roweboatadventures: CAPE MAY, NJ to SANDY HOOK, NY Anchorage / Wednesday, June 1 (Day 132)

Admiral's Log: 5:42 am, Wed. 6/1/16
Air Temp: 63 Water Temp: 60
Winds: Calm
Speed: 7.1 knots

We knew this was going to be a long day, but there is really nothing to stop and see along the way, other than Atlantic City, and we were still trying to stay ahead of the weather. It was a beautiful, chamber of commerce kind of day. We are too deep to go up the ICW in New Jersey, they don't take care of their Inner Coastal, so we have to go outside; as in the Atlantic Ocean. But we only stay a couple miles off shore so we can see land easily. But you really have to watch the weather before you venture out. Sweet T is having to sit in Cape May for 3 extra days due to the fog.

Four boats took off in another mini flotilla. We were the lead boat, followed by Lazy Suzan, Phase II and Chica. The seas were kind of wallery all day (if that's a word), but not choppy. We came across another Looper from St. Pete and 2 other non looper boats. So at one time we were in a 7 boat flotilla. Pretty cool!

Then came the fog....oh boy was it thick. We could hardly see past the bow. Luckily we all had radar. But Lazy Suzan had a radar issue so we had to put them right between us and Phase II. That fog must have lasted a couple of hours. All the Captain's were pretty stressed after it passed.

So we are cruising along again in nice weather when we see these really weird clouds. As we got under them the temperature dropped 10 to 15 degrees and got very windy. We laughed later thinking it seemed like the Twilight Zone. Phase II took pictures of us going under it and were glad to see we came out the other side! We googled the cloud formation and they are called Linear Cylindrical Clouds. Never seen anything like it, pretty creepy but crazy experience. (We later learned they are called Roll Clouds, and very rare)!

Phase II took these photos of us entering the cloud

And exiting...we survived!

Looks like snow!

We took this of Phase II

After we exited these clouds, we were rewarded by seeing a whale! Pretty far away but we could see the water spout and tail flipping several times. So awesome, I can't say enough about the cool things we are seeing on this adventure!

Whale splash

Whale's tail or fin?

We got to our anchorage at 5:45, 12 hours on the water! But what a gorgeous setting. Needless to say after such a long day, we had leftovers, watched a little hockey and hit the hay pretty early.