Oct 7-8-9: New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway; Manasquan Inlet to Atlantic City

     Wednesday we were up and out into the open ocean for the first time since traveling along the coast of Nova Scotia.  Everyone traveling South must cruise at least partially outside the New Jersey coastline.  Those of us with shallower drafts and shorter masts can make use of the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway at the entrance at Manasquan Inlet, 26 miles down the coast from the Verrazano Bridge.  The swells from Hurricane Joaquin were not as bad as we’d heard, but they still were breaking on the beach high enough to attract surfers, but they weren’t keeping the fishermen away.  There were several people casting lines all along the breakwater leading to the Manasquan River.

Entrance to Manasquan River - the breakwater is made up of interlocking manufactured stones that look like giant jacks.

     The waters here are shallow, and the channels and canals are narrow, and there are many bridges that need to be hailed to open for us, but it was great fun to slowly motor along and wave to the people sitting on their porches or fishing from their backyards.  We’re enjoying some warm and sunny weather - it’s been in the seventies and we’ve gone back to short-sleeve shirts, shorts, and lots of sunscreen.  This portion of the ICW is quiet; most boats traveling South do the entire New Jersey run from the outside, and the locals probably aren’t getting out on weekdays as much in the fall as they do in the summer.  We encountered only a couple of other sailboats drifting along, and mostly small-boat fisherman.  

Brielle RR Bridge, the first bridge before Pleasant Point Canal.

Rt 35 Bridge

     Wednesday night we anchored up the Metedeconk River, and Dan took the dinghy ashore to walk to West Marine for a couple of supplies while I stayed behind and did my own chores.  Like much of the NJ-ICW, our anchorage was bordered on one side by marsh and the other with wall to wall houses and condos. We watched a white heron and several ducks looking for their dinners in front of tall sedges, and then turned around and saw a densely built-up, brightly lit waterfront studded with private piers.  It’s quite the view, depending on which way you face.  

A great blue heron challenges a white heron with a fly-by.

Swans, marsh, and houses.  You can't see their docks, but they all have them.

Thursday we followed the meandering channel under more bridges and into Barnegat Bay.  We have a guidebook that reads like one of those old Disney travelogues, and it gives a great history of this area in particular, mentioning that the Dutch established colonies here before the Mayflower set people onto Plymouth rock, that rebels harassed the British here during the Revolutionary War, and that this area is the birth place of the coasting schooner.   

     We called it a day as we moved from Barnegat Bay into Little Egg Harbor, and dropped the hook off Mordecai Island in the Liberty Thorofare.  We were treated to a beautiful sunset, and Dan was amused to see a dredging barge getting ready for a night’s work.  (No, he doesn’t miss that.)

Sunset in Liberty Thorofare

Friday dawned overcast and very windy.  Our anemometer read 20 knots of wind, with gusts up to 25.  The water was a bit choppy as we followed the markers 20 miles to Atlantic City.  Everything we’ve read about the ICW cautions that we follow the buoys, and not adhere strictly to the magenta line on the charts.  We found this to be true today - following that magenta line would have put us aground for sure.  No doubt Joaquin shifted the sandy bottom around.  It was impressive that someone had already moved the buoys accordingly.  A strong front is moving through today, and we found a snug anchorage in a small basin across from the Absecon Inlet where we have a nice view of flocks of birds in the small marsh nearby and the brightly lit towers of the casinos in Atlantic City.