Much has been written about the NJ ICW and the fear that many Loopers have
with it. It is definitely worse in the lower half, between Ocean City NJ and
Cape May NJ. I have commented on it in the past and thought I would provide
this experience and report for your benefit. Its been a number of years
since I have made this run and to tell you the truth, it hasn't changed
much.

On Fri May 4, 2012 we were anchored in Cape May intending on going outside
to Atlantic City. Very intense fog set in with SSE winds over night. Not
good for outside.

So we went inside from Cape May to Ocean City.  Tide was high but going out
for an hour before our departure. Visibility was 100 yds. After waiting 300
min to see if the fog would change, I determined the weather was going to
remain the same most of the day and so we departed about 7:30 am.

We have a Defever 41 Trawler, single screw with a full keel and draw 4ft.

Be careful when approaching Great Channel (Stone Harbor). After passing
GREEN pole #427, there are buoys to mark a changing channel. You will make a
90-deg left turn at Nun #424. Water depth is fine but watch the turn.

We had minor concern about depth except in two places.

The first was right about Statute Mile 100 in Great Sound, behind Seven Mile
Beach between Stone Harbor and Avalon. We had depths looking close to 4 ft,
but we never hit and we were never pushing mud behind us. Most likely it was
a lot of soft silt that fills into the channel when the wind blows across
the bay of Great Sound (and creates a current of water movement).

The second was about R #348 in Ludlam Bay (Just after Sea Isle, approaching
Strathmere and Corson Inlet. Same thing - depths approaching 4 ft but didn't
hit and no mud.

In both cases we were in the channel.

These two locations were the same locations of depth concern that I recall
from many years back - even more than 30 years .

I was glad to be able to make this run in the worse conditions: falling and
low tide. We encountered Great Sound and Ludlam Bay fairly close to low
tide, although there was still probably another half foot or so to fall.

Note that our boat was completely full of water and fuel, having just filled
up at Utches in Cape May. We are living aboard now to do The Loop so we were
fully loaded.

We made Ocean City without incident and I elected to go outside since the
wind was light and although still foggy, visibility had increased to about a
quarter mile. We arrived at Great Egg Inlet (Ocean City) about 12:00pm. We
made Absecon Inlet about 2:15.

Be careful about the sand bar on the NORTH SIDE of GE Inlet. There were
breakers coming into the north side of the channel as we left. I took a
picture of a red nun buoy behind the breakers.

The south side of the marked channel was fine. You MUST run all the way out
to the bell buoy before making your turn north. There are large rollers
coming across the bar on the north that get steep and keep rolling,
eventually breaking farther in. But you don't want to be on that bar and
heading into these rollers. Over by the bell buoy it is deeper and no
rollers. When you get into 20+ feet of water you can make your turn north to
A.C.

I would encourage any single screw skipper of 4ft draft or less who has the
self confidence to run inside from Cape May to Ocean City or Atlantic City.
If you run with prudence and pay attention, you can do this without
incident. We were able to get a good travel day in, see some nice sights
along the way, and have a smooth ride instead of sitting in Cape May another
day with no forward progress.

If you have twin screw, I would only suggest you do this route on INCOMING
tide and be sure you have half tide or better in Great Sound and Ludlam Bay.

R.

Correction; we waited THIRTY minutes, not 300.
R.

-----Original Message-----
From: great-loop-bounces@lists.trawlering.com
[mailto:great-loop-bounces@lists.trawlering.com] On Behalf Of Ralph Yost
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 9:36 PM
To: great-loop@lists.trawlering.com
Subject: GL: NJ ICW

Much has been written about the NJ ICW and the fear that many Loopers have
with it. It is definitely worse in the lower half, between Ocean City NJ and
Cape May NJ. I have commented on it in the past and thought I would provide
this experience and report for your benefit. Its been a number of years
since I have made this run and to tell you the truth, it hasn't changed
much.

On Fri May 4, 2012 we were anchored in Cape May intending on going outside
to Atlantic City. Very intense fog set in with SSE winds over night. Not
good for outside.

So we went inside from Cape May to Ocean City.  Tide was high but going out
for an hour before our departure. Visibility was 100 yds. After waiting 300
min to see if the fog would change, I determined the weather was going to
remain the same most of the day and so we departed about 7:30 am.

We have a Defever 41 Trawler, single screw with a full keel and draw 4ft.

Be careful when approaching Great Channel (Stone Harbor). After passing
GREEN pole #427, there are buoys to mark a changing channel. You will make a
90-deg left turn at Nun #424. Water depth is fine but watch the turn.

We had minor concern about depth except in two places.

The first was right about Statute Mile 100 in Great Sound, behind Seven Mile
Beach between Stone Harbor and Avalon. We had depths looking close to 4 ft,
but we never hit and we were never pushing mud behind us. Most likely it was
a lot of soft silt that fills into the channel when the wind blows across
the bay of Great Sound (and creates a current of water movement).

The second was about R #348 in Ludlam Bay (Just after Sea Isle, approaching
Strathmere and Corson Inlet. Same thing - depths approaching 4 ft but didn't
hit and no mud.

In both cases we were in the channel.

These two locations were the same locations of depth concern that I recall
from many years back - even more than 30 years .

I was glad to be able to make this run in the worse conditions: falling and
low tide. We encountered Great Sound and Ludlam Bay fairly close to low
tide, although there was still probably another half foot or so to fall.

Note that our boat was completely full of water and fuel, having just filled
up at Utches in Cape May. We are living aboard now to do The Loop so we were
fully loaded.

We made Ocean City without incident and I elected to go outside since the
wind was light and although still foggy, visibility had increased to about a
quarter mile. We arrived at Great Egg Inlet (Ocean City) about 12:00pm. We
made Absecon Inlet about 2:15.

Be careful about the sand bar on the NORTH SIDE of GE Inlet. There were
breakers coming into the north side of the channel as we left. I took a
picture of a red nun buoy behind the breakers.

The south side of the marked channel was fine. You MUST run all the way out
to the bell buoy before making your turn north. There are large rollers
coming across the bar on the north that get steep and keep rolling,
eventually breaking farther in. But you don't want to be on that bar and
heading into these rollers. Over by the bell buoy it is deeper and no
rollers. When you get into 20+ feet of water you can make your turn north to
A.C.

I would encourage any single screw skipper of 4ft draft or less who has the
self confidence to run inside from Cape May to Ocean City or Atlantic City.
If you run with prudence and pay attention, you can do this without
incident. We were able to get a good travel day in, see some nice sights
along the way, and have a smooth ride instead of sitting in Cape May another
day with no forward progress.

If you have twin screw, I would only suggest you do this route on INCOMING
tide and be sure you have half tide or better in Great Sound and Ludlam Bay.

R.

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