Rolling on the Ocean June 19

Shirley and the ocean - together again!

We have been out of site of the ocean now since we left Beaufort NC. Now we are sitting on its edge again anticipating our sail up the east coast of New Jersey. To do this we will need a couple of good weather days. Friday morning we saw ‘Alice” leaving the harbour so we radioed them for their impressions of the conditions. Large rolling swells, not the pounding waves we’d had on Tuesday. Time to go! We had to wait for a fuel dock to open so we could fuel up before heading out.

Heading out and heading in. Those are the times when your senses are on full alert when travelling on the ocean. The combination of tides, currents, winds and narrow channels make inlets places that grab your attention. As we started out the inlet it didn’t look bad but you could see the “bumps” on the water toward the horizon. Sure enough as we continued along the swells started to well up underneath Tiffany Rose’s bow. With the outgoing tide we were zipping along at about 7.5 knots and we started to bounce into the waves. But it wasn’t long until we were out of the channel and pointing our way to the north east to follow the coast toward Atlantic City, our next stop along the way. The breeze was good and we had all sails flying. Feels good!

The swells were quite large so it was like being on a slow roller coaster. First you are on top of a wave, then there’s that sinking feeling as you descend into the trough, then up, then down. At times in the trough we would lose all site of land and then at the top we would have a splendid view. So we knew these were sizable swells, mainly left over from the stormy weather earlier. Even though we have been travelling by boat for ten months being on the ocean is still thrilling. The expanse, the smells, and the power all create a sense of awe as we bob along in our tiny craft. This time Shirley did ok with the movement but for the first time it seemed that Christopher wasn’t so keen on the wave action. As we approached Atlantic City, again we are on full alert as we see waves crashing along side the jetty of the inlet. Coming in now we have the waves pushing us along which is nice except it can confuse your steering. Fortunately the tide was also going in which meant the waves were not popping up and bouncing us around. Our entry was pretty smooth.

Christopher was glad when we pulled into Atlantic City and be out of the swells. We docked at the Historic Gardner Basin, as we did in the fall. Here, the marina doesn’t really have facilities for you but your dock fee allows you to visit the Atlantic City aquarium. Good deal!