Finally out of Sandy Hook

Hello Family and Friends. We have had quite an adventure. Hurricanes, Tropical Storms, Earthquakes, Floods and Fog. Bring on the locust. After four days stuck in Sandy Hook because of unbelievable, pea soup fog we finally made it to Manasquan, NJ.

Sandy Hook is a very pretty seaside area with beautiful, white, sandy beaches that I would someday love to see.  We were in the town of Atlantic Highlands which was quite picturesque - for a day or two. We made an attempt to go to Manasquan and the fog at the Hook was so thick, we could not see the front of the boat. Plus we could hear fog horns from ships far greater in size than us and I could see them on our radar as very large blips. The question was, could they see me? For the first time in my boating life, I used my fog horn to let these big tankers or whatever known I was out there. Ultimately, we turned around and went back to Atlantic Highlands and hung out another couple of days until the fog finally lifted.

So off to Manasquan we went. The winds were heavy, the seas were high, but at least we could see where we were going. After pounding along for 5 hours or so, we arrived at the Manasquan Inlet just in time to experience max ebb tide currents. There was an easterly wind of about 15kts and the inlet, at max ebb, was running from west to east at about 4 knots. That made for an explosive rendezvous at the entrance to the inlet. After a couple of scary moments we got into the channel and headed to the marina. Lake Erie boater take note. Tides and Currents can add many grey hairs to your body. We tied up at the marina's fuel dock and waited until slack tide to go into our slip because there was no way I could back our boat into the slip with the current running like it was. Later, the tide came back in. Tidal range at Manasquan is about six feet. We were in a fixed dock which meant that at hide tide, the dock was under water and the boat was about three feet above the dock. We were an island. I wished I took a picture of this. It was weird. We've been on another weather hold but expect to leave for Atlantic City tomorrow, September 30th.

We're in Hoffman's Marina. Pretty nice place but it cater almost exclusively to sports fishermen in their million dollar tuna wagons. These boats are incredible. 55' to 65' Hatteras yachts all over the place. A guy tonight returned from a day's fishing with a boatload of tuna. One of them was 140 lbs. That'll fill a bunch of those little cans.

So tomorrow we head out to Atlantic City. I will try to keep Marg and I out of the casinos. But we are another step closer to our destination. We'll keep you informed of all the excitement. See you later.