Well, my friend, Captain Bob arrived on schedule as promised. When I met Bob, a few years back, I liked him right away. In addition, you know how sometimes when you meet someone, you can just tell that they're highly competent. When I finally got to sail with him on his boat and on mine, back in Lake Michigan, my confidence in him only grew.

It would be an understatement to say that I was a little uneasy about setting out into the open ocean on Norma Fay for the first time, especially after spending two nights in a very rolly marina at Sandy Hook. The break water that they have there just ain't cuttin' it.....especially when the winds are 20 - 25 kts out of the NNE.

Right after we had lunch, Captain Bob went to work inspecting the boat systems and rigging. Once everything passed muster, he began to plot our course.

We left on Saturday morning just after sun up after I had spent another semi-sleepless night readjusting fenders and lines. As we exited through the Sandy Hook Channel, the wind was 25 kts from the NE and the swells were 10 - 15 feet. I really had no idea what to expect but Norma handled the waves like a lady. We were rolling a bit until we got the main up and then everything got more stable.

These big swells would come charging at us and Norma would just lift up and over them and surf down the other side. After about 20 minutes, I eased my death grip on the edge of the line well and really began to enjoy it.

We took turns at the helm and the swells eventually subsided to about 9 feet, which seemed pretty reasonable, all things considered.

We arrived in Atlantic City just about dark and discovered that there was a "Hooters" in the casino right by the marina. Talk about two happy sailors! After rinsing the salt off of the boat we grabbed some dinner and crashed.