Day 174

Daily stats
Start: 6:00 AM - Ocean City, NJ
Finish: 1:00 PM - near Beach Haven, NJ
Time: 7:00 hours
Daily dist: 23 miles
Total dist: 3500+ miles
Companions: None
Weather: Pleasant, partly cloudy - 70 deg. - east wind 5-10+
Notes: A shorter than normal day that almost became a longer than normal day.

The small 'KAYAKS' sign that directed me out of the wind and into Bay Cats kayak rentals yesterday.

Today was the first of five, shorter than average, days that are to come between Ocean City, NJ and New York. By the number and location of available places to camp or stay and the nature of the route I‘ve chosen, my normal eight hour thirty miles per day routine won’t work in this area. After grinding out several longer than normal days over the last week I can’t say I mind taking it easy a bit. When I got on the water this morning and bid the Bay Cats’ dock farewell I was happy to only have 22 miles and about six hours of paddling to do before I could sit back and relax a bit.

Along the way today I thoroughly enjoyed paddling the ICW. The route alternated between winding through miles and miles of bright green marsh grass and along residential areas built up with homes and boat docks. At one point the route ran through a narrow canal in the town of Ventnor City with houses on both sides built on stilts right at the water’s edge. It was in that canal that I came across three members of the Viking Rowing Club based out of Ventnor City. Shari was in a single and Barry and Jim where in a double. They had passed me but stopped to chat a bit and to suggest that I stop by their boat house and consider taking up rowing. As nice as that sounded, I explained that I was just passing through on my way north. Of course an explanation of my trip followed and the three were as impressed with my travels as I was with their boat house when I turned the corner a mile further and saw the beautiful wood shingled building. Barry actually owns a home right on the canal and keeps a dragon boat tied up there. It belongs to an organization that is using it as a re-habilitation activity (physical and mental) for breast cancer survivors. Barry joked that the thing that convinced him to house the boat was the prospect of having 80 women coming by all the time to use it.

L to R - Shari, Barry, and Jim from the Viking Rowing Club in Ventnor, NJ

Past Ventnor the ICW route ran right behind Atlantic City and from the water I could see all of the famous casinos including the Trump Plaza, The Tropicana, the Hilton and others. It was an imposing skyline (the biggest I’d seen since Fort Lauderdale) which surprisingly contained a half dozen giant electric windmills.

Giant windmills added to the Atlantic City skyline

The day was going well and I was feeling great and having fun seeing all the sights. You can only imagine my dismay when I arrived at my destination at 11:30 this morning and found the entire beach and dune area posted with dozens of signs of all shapes and sizes all saying “keep out” in a variety of ways. It’s bird nesting season and the state is doing what it can to keep people off the beaches to not disturb the birds while they do what it is that they do. Unfortunately for me all of the other high and dry land along the New Jersey shore has a house or road on it.

One of dozens of signs barring me from the beach. I can't wait to go duck hunting with my brother Aaron next fall.

Not being able to camp where I’d planned I paddled on a mile further to the next beach only to find more of the same type of signs. A quick study of my maps revealed no promising places to camp between those beaches and my next contact’s house twenty miles to the north. Which was supposed to be tomorrow’s stop. That house belongs to the parents of the friend of my friend Neil down in Ft. Lauderdale. [Thank heaven for friends like Neil and all the other family and friends back home that are working their contacts to find me help when I need it.] I tried to call Neil to see if he could get word to my hosts that I was on my way up tonight rather than tomorrow afternoon. Of course Neil was away from his phone so I was a little stuck. I really didn’t want to grind out another five hours of paddling to surprise a pair of folks that are really still strangers to me. With not a lot of options, other than waiting eight hours till sunset and setting up camp in the dark I figured I’d start paddling north and see if I could catch Neil and get the word out as I went.

The twenty miles I had to cover really isn’t that far, only 4-5 hours of paddling at my normal pace. However, after doing 22 already and paddling into a strong ebb (outgoing) tidal flow I knew I was in for a long, long afternoon. Just as I was about to hunker down and just grind it out I looked across the river and there in the distance the yellow glimmer of sand caught my eye amongst miles of green marsh grass. With nothing to loose I paddled over and to my delight I discovered a tiny spit of high and dry sand just big enough for me, my tent, and my boat. Best of all there was no sign on it saying I couldn’t be there and no nesting birds besides. I quickly landed and left a message with Neil that I was going to stick with Plan A and camp down here for the night.