Cruise from Atlantic City to Barnaget Bay, NJ

The weather, wind, waves, etc., was predicted to be virtually the same for the two days following our rocky ride to Atlantic City.  So, there was no question, we decided to take the inside route to Barnaget Bay.  Well, I have to say, the inside route was no bed of roses, but I did prefer it to our experience on the Atlantic.  Different than the part of the ICW that we experienced in Virginia, this channel was extremely narrow but through large bodies of coastal/swampy water.  On either side of the channel (marked by numbered red and green markers) it was only 2’ deep!  It was hard to tell where we were to go at times, because other channels for places on either side of the ICW were also marked with red and green markers.  Since their series of numbers was different, we could quickly tell when we went astray, but two times we did churn up some mud on the bottom.  Yikes – at least we didn’t get stuck and didn’t damage the boat. 

That wasn’t the worst of it, though.  Just north of Atlantic City, we passed under a bridge and apparently into a very swampy area….home to the dreaded ‘greenhead’ (flies that bite and swarm all around).  Yuck!  Our first hint of problems came when I went down to the galley to make sandwiches.  We had left the back door onto the cockpit open, not usually a problem.  But, there must have been two or three hundred of those little monsters swarming all over (ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but not much!).  I closed the door and proceeded to kill all the little buggers.  Dan didn’t know what all the banging and (yes) cussing was about.  After I returned to the fly bridge, the flies started tormenting us up there.  Fortunately, we have an option on our boat.  We turned the generator on, then the A/C, and went into the enclosed pilot house for the rest of the day.

By the time we arrived in Barnaget Bay, we were out of greenhead territory.  Thank goodness!  The restaurant at the marina wasn’t open on Wednesday nights, so we got on our bikes and drove about a mile to a restaurant.  Another difficult, tiring day – we turned in early that night too!