Atlantic City to Atlantic Heights
This was a part of the trip I’ve not looked forward to. It will be my 4thblue water trip, but the first one single handing Hesperus. I do get a touch of the Mal de Mare at times, so I have been hoping for calm winds from a favorable direction and today looks like it will be good so off I went.
The anchor was out of the water at 5:17am and underway shortly after that. The only extra work was stowing the anchor bridle as I did not want that out and exposed to any big waves I might encounter on the big blue sea. Getting out of the Brigantine channel was easy enough and never saw less than 5.9 feet under the keel. The tide was going out so off I went. I saw two sailboats ahead of me but not my much.
After getting out of the inlet (quite choppy) the water settled down somewhat and had mostly rocking from side to side. It wasn’t bad and I felt I could handle that pretty easily. As I got going on a north-north-east track, I felt like I was getting my seal legs. I decided since I am running the boat by myself, I would run inside at the lower helm. It makes sense as no one would be there to turn the boat around and rescue me if I fell overboard. I do follow the rule, “One hand for the boat, one hand for you” so if I am out on deck, I am always holding on to something either the hand rails, deck box or boom depending on where I am on the boat.
Overall it was and uneventful trip. I didn’t take many pictures as everything was so far away it would have been boring pics.
See, Sandy Hook
After rounding Sandy Hook this vessel kind of snuck up on me. It is a high-speed ferry, called SeaStreak. It was moving at 42 MPH. Yes, it was a streak.
Today’s destination is Atlantic Highlands. There was a marina there close to town and I anchored behind the jetty with a few other cruisers. I was the only trawler there and about 5 other sailboats. I was extremely tired that evening so after some dinner, I laid down on the settee for a snooze. I just could not keep my eyes open. I guess with some stress about the ocean trip and not sleeping the best it caught up with me.
The evening produced some rain but light winds, and I planned a lay day to rest up. The next day’s weather did not look all that promising with rain and overcast skies. I really want a sunny day to travel through NYC.
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
The morning began with some rain, thunder and lightning. Not a bad storm as the worst went north of me. Later on, it cleared up with some sunshine and partly cloudy skies. This morning I felt like I was a real cruiser amongst cruisers. I heard generators running on some boats, and I did also to make my coffee and could see folks on deck getting ready for their days.
Since I wasn’t planning on moving anywhere today, I decided to it would be a good day for laundry and grocery shopping. Doing these tasks are different as you can’t just jump in your car and run to a laundromat or grocery store. The marina had a dinghy dock to tie up to, and the walk to the laundromat was not too far. Once there, I asked how far the grocery store was. The owner of the laundromat said about a mile, but he offered me a ride up there. Once the machine was fed and washing away, we took off. It was not quite a mile there so I figured it would be an easy walk back. I really did not need a lot of things, but thought since this is part of the cruiser life style, I need to experience it all.
I got my things there and walked back. It is a nice old American town. Some shops looked like they had been there forever, including the laundromat, and a few had new construction going on inside, for some new businesses.
Back at the laundromat, I popped the clothes into the dryer, let them dry, folded up everything and headed back to the boat.
Once there I created a spreadsheet for the settings on my external regulator for the engine alternator. I’ve come to realize the ships batteries get undercharged while running the engine, which then causes me to run the generator and charge that way much sooner. Once that was done, I went to the engine room to make the changes.
A Pretty Sunset (Atlantic Highlands)
