Sue & I took Friday afternoon off to get down to the boat and anchor out for the night. Knowing that a tropical storm was on the way, I figured Friday into Saturday was a small window to make something out of the weekend (boatwise). First, our dock neighbor came by and said "you really going out in this?" Gee thanks! That set Sue on edge right off the bat. She knew about the storm but was trusting me when I said we had time. The wind was light on Friday afternoon. Predictions indicated it would be picking up overnight to 20 knots from the NE on Saturday morning. But the predictions also indicated that it wouldn't change much until the system would arrive possibly Sunday. It would take only about an hour and half both ways to Barnegat Light and back, so we weren't getting too far away. We made plans to meet up with Sue's best friend for dinner and a visit to the light house, so I was really looking forward to my first trip through the Oyster Creek Channel to the anchorage at Barnegat Light.
Not to bore you with too many details, we had a pleasant trip through the channel, found a place to tie up for the evening, had a wonderful dinner with lots of laughs, visited the light house, and then anchored for the night.
I had a little difficulty setting the anchor in a good spot as it was getting dark but we finally got a good hold next to a few other boats (who were tied to moorings). We slept fine until 2:30 when the wind dialed up to about 17 knots. Sue was anxious and I have to admit that I was nervous down below as the boat was sailing on the anchor. Eventually, I curled up in the cockpit with a cushion and a blanket, feeling comfortable on anchor watch because I could see we weren't going anywhere. But I knew that Sue was counting down the minutes until sunrise.
When it finally got light and the sun broke the horizon at 6:30, we had the engine running and broke the anchor free. The whole anchorage is surrounded by very shallow water and it was blowing at 20 knots by this time, with higher gusts. I wasn't nervous about the conditions so much as I was nervous about Sue's growing state of anxiety. But it really helped that it was light out and we were on our way home. Unfortunately, this is my first time up this channel to the inlet and finding the way back was not so familiar. (My handheld GPS was lost in our move, so I'm without GPS and relying on my paper chart and day markers.) With a little difficulty, we located the proper day markers to lead us back to Barnegat Bay.
We continued on and soon entered the Double Creek Channel and followed that out. The only problem was that I was supposed to be in the Oyster Creek Channel! My chart doesn't show Double Creek coming into the anchorage; instead it shows Double Creek terminating on the other side of the dyke. Besides, I had heard that the Double Creek Channel markers had been removed because it had shoaled too much for navigation. Well, my first gut feeling that we were in the wrong location was the appearance of the sedge islands that didn't look familiar to the way we entered. But my head told me that I was following the only possible way out and I didn't see any other channel markers.
We were following the channel in comfortable depths and it was still about 12' deep when I saw the last pair of daymarks, accompanied by a group of white markers that looked ominous. We had the wind at our back and the current was with us, so we were really moving along. I had Sue get the binocs out and said "what do they say??". She couldn't read them with the motion as we rapidly approached. But finally, we were close enough to read "Danger" without needing the binocs. Sue exploded with " they say DANGER! ... where are we?!?! ..... how do you NOT know where we are?!?!?" It was actually pretty comical but I wasn't laughing, then!
Luckily, I was able to turn around inside the channel and double back without any additional trouble. When we found our way back to Oyster Creek Channel, I noted that there was not any Preferred Channel daymarker (at least none that I saw). I was still pretty sheepish as we found our way back to Barnegat Bay ... and feeling sheepish, still.
Not to bore you with too many details, we had a pleasant trip through the channel, found a place to tie up for the evening, had a wonderful dinner with lots of laughs, visited the light house, and then anchored for the night.
I had a little difficulty setting the anchor in a good spot as it was getting dark but we finally got a good hold next to a few other boats (who were tied to moorings). We slept fine until 2:30 when the wind dialed up to about 17 knots. Sue was anxious and I have to admit that I was nervous down below as the boat was sailing on the anchor. Eventually, I curled up in the cockpit with a cushion and a blanket, feeling comfortable on anchor watch because I could see we weren't going anywhere. But I knew that Sue was counting down the minutes until sunrise.
When it finally got light and the sun broke the horizon at 6:30, we had the engine running and broke the anchor free. The whole anchorage is surrounded by very shallow water and it was blowing at 20 knots by this time, with higher gusts. I wasn't nervous about the conditions so much as I was nervous about Sue's growing state of anxiety. But it really helped that it was light out and we were on our way home. Unfortunately, this is my first time up this channel to the inlet and finding the way back was not so familiar. (My handheld GPS was lost in our move, so I'm without GPS and relying on my paper chart and day markers.) With a little difficulty, we located the proper day markers to lead us back to Barnegat Bay.
We continued on and soon entered the Double Creek Channel and followed that out. The only problem was that I was supposed to be in the Oyster Creek Channel! My chart doesn't show Double Creek coming into the anchorage; instead it shows Double Creek terminating on the other side of the dyke. Besides, I had heard that the Double Creek Channel markers had been removed because it had shoaled too much for navigation. Well, my first gut feeling that we were in the wrong location was the appearance of the sedge islands that didn't look familiar to the way we entered. But my head told me that I was following the only possible way out and I didn't see any other channel markers.
We were following the channel in comfortable depths and it was still about 12' deep when I saw the last pair of daymarks, accompanied by a group of white markers that looked ominous. We had the wind at our back and the current was with us, so we were really moving along. I had Sue get the binocs out and said "what do they say??". She couldn't read them with the motion as we rapidly approached. But finally, we were close enough to read "Danger" without needing the binocs. Sue exploded with " they say DANGER! ... where are we?!?! ..... how do you NOT know where we are?!?!?" It was actually pretty comical but I wasn't laughing, then!
Luckily, I was able to turn around inside the channel and double back without any additional trouble. When we found our way back to Oyster Creek Channel, I noted that there was not any Preferred Channel daymarker (at least none that I saw). I was still pretty sheepish as we found our way back to Barnegat Bay ... and feeling sheepish, still.
