It was clear and sunny but quite cold starting out in the high 40’s. Time to get back to Miami! Thankfully the seas were very calm and we had an uneventful journey until Jonny kept spotting a whale! He actually saw it breach but I, unfortunately, only saw its fin. We never expected to see one in New Jersey but apparently it’s not that unusual.
Getting into Barnegat Bay was a little nerve-wracking. Jonny was following the markers but noticed that the other boats returning to the bay were approaching it from an entirely different angle. We proceeded slowly and carefully into the harbor but noted the depth gauge kept showing shallower and shallower depths until we finally touched bottom. Thankfully, Jonny took immediate action and skillfully maneuvered us back and forth until we were freed up. At the same time, he contacted the harbor master to ask him about the right way to enter the harbor. He was told that there had been a lot of shoaling (duh!) and how to proceed. Clearly they should have put up temporary markers to prevent boats from going this way. Apparently it was noted on the Notice to Mariners but we hadn’t bothered to review it this time. So we followed the other boats entering the bay passing many of the attractive beach homes lining the shore.
We proceeded to the place where we like to anchor but there was a sailboat in that very spot. After a couple of false tries, we finally got ourselves settled.
We dinghied over to chat with our neighbors and heard another distress call from a sailboat that had run aground and needed a tow. Not a good thing - they need to mark that shoaling!
After our chat we took Archie in for a walk. One of the reasons we like coming here is that there is a big dog park that Archie can run around in. Usually there are just a few dogs but this day there were lots. Archie was a little reluctant to interact with them at first but he eventually warmed up to a couple of dogs that he chased and wrestled with. Surprisingly, this has been the first dog park we’ve been to on this voyage.
That evening Jonny made a lovely dinner of cod almandine, artichoke salad and quinoa. We had a quiet night aboard and will be heading to Atlantic City the next day.
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