Not much happening in New York City, so we decided to go to Atlantic City, NJ.  Unfortunately, the weather man lied (again)!  We expected northeast 15-20 knot winds with gusts to 25 knots and 3-6 foot seas.  What we got was northeast 25 to 35 knots with gusts in the 40's and 10-12 foot seas.  Things got worse as the day progressed and it also started raining.  There are not many places to stop along the New Jersey shore and once started we had to keep going.  The easiest place to get in was Atlantic City, which has a wide open entrance.  However, they move the marks depending on the shoaling conditions, so they are not on the chart and they were difficult to find.  Anyway, we are now tied up to a dock and everyone is dry, warm, and fed.  It was one of those sails that makes one say, "Never again!"

That was Sue's version.         Here's "the rest of the story."    We had originally planned to go to Barnegat Inlet, which is about half way to Cape May, NJ.  Barnegat Inlet is another place which is uncharted due to local shoaling.  As we got closer we called the Coast Guard to check the local conditions.  The uncharted info is that the controlling depth (channel depth) is 3.2 feet!  Great, unless your boat draws 5' 6" and the waves are in excess of 6 or 8 feet.  Since no one was too interested in going back to New York City (almost a physical impossibility now)  we decided the next spot to shoot for was Atlantic City.  What sue neglected to mention was our boat speed - over 7 kts all day long with peak speeds in the 9 to 10 knot range.  And this with one or two reefs in the mainsail, and no headsail!  As we approached the inlet, looking for the uncharted marks, with basically one chance to get it right, the slowest we could make the boat go was 7.5 kts!  It was also almost dark, and raining.  Other than that it was just another typical Sunday day sail.

Pretty much the whole day I was listening for any strange noises, and feeling any strange or unusual  vibrations.  Every time I moved the wheel I was hoping that nothing had bound up or come loose in the steering.   It is also interesting that after you have been sailing in 30 to 35 knot winds, when the wind drops to 20 to 23 kts it seems almost  calm.

We just found out from friends back home that the Erie Canal, or at least part of it, is closed due to flooding.  Probably from all the rain that we had 3 and 4 days ago from the tropical depression that went up the east coast.