Barnegat Bay to Atlantic City Trip

Ron:

Sorry I ddn't respond sooner. I've been through Little Egg inlet many times over the years. It is very well marked. It looks intimidating, IMHO, because of all the breakers that you will see to the north of the inlet (the old Beach Heaven Inlet).

Many boats go through the inlet daily. You should easily be able to get behind a more local guy (call and verify on the vhf) and follow him out.

The reason I usually go out of Little Egg is to avoid the back marsh channels on busy weekends. They are LOADED with fisherman drifiting accross the narrow channel. On some days, you might as well just stay off plane the whole trip. But, if you do stay slow, bring fly swatters.......especially on those HHH days.

Hope this helps.....
 
dominic
THANK YOU for your response. finally, someone who has something positive to say. i was getting worried. is it a particularly zig-zaggy type of inlet? - ie: is it easy to miss a marker? any special tips for picking up the first marker when leaving the ICW from beach haven?
 
Ron:

I haven't been through LE Inlet yet this year .....May go through this Sunday if the weather is good and the swells from this Nor' easter lay down......

The markers in the LE Inlet are not fixed. They are moved yearly, and sometimes monthly, depending on the local shoaling.

As you approach from the North in the ICW, (and this is from memory as I have no charts with me at work) at around ICW 121 or so, you will look to the south-southeast for your first marker towards the Inlet. I don't remember if there is a bifurcation marker there or not, but you'll see the fisherman in the area where you want to go. Invariably, on a busy weekend, a few boats will be heading out as well. Try and plan your first trip (heck, all trips) through the inlet as close to high SLACK as possible. On your first trip through, you will sweat a little and gain a few white hairs (hmmm....I should go through more often....I'll take any color I can get)....but you will be fine if you keep your eyes open and common sense turned on.....and it might be a good idea to have the life jackets out, if not on, to make the crew feel a little more at ease

If I make it through this weekend, I'll post an update.....Next weekend I'm heading out the Barnegat Inlet, and I'll post an update on the Oyster Creek channel leading out to the Inlet as well.....that channel has it's own set of issues.... :smt013 ....some of which are low water areas and tight turns around markers, but many of which are IDIOTS!!!!!! plane and simple....
 
i've been in/around barnegat several times, including the dreaded oyster creek channel. i have never found it to be as hair-raising as described. the only tough part was turning almost 180 degrees around the red/green marker to head back in towards high bar harbor, with the 6 knot current behind you. that is a barrel of laughs, esp with a big fat 18000# searay with tiny little mickey mouse rudders and prop pockets. if LE is like oyster creek, i'll TAKE IT happily!

but just the same, i'll be looking forward to your update if you get out that way this weekend!

thanks dom :thumbsup:
 
The long weekend is over and we made our first journey by water to A.C. Since my wife is afraid of being on the ocean in the small boat we took ICW all the way to A.C. We started of just North of Tomes River Bridge and jumped in the familiar channel. As we headed south of the bridge the boat traffic picked up and I just jumped a tail of a bigger cruiser, which was doing about 25mph or so. I actually thought that if we took the ocean side it could be a smoother ride. But, after a while there were fewer boats and the bay had quite down. After crossing Rt72 Bridge we hit the scenic no-wake zone of LBI (nice houses). Taking advantage of I/O I raised the drive and went off the channel in more open (around Beach Haven) and quite area where we could hang out and go for a swim. As we continued heading south by Brigantine the channel was splitting and missed the one going to the right (ICW), but it didn’t take me too long to realize that this was and wide open inlet. So, I quickly changed my course and got back to ICW channel. It was actually surprising how much zigzagging ICW is doing by Brigantine before we got to A.C. and some of the openings between small Islands were tiny. Finding Trump marina was easy. The marina is very nice and has a lot to offer. Saturday, it was packed and loud with everyone just partying and having a good time. As Gerry pointed out there’s a nice area right across when exiting from marina. We didn’t feel like jamming the crowd a moved more inside in the Laguna, which was much better choice. The current was strong, so we had to borrow someone’s mooring ball. The nightlife in A.C. is great. Nice restaurants, shows and casino. $2 for jitney and you can go anywhere. We tried to find a beach by boat on the inside of Brigantine but there was nothing but lots of greenheads. Sunday and Monday were very quite days compare to Saturday. I guess there’s no problem getting a slip on Sundays. On the way back (Monday) I actually convinced my wife to try the ocean side with an option of jumping in anytime she’s not comfortable. It was south wind with 1’-1.5’ chops. We were doing fine about 800’-1mile away from shoreline in about 13-15’ depth. But then, as we were at the end of Brigantine I saw that we depth is changing and we need to go out further to be in deeper water. The wind was picking up and we saw lots of white caps going out confirming that it’s to shallow. My wife didn’t feel comfortable so, we jumped in the inlet (this was the same I almost took on the way there) and picked up ICW. I think we saved good amount of time not zigzagging behind Brigantine. So, this also gave us a taste of both (inside and outside). It took us door-to-door 3hrs on the way there, including the stop for swimming and taking about 15 min break. On the way back we made about 3 longer stops, one of them was to find Gov. cove. Thanks to all of your advises and proper tools (chart plotter/GPS) I didn’t find the ride difficult, rather enjoyable.

BTW, all inlets we’ve used are not a big deal at all. Even my wife didn’t find them being rough.

Great thanks to all of you for helping me make this in to a very nice cruise on my boat, after which the talk is, we need to get a bigger boat so we can do more of these trips with more comfort :smt001

Alex.
 
Ron:

When you came by my boat Saturday during the Aquapalooza, I mentioned to you about ICW 116 being a danger zone. I told you of two friends running aground in that area a week prior to the Aquapalooza.

Read the attached article and be careful in that area when you head south next week. The folks in this artilcle were out of the channel, but my friends were in the channel when they ran aground. The markers in that area of the ICW are floating nuns and cans and not the Dolphins. The CG needs to re-positon the markers. My buddy was told by Sea Tow that the CG has no funding for either dredging or channel maintanence in the area....WTF....where's all that Fuel TAX $$$$ going.... :smt013

Anyway....keep an extra eye out in that area...

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070808/NEWS/708080334
 
Dominic,

What a sad story at APP and shame on CG or even more on goverment. I tried to search google for this area #116, but no luck finding. Could you please give me some check points.

Thanks,
ALex.
 
hi dominic
thanks for the info again! it will certainly prove priceless and you can be sure i'll be moving at idle speed in this vicinity. we'll be passing that way on tues morn aug 14 at HIGH TIDE (the trip was planned around those tides).

btw, aquapalooza was a blast and it was real nice putting a face and handshake to the boat and all that typing!
ron
 
Alex:

This area is south of Morrisons and north of the LE Inlet. It gets very confusing in this area as the floating channel markers won't show up well on you charts (electronic or paper) and they seem to be so hap-hazardly positioned.

I have a track set from past successfull traverses in that area, but I always break a sweat until I'm past that area.

Ron:

The Atlantic City Air Show is next Wednesday, 8/15. I'm planning to take the day off, weather permitting, and make a day trip and drift just off shore. You may get to see some practice runs on your way down, so don't think we are being invaded.... :grin:

It was pleasure meeting you and Jack also....we'll have to get together at the cut some time....
 
we'll be in OC on wed but i'm sure the planes will be visible. i'll keep an eye out to the north.
 
Yeah, looking forward to the airshow next Wednesday! We've been trying to get out to it for the last few years and it never worked-out. I'm planning to just lay a hook where the other boats are but if anyone has a good spot from experience, please let us know.
 
Gerry:

When I went last year, by land, there were plenty of boats just off the beach. That seems to be the best spot as the show is geared around the shoreline. There were USCG and State Police boats sort of "roping" off the no parking zone.

Depending on the wind and current, I was hoping to just drift offshore a bit and not have to set the anchor.

Give a shout on the VHF.....I usually leave the scan on 9,16,68 and a few others
 
Well, having now done Little Egg Inlet and Great Egg Inlet two times each, here’s my take and experience. Before leaving BH I picked the brains of a few locals. One person was particularly helpful in describing LE inlet and even gave me a printout of 23 waypoints that will safely get me out of the inlet by avoiding LE inlet completely. These points make a route that is actually used by the local fishermen and the local party boat, and it sort of takes you through the old Beach Haven inlet, supposedly closed but apparently easier and deeper than LE. Keep in mind it is unmarked but with a route plugged into your chartplotter, they say you are never in less than 11’ of water.

I didn’t have time to enter the 23 points and create a route (if anyone wants a copy, I’d be glad to forward them) so I followed the vaguely marked LE inlet channel and steered between the breakers and made it out without incident. Great Egg was a snap, but also has some big breakers (even at high tide) to the north so you really have to pick up the first marker before heading in. The day we left LE and entered GE was picture perfect. We left at hi tide and had light NW winds and crystal clear skies. The ocean was basically flat.

Leaving GE two days later was not as simple. Overcast, SE 10-15mph with small craft warnings on the way (we left the inlet around 10am and warnings kicked in later that afternoon). We got pounded heading out. 6 footers and they were sharp and close together and we had to take them head on to stay in the channel. Luckily the pounding only lasted about 15 minutes until we hit deeper water and started heading north in 3-5’ following rollers.

Our destination was Forked River but I didn’t take Barnegat Inlet b/c I would have had incoming winds and outgoing tides, which is fabled to be a recipe for disaster. so we went back in LE. We followed our saved track (didnt yet enter the waypoints) and, despite the conditions, LE was fantastic. It was almost high tide (probably slack) and we had none of the problems we had leaving GE.

Interesting side note. While we were off AC, a mid-90s vintage 370EC (?) with black canvas passed us by at a higher speed and continued north. By the time we entered LE, continued up the ICW and hit Oyster Creek Channel, merging into the ICW was (I think) the very same 370EC. For all I know, he may have stopped for lunch or fuel in High Bar Harbor, but if he didn’t, is it possible that the time and distance traveled is about the same inside or outside of LBI??

Thanks to all for the information and help. We really enjoyed OC and will probably be back there next summer, via the same route!
 
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