In today’s episode, Mike and I discuss a recent stopover I made in Cape May NJ.  It’s a great little sea-side town that has easy access, good marinas, excellent restaurants, places to provision, and a nice beach.  I also talk about an important lesson I learned about anchoring.

You can check out Cape May here:

https://www.capemay.com/

Here is a link to the South Jersey Marina where we stayed for 2 nights.

https://www.southjerseymarina.com/

We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at [email protected].

Wishing you fair winds, and calm seas.

Bela and Mike

In today’s episode, Mike continues his curiosity about buying a sailboat.  He asks a bunch of questions about boats that can be trailered.  We discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of a trailerable sailboat. Bela talks about his first sailboat, a Catalina 22 that is one of the best know trailerable sailboats.  Stand by for future episodes about buying a sailboat.

We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at [email protected].

Wishing you fair winds, and calm seas.

Bela and Mike

Today’s episode is a bit different than our usual as we have a guest and Mike will not be joining us for this podcast.  Our guest today is Joe Hagan.  Joe is a long-time sailor and after retiring from corporate life several years ago, he started Offshore Adventure Sailing.  At Offshore Adventure Sailing, Joe takes folks out on multiple day ocean passages.  As Joe and I discuss, this is a great way to broaden a sailor’s experience base, and a great way to increase your seamanship skills.  These skills are valuable even if you have no intention of sailing offshore again.

You can check out OffShore Adventure Sailing here:

https://www.offshoreadventuresailing.com/

We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at [email protected].

Wishing you fair winds, and calm seas.

Bela and Mike

In today’s episode, Mike gets curious about buying a sailboat.  He asks a bunch of questions covering type, size, various uses, and the process for narrowing down your criteria. Bela does his best to respond to Mike’s question.  This is part one of a multi-part series about buying a boat.  Stand by for future episodes on this topic.

We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at [email protected].

Wishing you fair winds, and calm seas.

Bela and Mike

In today’s episode, we explore the sailing from Sandy Hook NJ to Cape May NJ. Sandy Hook is just south of NY harbor and as the name suggests, it’s a hooked-shaped spit of land that projects out into Raritan Harbor.  Cape May is at the Southernmost tip of NJ which makes this an approximately 120 NM trip.  This is one section of the East Coast, from Maine to Key West, where there are not a lot of stopover points, especially for a sailboat.  Many of the inlets along the New Jersey shore and not sailboat friendly.  They have either strong currents or low bridges.  If you want to do the trip non-stop, it is about a 24-hour passage and a great first overnight passage for any sailors desiring to get such an experience.  It is a relatively easy passage and if you are heading South, any wind direction is fine, except directly from the South.  All you need is a good weather forecast for the next 24 hours.  I find these short term forecasts are typically very accurate.  In the summer, just be on the lookout for thunderstorms.  Lightning on a boat with a 62-foot aluminum mast is not fun. This far north and close to shore, you do not need to worry about the Gulf Stream.  Once you are out of the inlet, any currents are minor and are not an issue with the wind.  There is a fair amount of commercial traffic.  Tugs with barges, fishing boats, and some large ships.  Most of the commercial traffic stays at least 10 miles offshore, so if you keep about 5 miles offshore, you will not encounter too much traffic.  The entrance to Cape May is well marked and there is a large Coast Guard station there.  This Coast Guard station is the primary training center for new recruits.  There is an anchorage just off of the Coast Guard station, which is where we anchored.  It’s a great place to stop and get some rest on your way south or north.

We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at [email protected].  Wishing you fair winds, and calm seas. 

Bela and Mike