Atlantic City - at The Golden Nugget Marina

You can tell we're in Atlantic City by the size of the boats. This guy was right in front of us. 

We looked at the forecast for the trip to Atlantic City and although it was predicted to be calm in the morning, the afternoon may have stronger winds. With that we chose to leave Atlantic Highlands at 5:00 am to beat the increasing wind predicted for the afternoon. It was certainly dark at 5:00 am. I took Hoolie ashore at 4:30 am and he did his business. After spending most of his life aboard a boat with only short sojourns ashore in our house, he knows what to do and quickly.

One has to be careful leaving in the dark. Things look differently and it's easy to get confused. We didn't have a moon up so it was really dark. However, there was no fog and the windows had no dew so we could see reasonably well. Of course radar and AIS was on as well as a lookout outside the enclosure my yours truly. Most boats now have AIS which makes things easier.

Nice and calm, good dock with cable

For once the actual conditions matched the forecast within 1 mph! As we headed south the wind gradually increased but never more than the predicted 10 kts. The passage will go down in as a first for us in forecast accuracy. PocketGrib and SwellInfo nailed the forecast but the NOAA Coastal Forecast was way off on the high side (20 kt gusts later in the day).

We arrived at our dock in Atlantic City 10 hrs 55 min after leaving the Atlantic Highlands. It was a good trip and we're glad to have it behind us. With SW winds predicted on Wednesday and gusts to 25 for Thursday, we'll most likely be here until Friday morning when the weather moderates. Our next stop will be Cape May, just a short hop down the coast.