Atlantic City at Trump Marina

I got up at 4:00 am, Orion was up shining brightly in the morning sky and we had morning winds of 20 kts! We all piled in the dink and headed for the marina for Hoolie relief. Still in the dark, we headed Fleetwing out directly into the wind and waves, kinda of scary at night if you’re not used to it (we weren’t!). Doing this in Maine would be suicidal with all the lobster pots but we hadn’t seen any pots coming into Atlantic Highlands but there were still the possibility of floating debris, however we missed everything and rounded the point and headed south with the wind now at our backs.

It’s fun watching the eastern sky gradually brighten and the sun rise over water. We alternately sailed and motor sailed since we couldn’t afford to drop much below 7 kts in making the 83 mile run to Atlantic City. When the wind blew, we could maintain 8.3 kts but had to turn on the diesel when it dropped. However, the wind was off the land so the water was flat, the sky was clear blue and the temperature was in the 70’s, what a great day! We didn’t see as much red tide as in the bay near Atlantic Highlands which had a definite red color, strange looking to see the ocean red. They said it was due to the very warm summer.

Approaching Atlantic City, the wind suddenly changed from northwest to south in the space of a few seconds, what a shift. South was not a good direction since it would be blowing directly into the inlet channel resulting in some good waves. All came out well but we did bounce a bit. We took a dock at Trump Marina and visited the casino for dinner but the buffet had closed by then. One of the many restaurants were still open and we had sandwiches – boy were we tired!

We’ll be staying here while the swells from Igor pass by. The seas will start to build up Thursday and in earnest Friday through Sunday. Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to stay at Atlantic City for awhile…