39°46′1″ N 74°6′20″ W

Aug 1 – Barnegat Bay NJ

We arrived at Barnegat Bay at 5:00pm yesterday afternoon. Originally we had planned on stopping in Atlantic City but we would have been there by 1:00pm & have given up several hours of good traveling time – so we continued on for another 4 hours….

The weather this week has been ideal for ocean shoreline passages. The winds are light & waves are less than 2 feet. However, the forecast shows the weather deteriorating by Friday this week so our goal is to get to NYC as quickly as possible so we don’t have to be concerned about ocean weather & wave conditions any longer.

We left Barnegat Bay at 6:30am this morning (photo above) & are headed to a harbor that is just “below” NYC harbor (screenshot below).

We will spend 2 days at a marina there & then move to another marina in Newark NJ that is very close to the Newark airport.

Sunday is crew change day. Ed flys home & Catherine (aka “the Admiral”) flys in to take Ed’s place.

With this crew change I’ll really have to clean up my act! No more wearing the same shirt for 3 or 4 days in a row & the Spam has to go overboard. On the positive side, I’m really looking forward to seeing Catherine again & sharing the next segment of the journey home with her.

I flew down to Jacksonville FL on June 30 & have not seen her since then. So it will be a big reunion in the Big Apple & cruising up the Hudson River will be fantastic!

The screenshot above shows our current position as I am writing this blog posting. Our chart plotter says that we are about 68 nm from our destination & will arrive there in about 9-10 hours. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from years of sailing (& now trawling) it’s that patience is key to remaining sane. Enjoy the slower pace & make the most of it.

At our rate of speed the boat burns about 1.5 Imperial gallons an hour. That translates into about 13 miles per gallon. The other day I was talking to a fellow in a marina & was asking him about travel times & distances between that marina & the next one I wanted to go to. He said he had been at my next destination several times on his boat but that he travelled at 20+ knots (a lot faster that I can), so we were trying to “convert” the travel time to be relevant to my boat. During our conversation he asked me about my rate of fuel burn & then replied that his boat, a big Sport Fisher, burned about 120 gallons an hour at optimum cruising speed! So, going slow can be rewarding in more than one way – especially for a thrifty Scotsman like me!

Cheers!