We’ve known for many years that the best way to cruise is without schedule or preconceived ideas about destinations. Staying flexible, being open to opportunity, and making fewer, in depth stops is the most rewarding of cruising rythms. Our visit to Cumberland Island is a good example of how this is supposed to work.

Spending longer periods in new locations gives you a chance to meet the locals and get to know other cruisers. The result is often strong friendships that last decades past the initial meeting.

Ingrid and Dayton, crew of the fair scow schooner Nina, have been good friends since our first chat a few months ago at Cumberland. We shared a meal aboard Nina, reciprocated on Wind Horse, and took a lovely walk on the beach. We met again briefly in Charleston. enjoyed another meal, together,walk, and spirited dialog. When we heard they were in Barnaget Bay we decided to stop for a few days. Although we’ve known each other for less than three months, spending perhaps a day together in that period, the bond that now exists is strong as that forged over many years with some of our best land based friends.

This happy outcome is not unique to this siuation or us. Most long-term cruisers have the same experience, over and over.

Barnegat Bay is surrounded by marsh filled with lovely creatures.

If you are taken with our fine feathered friends it is a wonderful experience.

These photos were taken a short dinghy ride from where we are anchored, in a period of 30 minutes.

The village is compact, quaint, and offers fresh local produce and delicious sea harvest brought in by the commerical fleet.

There is an active Coast Guard base, with two surf rescue vessels that see much action on the breaking bar which fronts Barnegat Bay. These young guardsmen where curious about Wind Horse and we were happy to give them a tour. In return we heard interesting tales about the surf rescue boats.

Sunrises and sunsets have been more often spectacular than ordinary during this sojurn along the Eastern seaboard, the only benefit we can perceive from local air pollution.

Pelicans have just done a fly by, a pleasant surprise this far north.

This year’s cycle afloat has been particularly frustrating in that there have been so many areas we have just touched upon that we’d love to explore in more depth. Exploring a stop like Barnegat Bay could occupy us for weeks. We are going to have to come back this way with a more liesurely schedule.