Egg harbor is not usable for most sailboats, and it is not an all-weather inlet. It is poorly marked from the sea and there are shoal spots on the approach. It shifts frequently and poorly reliable. Inside the inlet is also subject to shoals and that shifting is not reported.
The north part of egg harbor has the JFK memorial bridge which is fixed at 25 ft. There are serious currents and you're exposed to the Sea because there's no real area of refuge. The bridge to the South has a height of 65 ft but I wouldn't trust it. For all of these reasons, I have never gone into egg harbor.
And I apologize about the inreach. I didn't mean to be misleading. I communicate with the
weather router via text messaging. That's how they send me the
forecast, and we communicate when I'm
offshore.
Your
boat is a bit bigger than mine. I have a
hunter legend 37.5, and I draw 4.5 ft and
mast height is 62 ft. I tend to be a little on the conservative side with
water depth and bridge heights.
If you're in a bind, barnegat inlet is well marked and there are plenty of places to
anchor and take a break. There's a lighthouse there we call Old Barney that is clearly visible from the sea and there's safe
water mark and clearly marked approach to the inlet. The challenge with barnegat inlet is the
current. You really have to hit barnegat inlet at slack tide or at the very least on a slight incoming tide, on the way in, and vice versa on the way out. Other than that, It's a beautiful Anchorage with some facilities and
marinas.
After barnegat, Jersey really heads to the North and you need to
head northeast.
As a side note, I personally, do not recommend going under the Verrazano bridge into the
Hudson River and then through the East River into
Long Island sound. I did that once and it was a nightmare between the
shipping traffic, the Staten Island
ferry, the helicopters flying overhead, the Jets screaming all over, the turbulent Waters near the Ambrose channel and then timing the
current through the East River and hell's gate. There is also not many
anchorages in
Long Island sound.
The other thing I meant to tell you is when you come down the Delaware River stay outside of the channel. If you do that, you'll have no problems with the
shipping traffic. Once you exit the C&D
canal stay outside the red markers on the Jersey side. There is plenty of water for us sailboats just outside of the channel, especially at night. There is lots of shipping activity at night on the Delaware. You'll be a pro at light signatures by morning!
Linear Mode
Recent Discussions