JERSEY COAST PART 1

One of the biggest surprises to us on the journey so far has been the state of New Jersey. In our ignorance we had always imagined it to be the poor neighbour of NYC. It is anything but. Beyond the Statue of Liberty, the finger of Sandy Hook beckons you to New Jerseys magnificent beaches. Our first stop was at Atlantic Highlands where comfortable old homes surrounded by wide porches grace the hillsides and look out across the harbour at people fishing in open boats. Here we hauled our dinghy out of the water, flipped it upside down on the dock beside the boat and began scrubbing grime off its bottom. Vince then constructed an ingenious hoisting device that pulled it up off the dock and suspended in the air over the bow of the boat where I guided it down into place on deck. He then spent the next hour lashing it securely onboard and dismantling the hoist while I, sweating like a pig and equally filthy, went in search of a shower.

That night was one of the worst I had experienced so far as I fretted over the weather report and dreaded heading out into the unknown. Once committed, we would have to continue along the coast to the first viable inlet some 35 miles away. I worried that ocean swells would swamp our boat, that the southerly headwinds we would be motoring against would be too powerful for us to make any progress at all or, horror of horrors, that Vince would be swept overboard and I, in my sailing ignorance, would be unable to save him. I was so frightened that I was crying and Vince promised that we’d turn back once past the “hook” if it all looked too threatening for me.

We were up at 5:00am the next morning and set off on smooth water at 6:00. Things are usually calmest in the early hours. Winds and waves tend to “wake up” and get increasingly wild as the day wears on so, if visibility is good, it’s usually wise to get as early a start as possible. As it turned out I had nothing to fear at all. The sun shone in a cloudless sky, winds were light and the boat rolled up and down comfortably over gentle swells just as it was built to do. We had to motor most of the way because sailing against the headwind was impossible. From 1.5 miles off shore, the scenery was incredible. Virtually the whole Jersey coast from Sandy Hook in the north to Cape May in the south is one long ribbon of sand separated from the mainland by an inter-coastal waterway. For 10 hours we passed mile after mile of beautiful beach houses, classy resorts, a huge amusement park and empty stretches of protected dunes. At noon we streaked by Manasquan Inlet, our original destination, and by 4:00 had reached Barnegat Inlet where we decided to pull in for the night.

The entrance here was very difficult with strong currents and confused seas buffeting the boat but I held us on course and made it without incident into the sheltered bay. Vince long ago decided that I would do all of the driving and docking while he navigates, handles the sails and anchors and runs around with ropes jumping off the boat and tying up. He doesn’t trust me with any of this thinking I’m too fat, clumsy and liable to fall overboard and be crushed between the boat and dock should I be given the opportunity to do any of this “guy” stuff. Just when we thought we were safely into the bay, Vince decided to take over the controls and assigned me to GPS. Big Mistake! There was a sudden lurch, the boat stopped dead—keeled over to one side and we were grounded! Vince had blithely ignored my instructions to “go left, go left!” along with a big red buoy and now we were firmly planted in a sandy shoal. After trying unsuccessfully to dislodge ourselves, we eventually gave it up and called Towboat US. No sooner had Vince put down the phone however than I thought I detected some slight movement. We started the engine up one final time and, ever so slowly, with the help of the strong current, found ourselves floating free. We hooked a line onto a mooring ball in a beautiful section of Barnegat Bay surrounded by sandy beach, sea grass and million dollar summer homes. I cracked open a cold bottle of wine, kicked back in the cockpit and once again,all was right with the world.