We awoke to a Coast Guard Small Craft Advisory so decided to stay in the harbor for another day. We began with a lazy morning on the boat catching up on all John’s boat projects, but by early
afternoon, the winds in the marina subsided and we decided to get a jump start on our long remaining voyage and leave for Cape May. We hired towboat Rick to guide us out of the treacherous ICW
and out to the sea. We got an even later start as Rick had a last minute call to tow another grounded boat off a shoal, and when he returned it was 5:00 P.M. As the sun doesn’t set until 8:30
this time of year, and we only had a two hour cruise to get to Cape May, we set forth right away. All was easy and the water and wind quiet… until about ten minutes into the cruise when we
came upon the inlet to the Atlantic from the New Jersey ICW.
Suddenly, it didn’t look so calm. The wind was whipping at 20 plus knots and the Atlantic was a sea of white caps. And worse, what I hadn’t realized was that to get out of this ‘bayou’ and onto
the sea, we had to get through a half mile stretch of these 5-6 foot breakers rolling in to the cove. If we hadn’t been right behind Rick in his tiny tow boat, I would have completely flipped
out. As it was, I put on my life jacket and tied the Personal Locater Beacon to my vest (it’s a handheld device, but I figured if one is escaping from an overturned boat in a storm, one would
surely drop the PLB if it wasn’t attached!) I knew I was being a big giant chicken because Rick was standing at the helm of his 18 foot inflatable tow with no life jacket, surfing up the face,
popping up over the crest and back down the other side. John kept his cool, looking very focused and didn’t let it show if he was more than a little concerned. But I was very unhappy for a
while, being a total scaredy cat, wearing my life jacket, eyes bugging out, standing and holding on as we swayed and rolled up and over the big waves. Once through the inlet it was much better
but we still had another two hours of cruising in 3-4 foot swells on the Atlantic. After the wind began to subside and we thought we were good, we came upon some odd looking – almost submarine
looking things scattered all over the place and we had to figure out how to dodge and maneuver through them. We figured that they were fish traps. Just as the sun was setting, we cruised
into the harbor, tied up, had a glass of wine and walked to Lucky Bones for a fabulous dinner (they had arugula salad and veggie burgers with broccoli (a welcome healthy-ish treat).
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