A Tale of Two Chemists: Jersey Shore

Jersey Shore … Thursday - Friday 4-5th October

Our original plan was to take advantage of the sustained westerly winds that were predicted and sail from Atlantic Highlands to Cape May over two days with a stopover at Barnegat Inlet. However, the forecast for Thursday got revised to "light and variable' and the only decent westerly winds were for Thursday night and Friday morning. So we decided to take the bull by the horns and do an overnighter directly to Cape May. This opened up other opportunities and in the morning we went ashore and met up with Janet Summerly, a former high school friend of Gloria's, and her husband Brian. It had been 37 years since Janet and Gloria had seen each other. We had a great time together going out for breakfast at a nice diner in town. The time passed all too quickly but we vowed to get back together when we come north again next spring. We spent the rest of the morning getting caught up on our laundry … well you've got to do it some time!

After a quiet hour back on board we got our act together and at 4pm set out on what is probably our longest single leg to date - about 110 miles down the east shore of New Jersey with only three viable places to stop if things go pear shaped. It wasn't an auspicious start - we were in dense fog from the moment we left the anchorage. We got one brief glimpse of the shore line as we rounded Sandy Hook. We raised our mainsail in preparation for sailing, but the winds were light and out of the south east - right on the nose so we motor-sailed! We spent the next couple of hours playing tag in the fog with with large ships, tugs and barges. This was quite tense and demanded a lot of attention, and then about an hour after dark a series of showers came through. Then miraculously as the last shower passed through the fog cleared, the wind shifted to the west and we could see stars. The engine went off at about 10 pm and we sailed from there on. We took turns on watch with the other dozing in the cockpit. At this time of year it's a long night with almost 12 hours of darkness. What a difference the moon makes! It felt like we had a friend with us. We could actually see what we were doing pretty well. From our position ~5-7 miles offshore we could see the Jersey coastline (once the fog had cleared). Atlantic City is a sight to behold at night and you can see the lights from 20 miles away. By dawn we were more or less off Atlantic City and fortified by tea and bagels we continued onwards with good winds. The next few hours were a birders delight and we got some very close views of a number of different types of land birds. These are birds that are migrating over the sea at night and then head in land in the morning. They would appear from the east and fly around the boat. Yellow rumped warblers, golden crowned kinglet and house wren all landed on the boat and in fact a red breasted nut hatch landed on my hat - which was pretty exciting as I was wearing it at the time! We arrived in Cape May at noon and are now anchored opposite the Coast Guard station. It's hot! It's like we got took a flight from the UK and got off in Miami. (In fact, we feel tired enough to be suffering from jet lag.) Sadly I think this weather isn't going to last. We will spend a few days here and hope to catch up with another old friend from Brown University, John Higgins.

Mike