"South for the Winter" : Highlands, NJ to Cape May, NJ

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Nov 4. Atlantic Highlands Municipal Harbor, NJ to Cape May, NJ

Weather forecast announced 10 to 15 kts winds from the NW. And Seas 3 to 5 ft. This last information worried us a little bit so we got up at sunrise and took a ride to the beach to look at the surf. It looked pretty flat so we decided to take the opportunity and leave to Cape May. There is a low pressure system moving north and today was our only window to make to Cape May, NJ.

We left Atlantic Highlands Harbor at 0745 cruised south around Sandy Hook along the New Jersey coast.

At 0850 we spotted a beautiful sailing schooner. About 1351 we were going by Atlantic City, NJ and the swells started getting bigger and bigger. At 1525 when we were going by Ocean City Vitto decided to go closer to the beach one mile and a half, brought the throttles up and played with the trim tabs. The boat got up on a plane and rode beautifully through the water after that change. She was up to 15 kts. We were trying to make Cape May, NJ just after sunset.
At sunset we were still on the road and water was spraying from the bow all the way to the wheel house. Ximena thought the sunset was pretty enough to try to make a good shot of it in between water sprays. But her new great angle lens got soaked with salt water. She thought that was going to be the last sunset shot of this trip.

At 1715 we entered Cape May. Within a mile after that we saw a little anchorage that Vitto knew from previous trips. We dropped anchor but it didn’t want to set. We probably tried ten times before we grabbed bottom. We had supper.

We burned ¾ tank of fuel and run 118 nm. Today was probably our longest and most expensive run of the voyage.


More pics

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