Friday, May 15, 2009

Winds blew at 30 knots all night long. We awoke at 5 am to find the water as smooth as glass and pulled up anchor at 6:08 am to head out. Five minutes after leaving our quiet anchorage, we were in 4 to 6 foot seas. By 6:45 am, Maureen was seasick! She tried out her new seasickness band that delivers a shock to the wrist every couple of seconds. It gave her immediate relief, but wasn’t strong enough to keep the nausea at bay on this trip. We followed the coast line about four miles out in the ocean where it wasn’t quite as rough. Coming into Barnagat Inlet was difficult due to fog, high seas and a narrow passage. Several new buoys had been placed which were not noted on the charts or on the GPS causing some confusion. At 12:45 pm we were inside the cove and things calmed down considerably. Barnagat Lighthouse is as beautiful as the pictures portray. The town, Barnagat Light, NJ, is a quaint little fishing village and the city offers free mooring buoys so we decided to hook up and spend the night. From our anchorage we have a terrific view of the lighthouse. Three other sailboats anchored here for the night. The last boat that came in was a catamaran, Foxfire.
We tried out the shower in the head tonight and it works great! While Maureen was showering, Karen, from Foxfire, and her dog, Skipper, stopped by in their dinghy to say hello. She said that she, too, had come from Atlantic City today and that it was not a good day to be out. She had even more difficulty coming into the Inlet because the fog had gotten thicker by then. In fact, she had called ahead to request a Coast Guard escort if she needed one and Karen is an experienced cruiser. She lived aboard her catamaran for 8 years but about 4 years ago bought a place in Rhode Island. She still cruises as much as she can. Karen is also headed to Sandy Hook and said she was concerned with the weather forecast and the small craft warnings. We had also been listening to the weather and didn’t want to intentionally head out into another day like this one. We’ll see what the weather radio says in the morning.