All Night Sail on the Atlantic: He Said, She Said

She Said:  when the news came from the He of no other choice but to night sail from Atlantic Highlands to Atlantic City on the Atlantic Ocean, well....okay.  Like the choices are what?  I trust Mark and see first hand how avid a 3W (weather, wind, waves) sailor he is, so what the heck.  It will be cooler that's for sure.  We leave just before 5 pm and it takes us a while to get to the ocean but we arrive to waves and chop just like we are used to on Lake Michigan!  Not a problem.  It gets dark and the Jersey Shore is beautiful with lights.  Time for a delicious salmon dinner which tastes even more delicious under sail with the cool breeze.  We actually sail!  It gets cooler and the forecasted wind of 8-10 picks up to around 18.  We take turns snoozing with the dog throughout the night.  When I'm on watch that's when the wind picked up to 18 & 20 knots.  Get the jacket.  The sound of the water from behind and the darkness is rather eery.  Mark's 20 minute snooze turns into an hour and I see we need to change course.  I make the decision it is time for the He to get up!  He changes course, we chat for a while and it's my turn to snooze with Chester.  Morning breaks and around 8:30 a.m. we slide into Atlantic City.  We are docked by 9:30, registered, walk the dog (good boy!  19 hours since his last land break), have a cocktail and go to bed.  The night and the sail went fast.  Survived.

He Said:  New Jersey is not like we are used to on Lake Michigan. Ports are very far apart and most are too shallow for a sailboat. The ICW in New Jersey is 1-2 feet deep in a lot of places. Thus the decision to go the 80 some miles to Atlantic City. By leaving around 5:00 gave us a nice window if the wind turned light. After rounding Sandy Hook( look it up) we headed south. The wind played with us ....from a broad reach to a run....that's from 130 degrees to 180 degrees. This direction makes the boat roll. As the night progressed the wind increased. Tried my best to keep the ride smooth. Ran about three miles off shore which is only in sixty feet of water, Lu did much better than Chester, but still she was night comfortable. I took Chester down for a short nap which turned into an hour. The wind picked up around twenty knots. We were running with the headsail reefed and the mizzen. Rolled too much so reefed the mizzen. The first time I have ever done that..worked well. Then I also needed to depower so we did not arrive too early. Lu and Chester had a nice three hour nap. Good!  Early arrival into Atlantic City and a long motor into the chop to round the point and into the opening.
Chester did amazing but was unfair to him. Lu did very well but not her thing.