Friday, May 30, 2008

Atlantic City, New Jersey (Friday, May 30, 2008). Left Cape May unexpectedly after reviewing weather updates. Went to bed last night planning on ‘cooling our heels’ while some weather made its way through, but awoke to beautiful conditions for great sailing! What an idea! So, after fast on-shore showers we cast off and out of a very pleasant time at Utsch’s Marina. After photos of Tim French’s old stomping grounds at the Cape May Coast Guard Station we headed into the sweet smelling Atlantic. Less than an hour out, sails were up and we were in the zone – finally, we’re doing what life’s meant for us! More dolphin sightings off to starboard, and a few basking sharks very near. We mostly sailed all day, with a few short bouts of motoring. Average speed was between 4-5 knots, wind behind us all the way.

Liberty Clipper (a not so pretty tall masted schooner out of Boston) passed us on their motor sail into Atlantic City and received a few choice words from Capt Tony as they clogged the entry to AC with their dingy riding in the narrow channel beside their boat. No harm, no foul; we held our distance and slipped in to a transient slip at Kammerman’s Marina for the night. We look out across the creek to the Coast Guard Station and Trump Marina (now blasting a Friday night rock and roll party; those damn kids!). Front page news in all the South Jersey papers this morning was an announced sale of the Trump Marina to some Margaritaville franchise. Not only will the prices jump (we are $2.00 a foot at Kammerman’s versus Trump’s $4.50 last year), but that parrot music will be playing constantly. Ugh!!

Tomorrow we bid adieu to CGA. She’s been a loving and watchful figurehead all our lives – it’s always wonderful to have her on board and make memories anew with us here. We expect the “bad” weather to pass during the day and diminish at over night Saturday. We are relying on www.passageweather.com which has great wind and wave predictions over a multi-day period. We’ll know on Sunday how accurate they are.