Tuesday - June 21, 2011

Lat 38 57 65; Long 74 54 35; Fuel 164 gal; Engine 875.27; Utsch Marina


Well we got up at 5:30 to get ready to do a long run to New York City. Bade Boomer and Coconut were also ready to go at 6:30. Problem was, it was a very low tide and The Old Grouch was sitting on the bottom. We had to wait for the tide to go up at least so we had a couple of feet under the keel, otherwise we never would make it out of the marina. A sailboat tried to get out and got stuck in the entrance to the marina. After some discussion the other two boats with less draft decided to leave at 7:30. We didn’t leave until around 9 when the tide had gone up quite a bit. Our plan was to make it to Atlantic City.

Leaving the marina, I learned something. Yesterday I almost got stuck on the mud by keeping about 30 feet between the boat and the marina breakwall. This time I stayed close to the wall and guess what, there was a 9 foot channel leading out to the main channel. Once we got out of the inlet, the seas were as predicted – 2 to 4 feet and the winds from the southwest, which was fine since it would be behind us and help push us along. However, running an inlet either in or out is always a time when you have to be fully aware of the seas since they build up quite a bit at the entrance and can become quite unpredictable.

We made Atlantic City around 2:00. As we were following the marker buoys into the inlet to Atlantic City, I see this massive string of floating buoys across the channel tied to a dredge. Radioed the dredge and he informed me the channel was closed and that I would have to go around his starboard side across the shallow water to get into the inlet. Well we did it and managed to get in. although it was a little rough. We got into the State Marina and then went to lunch. The marina was managed by Trump International and his hotel was right behind us. Since, neither of Brenda or myself gamble, Mr. Trump did not make any additional money from us. We did however have an excellent lunch in one of the hotel restaurants. After lunch we went back to the boat and slept for a couple of hours, then watched the Jays game. We went to bed early as we anticipated an early start tomorrow to make the 80 mile run to New York City.