Sailing from Forked River, NJ to Cape May

dhodge

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Jul 20, 2021
2
Cape Dory 26 Norfolk, VA
Purchasing a Cape Dory 26 and sailing her solo from Forked River to Cape May. Just daylight sailing and will be staying on the inside until I have too go outside.
Anything to look out for, Limestone Channel perhaps?
 
Aug 2, 2005
1,155
Pearson 33-2 & Typhoon 18 Seneca Lake
Hello dhodge and welcome to SBO.

Many years ago I traveled with three friends on a recently purchased (by one of those men) Catalina 30 along the coast from Atlantic City, through the Cape May Canal, up the Delaware Bay including a detour up the Cohansee (sp ?) River, through the C & D Canal, and to the Bohemia River on the Chesapeake Bay. I won't bore you with the details of the trip except to say that when we entered the Cape May Inlet we were greeted by a zooming powerboat that sent us all rocking and rolling! With 4 aboard we had plenty of "hands" to give the appropriate signals to the offending boat operator.

Enjoy our adventure, observe your charts carefully, and stay safe by wearing your PFD at all times.
 
Oct 26, 2008
6,041
Catalina 320 Barnegat, NJ
Purchasing a Cape Dory 26 and sailing her solo from Forked River to Cape May. Just daylight sailing and will be staying on the inside until I have too go outside.
Anything to look out for, Limestone Channel perhaps?
I don't know your reference to "Limestone Channel" but you can easily make it inside from Forked River to Atlantic City. The channel is very well marked and well traveled all the way. There are only 2 bridges (Manahawkin 56' and Brigantine) and your boat will easily clear under both. After passing under Manahawkin Bridge, follow the main channel that takes you by all of the developed Long Beach Island towns. You might be tempted to follow a more westerly channel to avoid LBI, but I think it is too sketchy for a sailboat and I don't know anybody who has gone that way. Once you pass Little Egg Inlet, you are in for a beautiful stretch of waterway in a seemingly pristine area. You can read all of the Active Captain warnings of shallow areas within the channel but I think the trouble areas have been dredged since the reviews were made. I passed that way in 2019 with 4' draft and never saw depths less than 8 or 9 feet. Most of it very comfortable depths. Follow the channels religiously, though, because if you wander just a bit, you would be asking for a grounding.

Between Atlantic City and Cape May is a different story, I think. You would have a couple of bascule bridges to deal with between AC and Ocean City but I think it is feasible. There are fixed bridges between Ocean City and Cape May that you may not be able to get under. I don't know anything about the channel depths, but the path would be slow and tortuous. That said, I think it is, by far, the most common practice to sail outside at least from Atlantic City to Cape May.

You can go out through Barnegat Inlet and make Atlantic City (Brigantine Inlet) or Great Egg Harbor Inlet (Ocean City) in a day. Take another day to get from either one to Cape May. The time from Forked River to Atlantic City is about the same either via the ocean or the intercoastal. Just inside Brigantine Inlet is the Brigantine anchorage. The entrance looks impossibly narrow and you will see people wading on the east side of it in knee deep water. Be assured that the west side is plenty deep and the anchorage is good. Just keep the marker sticks on your stbd side to keep off the ground. Many much larger boats go in there all the time. If you come from the ocean, you will be making a right turn into the anchorage, just before going under the Brigantine Bridge.

If you watch "The Escape Artists" on YouTube, you can follow their adventure from Barnegat Bay to Cape May. They stayed on the inside to Little Egg Inlet (AKA Tuckerton Inlet) and went outside from there to Brigantine. They made a short jump outside from Brigantine to Ocean City, which would be unnecessary for you, I think. They were travelling in late autumn and had limited daylight hours. They then ran into disaster by leaving Ocean City late in the day and attempting Cape May in the dark. They ended up grounded in the ocean outside Cape May and had to get towed off a sand bar to get into the anchorage. Don't do these inlets in the dark! :facepalm:

HTH, Scott
 
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May 24, 2004
7,129
CC 30 South Florida
With a draft of under 4' you can probably stay on the inside until Atlantic City. From Atlantic City to Cape May you have some 33 nm in open waters.
 

Ward H

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Nov 7, 2011
3,645
Catalina 30 Mk II Barnegat, NJ
If you wish some crew I know of one who would like to make that trip.
 
Dec 2, 2003
208
Hunter 34 Forked River, NJ
Some friends made the trip inside two weeks ago from AC to Forked River, went aground twice, important you stay in the channel, Also the trip inside will get you great numbers of Greenhead flies !
 
Oct 26, 2008
6,041
Catalina 320 Barnegat, NJ
Some friends made the trip inside two weeks ago from AC to Forked River, went aground twice, important you stay in the channel, Also the trip inside will get you great numbers of Greenhead flies !
Wow, can you elaborate on where they grounded? I paid close attention to the locations identified by Active Captain, went slow and made sure I stayed within the confines of the channel. It is wide open water in some of those locations and the markers are spaced wide enough that it is easy to wander outside without knowing it. I had Navionics running on my phone and I was also tracking on my chart plotter. In both cases I found the charts to be accurate and helped me stay within the channel between markers.

I did not have any problem with greenheads, but it was Labor Day weekend and a cold front kept them down.
 

dhodge

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Jul 20, 2021
2
Cape Dory 26 Norfolk, VA
If you wish some crew I know of one who would like to make that trip.
I'm in the process of negocating buying the CD-26 in Forked River. I'm actually going to sail it to my home port, Norfolk, VA. I could use a crew member as far as they want to go. Someone with sailing experience of course. You or they can email me directly at david.s.hodge@gmail.com

Thanks.