Whales, Whales, Whales to Cape May

 It's always the obvious.  Why did we leave our family and friends and sell everything we own to live aboard our 36 foot Pearson 367 sailboat, Quicksilver?  The obvious, the freedom and peace that on the water gives us.  You live outside from sunrise to sunset...sometimes after both of those (we like to sleep in a bit) and you are in nature 24/7.

We left Sandy Hook on Friday, September 4th after a very rolley sleepless night in back of the Sandy Hook Light house and the Coast Guard station.  The breeze was up, so we hoisted our sails and headed around the hook...there were at least 50 onshore fishermen casting, large fishing boats zooming out to the best spot in the Atlantic and birds everywhere darting to the water.  What a sight and how wonderful it is to be alive.  Then it happened...Jon said, "I must be seeing things because I think I just saw something spout, like a whale or dolphin."  I said I didn't think dolphins were up this far but then he's pointing and I'm looking and right off our port side about less than a hundred yards was a whale coming up then down.  It happened so fast that we didn't have time to be afraid...it was just pure joy.  I'm not sure but I think Jon and I were dancing in place.  We high fived each other and kept saying "we saw a whale" over and over.  

our anchorage at Sandy Hook

sunrise 

light house Sandy Hook Alantic side

Going around Sandy Hook

Our high continued through the day--Jon believes he saw another whale a couple hours later and I saw one surface the next day when we were almost to Cape May.  We aren't sure what type of whales they were, could have been a right whale or a very small humpback. 

  We are pretty sure we saw a North Atlantic Right Whale

We came into Atlantic City after motoring the last 5 hours into the wind....all weather stations were saying it was supposed to be North North West but it was definitely South South East...we kept looking at weather and it promised to be change to the west...it never did.  Anyway, a squall was looming over the City and we were making sure we were ready, just in case (batten the hatches, get rain gear ready and generally preparing ourselves to get soaked.)  Luckily it moved south and the current carried us swiftly into the harbor at about 7pm.  Whew, we made it before sunset.  We set anchor right in front of the Golden Nugget and Harrah's Casino.  After a 12 hour day on the water and no sleep the night before, I think I saw the sunset and not much more.  Jon stayed up for the moon rise and woke me to look out my window.  It was beautiful but I didn't wake up again until I heard the most awful scraping on our hull.  Jon jumped up and went out to look...the current is so strong in the harbor that our anchor and chain was well behind the boat.  The boat was trying to turn because of the wind...It was a "sad god-awful" sound but Quicksilver finally turned.  We might have a couple of marks on the bow...well if we do it right, I guess we'll have the marks to show for it. I mean if we stayed home on a dock we could probably keep her pristine, but out in the real world we will have a couple of scares to show off.

 Approaching Atlantic City 

our anchorage at Atlantic City

Jon inviting one of his friends to meet him at the roulette table 

glitz and glamor 

Leaving Atlantic City 

We pulled anchor about 8ish and enjoyed a down wind motor sail to Cape May.  By enjoy I mean it was better than going straight into the wind.  A lot of sailors, like us, don't love down wind sailing...first of all it can be hard to steer, you end up surfing down the the waves and then slowing down and getting off course.  Second of all, it gives the flies from "hell" the opportunity to come in and bite the crap out of you.  Jon and I took turns with fly swatter and slapping anywhere on your skin was acceptable...anything to get rid of them.  We did enjoy looking for more whales and dolphins and couldn't get over how much of New Jersey's coast is covered with beaches...almost the whole coast.  We came into the channel of Cape May under surf and power.  Half way through a huge cigarette tour boat, ThunderCat, sped past us at a crazy speed.  The wake was so huge and we barely had enough time to turn into it so not to be swamped.  Jon wanted the handheld radio to give him a piece of his mind, but I thought better of it.  We had salt water come into all the port side ports and hatches, but, nothing was broken.

Cape May has been a nice anchorage, right by the Coast Guard Station.  We took a couple days off and did a lot of people watching.  We sat on the top of boat and watched the parade of boats go by....hundreds.  You know the scene in Jaws where all the boats were going out to capture the shark? Yep like that.  The anchorage itself is wonderful and the wakes aren't bad at all.  It all dies down about 8pm or so.  And we sleep well and wake up the the Coast Guards Reveille over a loud speaker at 8am.

Cape May near Cape May Canal

Schellenger Creek.  My favorite area

We plan to leave tomorrow morning a couple hour after low tide to head up the Delaware Bay and into the Chesapeake Bay. I will get back to you on how that goes.  Maybe after we get to Annapolis.