Tuesday, September 13, 2016

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.

3 comments:

Janice Roehr said...

We will be following your trip closely this year. We had hoped to be heading south too on Obsession our Catalina 42, but an unexpected health issue has delayed our trip for a year. Looking forward to tracking your progress and reading about your adventures along the way.

Mary Minard, "Quest" said...

We received your excellent 2016 ICW guidebook yesterday and I stayed up late reading if. So many good thoughts - We hope our oil company will go for antifreeze, never would have thought of that.
I wonder how you handle hurrican planning in terms of a dock that will keep you on it or a yard that will haul you. It seems so complex given that we are always moving. This is the third year we have had concerns moving south from Maine in September. So grateful that you and Ann are dropping breadcrumbs for us to follow down the way.

Bob423 said...

Janice, glad you like the blog. Get well soon!!

Mary, thanks for the kind words on the Cruising Guide. Hopefully the Guide can help provide more time for enjoyment and less time working on problems. There are never a shortage of problems but at least perhaps a few can be prevented. On hurricanes, we have no great worries on that. There are plenty of marinas around and most will let you remain tied up. We would seek one as far inland as possible.