Putting Our Nose Out

First mate:

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 - In order to make it down the coast of Jersey, we have to make an outside passage on the Atlantic Ocean. As everyone knows it's hurricane season and very active. Did you know there have been three active systems within this week, not to mention the couple of tropical depressions.Way out into the ocean there was Hurricane Kirk, he didn't come ashore but he made his presence known with 'snotty seas'. On the interior of the United States,  the remnants of Hurricane Isaac has made his way up the coast. All that remains of him are the heavy rains and wind. Down south there is now Tropical Storm Leslie and she's predicted to stay out to sea but will turn into a Hurricane sometime this week as she makes her way north.
All we need is a 5 hour window of opportunity for the seas to be calm enough to make it down to Manasquan, NJ from our anchorage in Atlantic Highlands,NJ  and we can then ride on the NJICW. Well, this morning we woke  to a completely flat anchorage. We weren't fooled enough to know that there wasn't weather surrounding us, all we had to do was look out and see the low clouds and then the heavy clouds above, (weather). We checked NOAA and of course the winds were low but the seas were iffy at best. So, we decided after checking the radar for weather and the current weather underground that we'd put our nose out to see if the seas had settled.
Well, you know going out to sea isn't a good idea when you don't see any local fishermen along the shore. At first the rolls were on our nose and really manageable as we were heading out into the ocean. We rounded Sandy Hook and the rolls became a little bigger and beamier and we kind of looked at one another. Ok. what do we do? Well less than 30 minutes later the seas got much bigger and there was no question...turn around! Oh well, this wasn't the opportunity.
 The captain decided to make this opportunity into a wheel handling lesson. He handed me the wheel for our return trip. I thought he was crazy but gave it a go. The seas now made us surf as the waves come from behind and push the boat. It's a very weird sensation trying to steer the boat while surfing. We made our way back to the anchorage and sighed with disappointment. Looks like our next weather window of opportunity doesn't happen again until Sunday.