offered that the bridge was "supposed to be 65 feet" but locals suspected that it would turn our to be 63feet when finally measured. This was not a bridge for us to try and measure with our 63.5 mast. So, we anchored our for the night and headed north again in the morning. Stu is still longing for that yummy Carmel Popcorn.
Absecon Inlet
Absecon Inlet is on the north side of Atlantic City. It is a large all weather inlet with a strong current. It was a popular spot for drift fishing. We were in and settled early in the afternoon in a nice spot out of the channel. There was a nice breeze which kept the green head flies to a minimum. It called for a lazy afternoon. Stu took a nap and I worked on my pictures for the web. it was very pleasant. Occasionally, I'd hear voices of fishermen as they drifted bye.
When I heard a voice exclaiming "My engine won't start" it registered but I thought it was one of the fellows drifting with the tidal current. Another louder shout caught my ear "I've lost my anchor and the *!# engine doesn't work. Hey, Shearwater, I'm running down on you." Out to the deck I flew with Stu on my heels just barely awake. Low and behold there was an Island Packet just about to crash into us. Fortunately the little red fenders we use on the tip of the starboard bow was easily flipped into place just in time to receive the blow of Lady Barbara as she dropped by. It's amazing how some things just happen in slow motion. We had just enough time and wits ends to get fenders and lines between and on both boats to create a raft. If we hadn't been the recipient of the visit, the next thing the Lady Barbara would have encountered was a fixed bridge, a few hundred yards upstream.
Jack, the skipper of our newly acquired third hull, animatedly explained he experienced engine problems on his trip home to Long Island and had come in to Atlantic City for repairs. Without an engine he was reluctant to try and come into a Marina. While at anchor his centerboard pennant failed. He seemed to think that his anchor rode got tangled in his makeshift repair of the centerboard which set him adrift in our direction. We think he had too small an anchor considering the size of his boat and the strong current. "Big Bruce" was happy to hold Lady Barbara along side us until the next morning.
Once everything was secure Stu offered help and some fuel hose to repair Jack's engine. By dark Lady Barbara's engine was purring and we were enjoying a pleasant dinner with Jack. In the morning he was off to New York and we were headed for a day of exploring Atlantic City.
Barnegat & Manasquan
The following day we made Barnegat on the Northern tip of Long Beach Island. The Lighthouse here is beautiful the water fast moving and clear and the neighboring beach towns pleasant and inviting. It was a great place to bring our bicycles ashore and explore.
Our next stop was Manasquan. We pulled into this busy river late on a busy Saturday afternoon and dropped anchor in a small spot just inside the inlet. The hundreds of power boats plowing their way in and out of this fast moving river made the anchorage very bumpy until late into the evening.
In the morning we weighed anchor and found thousands of mussels and one lone starfish clinging with all their might. If they weren't so tiny it would have been a great catch. We put up the spinnaker and had a grand sail up and around Sandy Hook and into the approaches to New York Harbor.
