We had great winds for the first day of the trip and sailed all day long, making good progress. The winds were predicted to build overnight but in fact they diminished. Unfortunately, the wind also became dead astern and too light to sail without the engine which made for a rolly ride in the swells left over from the earlier, stronger winds. But we plugged on and reached our intended destination of Atlantic City, NJ in the early afternoon on Sunday. We initially decided to keep going but after a careful review of the weather forecast (courtesy of the satellite weather service on our chart plotter) we could see that there was a band of nasty thunderstorms sweeping down towards us. Being the prudent Mariners we are, we decided to stick with plan "A" and head into Atlantic City. We have never stopped here before and have always been mildly curious as to what we might find. We had read in our cruisers guide, as well as been told by a cruising buddy, of an excellent anchorage here. Well! Nothing could have prepared us for what we found. Leaving aside the sheer wonder of steaming in though a fairly narrow inlet along with a very strong, scary current, in the shadow of an amazing array of sky scrapers and casinos, it seemed that the whole world had converged on this one spot in every floating vessel imaginable. Add to that, about two or three dozen large vehicles (SUV's) parked on the beach with the attendant partying and the scene was of absolute chaos. There was no way we could make it into the described anchorage - there were several power boats partially beached in the channel ( so they could enjoy the beach party!) and the remainder of the channel was occupied by about ten jet skis and several small boats fishing, add in a 2+ knot current and you have a recipe for disaster - no thanks! At this point we really had no choice but to anchor in the river itself, in the shadow of all those casinos and nightclubs. Normally this would not bother us but we had already experienced the current and knew that in a few short hours it would be reversing as the tide turned and then switching again before the night was done. With each switch of the current comes the potential for the anchor to become dislodged with the result of an unplanned trip downstream! This is not conducive to a relaxed night at anchor. But we found a spot off to one side, dropped our trusty Delta anchor, let out lots of chain and set the anchor well. We had an early supper and sat in the cockpit observing our surroundings with amazement and were pleased to note that we did not budge with the first current switch. We did have a discussion with the skipper of a mid-sized trawler who dropped anchor right in front of us, let out a minimal amount of chain and proceeded to button up for the night. All I can say is that it was a good job that Tom was the one to hail the guy on the radio and inform him we thought he was too close. Tom does such a good job of politely enabling people to see the error of their ways without being rude. I cannot say the same for myself! Needless to say, after a conversation with Tom, the trawler moved to a more sensible spot where he wasn't going to hit another boat in the middle of the night.

We turned in early for a good night's sleep. I set the alarm and got up with the next current switch and again was happy to see we weren't making any scenic tours of the inlet. I was also astounded by the light show going on at 1.00am. Every single building was lit up like it was Christmas and several had massive animated displays across the walls. I sat up for half an hour entranced by it all.

However, on reflection, I do find this all a bit disturbing. At this time, this oil addicted country is watching millions of barrels of crude oil spill into the Gulf, causing untold damage and destruction. Bearing witness to the goings on here today makes me wonder what on earth we, as "civilized" humans, are doing. We need, no - demand, oil to fuel our profligate lifestyle. Then, when our efforts to get more oil backfire, we don't seem to have the technology available to control the disaster. Sad.