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| Approaching Atlantic City, NJ on the NJ-ICW (aka inside). |
When cruisers talk about traversing the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway (NJ-ICW), one question invariably comes up: stay inside or go out into the Atlantic? I'm an inside guy as I generally prefer scenery to speed. However, the NJ-ICW challenges my conviction by also being shallow, circuitous and, in places, lack luster. As exhibit "A"
I present the diagram below, Nellie's inside route from Little Egg Inlet to Atlantic City. I get seasick just thinking about all those turns ;-)
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| Nellie's route by Little Egg Inlet (upper right), to Atlantic City and then out Absecon Inlet (arrow at bottom). |
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| A Right whale breeches with a dolphin looking on. |
Well, this is something you certainly won't see on the inside, a Right whale breeching by Nellie off Ocean City, NJ.
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| Mini-Ne on Nellie's window frame. |
Mini-Ne, when not marking Nellie's position on paper charts, usually sits comfortably on the helm's window sill. It takes a powerful wave to knock her off. In a very rough East River, Mini-Ne only tumbled twice. What does it say then about the wakes on the NJ-ICW that toss Mini-Ne almost constantly? Granted it's a beautiful weekend day and everyone is out, but still!
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| Brant Beach, NJ to Cape May, NJ |
On the hook in Cape May, NJ. Seeing as Nellie is closing in on a major milestone, i.e. completion of the Great Loop, I'm going to track her Loop miles too. So, 68 miles today, 1,425 miles into 2019, 9,660 miles from Naples and 11,735 miles into the Loop. DBH
