As noted in the last post, on May 9th we anchored just off the Cost Guard Station at Cape May, NJ. In fact, about 140’ upwind/up-current from the Coast Guard's jetty. Not a ton of margin for error if the anchor dragged, but plenty with a good anchor set.
We dropped the hook in eight feet of water at near low
tide. Noting that the tidal range is six
feet, taking us to fourteen feet at high tide, I set out a just over 100’ of
scope (anchor chain and line) giving us a bit over a 7:1 ratio of scope to
depth, more than sufficient. By 5:00
pm, as predicted, the wind was blowing pretty well with the forecast showing it
would settle down a bit overnight but start up with a vengeance at about 4:30
a.m. the next morning. I set our anchor
alarm (measures your distance and compass bearing relative to the where you
dropped the anchor, an Iphone app) and looked at our position on our chart
plotter and took visual reference to a building on the shore. I dutifully logged our bearing and distances
as the boat swung in the wind and tidal currents. (I don’t recall ever being so anal retentive
on this whole trip about noting our position.)
The jetty looked closer and closer in my imagination but from 2:00 p.m
to to 9:00 p.m. the data indicated that we hadn’t moved at all. Still 123.5’ give or take from where we
dropped the hook. At 4:30 a.m. when the
winds were predicted to build, we’d be at low tide, which would increase our
scope ratio to 12.5 to 1, that is hurricane level scope. Still, I was anxious, so I made sure the
engine key was on top of the helm station, that my Iphone was fully charged and
plugged in, and I even slept in the cabin salon instead of the v-berth, just in
case. At 9:00 p.m. I told myself to
quit worrying and went to sleep in the salon.
At 5:00 a.m. I got up, checked the anchor app, still 123.5’
feet. Great! We wanted an early start (6:00 a.m.) so Nancy
was up as well. At 5:20 a.m. as I was
sipping coffee and Nancy was getting dressed, the anchor alarm started blaring. I looked, we were now 176’ from where we set
the hook, and subsequently 50’ closer to the jetty and disaster. I looked back at the jetty; it was
definitely closer and not in my imagination this time! I started up the engine and yelled down to
Nancy that I needed her, and now! I put
the engine in gear just enough to stabilize the situation. I resisted the temptation to plow forward,
doing so would have risked going over the anchor line and getting it caught in
the prop. That would have made a bad
situation catastrophic. Line around the prop = no engine = we
crash into the jetty and then who knows?
It didn’t take long for Nancy to get up and take over
helm-duties, while I went to the bow to assess the situation. The anchor line was taught, so maybe it had
caught again, or was just slowly dragging. Regardless, we went into our anchor
retrieval routine but with the wind and current were so strong it took way
longer than usual to get the anchor up.
We then slowly motored out into the main channel. How close a call was it? Given that we’d done all the right things,
perhaps not as close as it seemed at the time, but still, any one thing not prepared
for (now where is that damn engine key? Iphone out of juice, etc.) could have
met us with disaster.
The wind was gusting over 30 mph, not the best day to be
traveling, but we were traveling the “inside” route through the marshland on
the Jersey ICW which is only dredged to approximately six feet and is known for
shoaling. Tow Boat US has boats
stationed all around the Jersey Shore as boats constantly ground there. The guidance is that if you draft under 5’,
take the inside route unless the Atlantic Ocean is very calm, 5’ and over, wait
until the Atlantic Ocean is calm, which could take a while. We only draft thirty inches, so I wasn’t that
worried about it, but in this weather, who knows? If it hadn’t been 5:35 a.m. with no ability
to call a marina and get a slip for the day, we’d have probably pulled into one. Re-anchoring was not high on my priority
list. It was still dark, but we didn’t
have much choice, we needed to begin our trip north to Atlantic City and find
some calmer waters to get ourselves sorted out.
(Going the “outside route” on the Atlantic Ocean was not an option with
this wind, the seas out there were four to six fee, small craft advisory being
in effect.)
We did find some calmer spots were the JICW wound through
residential areas, but for the most part it was like this:
We don’t have any pictures because we both spent the next
eight hours at the helm making sure we stayed in the narrow channel between the
red and green buoys. Not a lot of margin
for error, especially in these conditions.
We did have one brief tricky moment due to my hubris. See the picture. Instead of following the yellow path along the JICW around the back of an island, I thought it would a good idea to take a shortcut through an inlet (dashed line above the arrow with "Bridge") to the ocean “to save some time.” As we approached the bridge to the inlet, it was clear that this was a no-go as the waves were roaring through the inlet and were a good four to five feet on what would have been a beam sea. With my tail between my legs, I reversed course and went back around the island. What did the lady in the Donner Party famously say? “Don’t take no shortcuts.”
The last few miles wound through a residential area, the
waters were calm, being protected by the buildings on the shore. The only minor challenge was that we had to
go through three bridges that needed to be lifted. No problem at all, in fact I think the
bridge tenders were happy to break the boredom as we only saw two other boats
out the whole day. (Note the next day’s write up.)
.JPG)
I took a long hot shower and then both Nancy and I took a
walk through the casino. Ehh, definitely
not the Bellagio in Vegas. We spent the
rest of the afternoon watching a Great Loop documentary. We were just knackered, and dinner consisted
of yogurt and granola.
May 11th was Nancy’s birthday and as a present I ordered up sun and less wind, but forget to order up warmth, it was pretty cold; but a sunny day does much to lighten the mood. We decided to make it an easier day, so instead of going to the full sixty two n/m to the Manasquan Inlet, we only went forty six miles, stopping at a marina in Pine Beach, N.J. We’d been warned to avoid traveling on the “inside route” on the weekends, and I can see why. Luckily it was too early in the season, and too cold, for that many people to be out, but the fishermen were out with a vengeance. Worse than Florida boaters, these guys just roar through the narrow channels at full speed: other boats be dammed. We just took it slow. Did have a bit of a chuckle with this exchange:
“Coast Guard, Coast Guard this is the vessel (name withheld, call it the Minnow)”
CG: “Vessel Minnow how can we help?”
Minnow: “We are coming
to the Tom’s River is there anything going on?”
CG: “Captain, please
switch to 22 alpha”
CG: “Captain of the
Minnow what issues are you concerned about?”
Minnow: Well, shoaling
around the Tom’s River entrance.”
CG: “Captain what is
your vessel’s draft?”
Minnow: “18 inches”
CG: “uhh Captain stay
between the channel markers and you’ll be fine.”
After
tying up in the slip, I rinsed the boat and got caught up with this blog and
did laundry. That night Nancy and I
walked about a mile and half to an Italian restaurant for her birthday dinner
and we took an Uber back to the boat.
Along the way:
We went through the Point Pleasant Canal, a one-mile canal to the Manasquan River. Straight forward, no wake zone, subject to tidal current. Well, I guess we lucked out because later Nancy say blog posts about how this was the most dangerous part of the entire Great Loop trip due to idiots who don’t abide by no wake zones. Thank God she saw the posts after we went through the Canal, or it might have caused way too much anxiety.
We pulled into Captain Bill’s landing by 1:00 p.m. and then went over for other Mother’s Day lunch at the restaurant next door.
We then strolled over to the boardwalk, and all I can say is this place must be a zoo on weekends in the summer. It was busy on this cold, wet and windy day!
A fake stern wheeler passing by:
The boardwalk:
Clowns creep me out, I'm not going in there:
A memorial to fishermen from this area lost at sea:
After
our stroll we sat down with Captain Bill himself about advice on the trip to
NYC the next day. Super interesting
guy: lawyer, fisherman, marina owner, and
treasure hunter. To wit, one of his
companies: “Depth Charge's endeavors include: underwater search, rescue and
recovery, sonar and video documentation of new and old shipwrecks.” Anyhow, he looked at the forecast with
us and gave us the thumb’s up for the trip the next day, “as long as we left
early, as the winds are predicted to build.”
So, the plan was set: cast off the lines at 6:00 a.m. the next morning and
head to the “Big Apple.”
That night we watched the shrimp boats come and go and went to be early.
Dave
Odometer: 3,999 n/m
.jpg)
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment