Mooring in Miramar NY

May 24, 2022

We left the Golden Nugget on a misty cool morning in Atlantic City and headed to a marina across the canal to fill up with fuel before heading out for our last run on the Atlantic Ocean. During our trip, we had spoken to boaters who had beautiful runs up this stretch of ocean and we were looking forward to that being our experience as well.

However, a smooth ride in the ocean was not in store for us that day. In fact, the Atlantic wanted to remind us of how smooth our other tougher days out there had actually been. We were going to end our journey on the ocean the same way it started we left Marco Island and headed to the Keys. The waves started out at about 2 - 3 feet which are easy to handle. Not long into the run, 5' or larger white caps were rolling and hitting us on the starboard side so we had a bit of a roll or washing machine affect. Gord put Holy Cow up on plane and the waves continue to pound on the hull and splash up to the helm. Moving around the boat was extremely difficult. The kids had stayed downstairs until this point, but Gord and I both agreed with the rough seas, we wanted them upstairs with us. When I went down below, I found Jaxon sleeping on the couch for the first time on this entire adventure. Even in his sleep he didn't look good. Brooklyn was lying on the floor watching a movie and the dogs were shaking and panting. Jaxon woke up at the sound of me coming in and within minutes ran to the kitchen to throw up and it was a mess. As I was trying to help the situation, Gord called down on the intercom for me to put my headset on so we could communicate and he would know we were alright downstairs. Now wasn't a good time. As Jaxon continued to be wrecked by sea sickness, Gord called down again. It was too difficult to walk around the boat, so I told Jaxon to lay down on the floor while I cleaned up the mess. Putting a headset on wasn't an option at the moment.

When I had things wiped down, I told Jaxon and Brooklyn to scooch on their bums to the back door. Between waves, I opened the door and helped them up the ladder to the helm. Taking waves on the beam like this makes movement so difficult. Once the kids were upstairs with Gord, I cleaned up the kitchen again, gathered up some supplies for the bridge to pass the time and headed up as well. This was not an easy task and I bumped around a little as I was making my way around the boat. As I got to the top step on the bridge, I crawled across the floor to the seat. I could feel the bruises starting. Boaters will know what I mean, they hurt when the impact happens, then you forget about the incident until days later when you find deep dark purple bruises on your legs and arms and wonder what you bumped to get such a nasty mark. I had some doozies from this day.

The seas rocked us for two and a half hours. There comes a time when boating in rough seas that it becomes uncomfortable. You can gauge that time in and around the time Gord starts yelling "weeeeeee" at the helm after surging through a wave or when we've got an especially tipsy wave on the beam. It's usually around this time of exclamation from Gord, the kids are throwing up and I am not happy with the conditions. After being on the bridge with us for an hour, Brooklyn unloaded the contents of her stomach into a ziplock bag. Not letting the moment for a math lesson pass us by, we discussed the fractions involved in this morning's chaos. I hadn't eaten breakfast, Gord had eaten breakfast and kept it down, Brooklyn and Jaxon had eaten but didn't successfully keep it in. There are lots of fractions and percentages you can run through to pass the time, and it also kept the kids' minds busy and not thinking about their tummies.

As the waves continued to crash and the spray pounded our starboard side like a firehose blasting on and off against the windows, we discovered Holy Cow has some leaks. All easily sealable once we are back home, but we had some wet beds and a wet helm to dry when we were settled. We could hear on the VHF people discussing the conditions and pulling off for the day. We also heard a vessel contact a cargo ship to ask permission to cruise along his port side for protection from the waves, which was a clever solution actually. We have longer more impressive videos of the seas and spray but they are too long to upload at this time.

When we pulled into the Miramar mooring field and had protection from sea, the kids bounced back and were their happy selves in minutes. We contacted the marina and were escorted to our mooring ball. I have never been so happy to be tied to a floating piece of plastic. Once the dinghy was lowered, we took a moment to decompress before heading into shore. Gord and I were both disappointed that we didn't ever experience the beauty of a smooth run on the ocean. But what we do know, is that Holy Cow is built for what we'd just been through. She's a solid vessel and those waves don't phase her one bit.

We were on the mooring ball for two nights. This allowed us a walk through downtown Brooklyn. We took an Uber to Coney Island and enjoyed a lovely walk around the waterfront. We learned that Coney Island isn't an island but a peninsula and it has two dozen groynes built to stop the erosion of sand from the shores. After our walk along the boardwalk, we returned back to Holy Cow by walking through the city. It was so odd to pound the pavement of a massive city after being so secluded for so long, or only being in quaint historic towns.

When it was time to leave the next morning, we were saying goodbye to the ocean sadly, but we were headed towards freshwater and that was exciting and marked another milestone of our adventure.

Voyage Log

Atlantic City to Miramar NY travel log here.