5/8/16        Sunday              Barnegat, NJ             AT LAST.............

.........we're out of Brigantine!!! On our way north again. I was beginning to think I was in a "groundhog day" syndrome.

We and our buddy boaters were up at 4:00 AM and creeping carefully out of the anchorage in the mere half-light of pre-dawn. A bit tricky but we still had the "bread crumb" pathway from coming into the anchorage on our chart plotter. And I was on the foredeck with the flashlight looking for the buoys.

We lumped a bit getting out of the inlet but .... into the SUN! How beautiful!

Coming out fromAtlantic City/Brigantine - Abescon Inlet

sun magic

Even the large buildings of Atlantic City casinos are rendered in beauty with the magic of sun reflections.

We kept buddy boat in easy sight, traveling off shore 2-3 miles. We had to empty our holding tank so took ourselves out beyond the 3 mile marker. Mostly a gentle day of motoring with the mizzen up for steadying and a bit of jib to get a little pull from the wind.

We worried about going into Barnegat since that had been such a terror and bad news on the way down - washing machine inlet with wind against waves/tide, running aground and wrapping our prop and being towed. That was a full daylight nightmare...but in the past.

We lead the way into the inlet as our buddies had not been there before. Swift entry but easy enough. Hard turn to port, past the dredge (always a dredge which is a good thing, sort of...the results are good - deeper channel). Then a confusing marker and some other boat (maybe the dredge) called to give us instructions. Buddy boater, Gary, took the lead.

Lo and behold there were some other buddies in the anchorage. David called the yacht club that was reported to have mooring balls, "yes, they are free" so we picked up one and Gary took the other. Home for the evening.

Barnegat view this evening

Friends, Larry and Shannon, dinghied over to ask if we wanted fish. Yes. Salmon would be great. They went to the fish market (and walked their dog) and brought back a lovely pound of salmon and some ice for drinks.

To bed early. Another really early day tomorrow. We're trying to make lots of miles in this week of fair weather.

It really feels good to be moving along again as if there may be a future on land and an end to this particular aspect of this particular journey. It was really getting trying, being on the boat, seeing and doing the same/same, and being cold, bored, sense of "trapped." Lightning up not that the sun is out again.