Monday, 7th October, 2019

The New Jersey coast is likely to be the toughest part of this trip.  It’s 120 nm of sandy beaches with limited harbors.  And the harbors that do exist often have warnings about entering with strong winds and tides, which could restrict safe times to enter.  And the prevailing winds are from the SW, so we could expect to be beating, which is our slowest point of sail. 

So we were initially happy to see Northerly winds in the forecast for the next several days, which would mean we could manage longer distances and reduce the total time to transit the coast.  

However, the forecasts are now calling for NE winds up to 40 knots, with waves up to 14ft!  That’s a little too much “good” news!  We’re staying put here for a few days. 

The new “good” news is that the forecast is calling for the winds and seas to tail off, but still remain N or NW or even W by Sunday and Monday so we still may have the opportunity of making a fast passage along this stretch of coast.  Of course forecast’s change, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on them this week.  Incidentally W winds would be perfect.  It would put us on a reach, a sailboat’s fastest point of sail, and the winds would be coming off the land, so the seas would not have time to build up and would be relatively flat, what us sailors call a weather shore. 

We’re on a mooring inside a well-protected breakwater, with a launch service to take us to shore in the strong winds, our wind generator is providing us will all the electricity we need, and Atlantic Highlands has plenty of amenities – restaurants, pubs, grocery, laundromat and even a casino – so we’re just going to enjoy a few days off and may even get rich!

We took our bikes ashore and went for a ride along the Bay Shore trail before stocking up on groceries. 

Amazing Grace arrived here a day before us, and we met up with Noel yesterday.  Noel and Annette live here and graciously offered to help with transportation or anything else we need.  They are also heading south and waiting for more reasonable winds.  I suspect another meal out with them is in our future.