8/30/15 Great Kills,NY to Toms River, NJ

We made a rapid decision to leave as soon as the sun came up.  Duke was feeling better. Conditions near the marina were calm, but out on Raritan Bay it was bumpy.  The wind was out of the west and there was fetch because of the length of the bay.  Our hope was that after rounding Sandy Hook, the land would block the wind.  Once we left the bay and turned south, we were rewarded with calmer waters even though the wind was around 20.

We saw what we thought were people on the beaches even though it was early morning.  A quick look through the binoculars assured me that they were people, NUDE people.  Very interesting!!

This old plane flew over while we were on the NJ coast

 Ron had planned our entry into Manasquan Inlet to coincide with slack tide.  It was perfect and we had only about a 10 minute wait at the railroad bridge.  A canal runs between Manasquan and Barnegat Bay.  The tide in the canal was in our favor, too.  This section of the trip took lots of planning on Ron's part.  If the tide had been against us, the canal would have been a challenge.  This canal is only wide enough for two passing boats and is not restricted to "no wake" speed, so if feels like sloshing in a small bathtub.

Traveling on weekends is not our favorite thing to do, but the alternative was to have rougher weather on the Atlantic. Once in Barnegat Bay, we had to contend with the Sunday boaters....some in the channel and others crossing the channel.  Lots of boats going different directions. 

We made a fuel stop at Key Harbor Marina where we paid $2.08 a gallon for diesel.  That was the best price we've seen in months!

We headed for Toms River Yacht Club, but we could not get anyone on the radio or on their phone, so we headed back out the river to Ocean Gate Yacht Basin.  We always choose to go "bow in" to a slip, but both here and at Great Kills, they had very short fingers, so in order to get off the boat, we had to go "stern in".  Fortunately at both places we had help from other boaters.  Slips here typically have pilings and the end of the slip.  The idea is to lasso your line around the piling.  This is an art which I have not yet accomplished!

short finger docks so backed in to slip

entry to marina