We're in Brielle, NJ - this is the beach and jetty coming in.

We cruised up the coast out in the Atlantic Ocean because the New Jersey ICW is very poorly maintained and shallow. Most of the way we were only about 2 miles or less from land in 30 to 60 ft. of water and the small line of beach on the horizon is the shore. The ocean here gets deep quickly and doesn't have the shallow shoals extending out far into the ocean like we have seen elsewhere. Even though it was a little cool at 70 degrees we went up to the flybridge after noon to enjoy the ocean.

The shoreline is the strip of barrier islands that run parallel to the coast. The top picture is the GPS screen as we were cruising today. The boat is the black arrowhead in the blue ocean and the shoreline is the yellow strip to the left of the boat. The white area between the barrier islands and the yellow mainland is shallow water and/or salt marshes. It's usually only a few feet deep at most and the ICW is somewhere in there. The bottom picture is the miles and miles of beach homes all along the strip. Great place for a beach home.... until the hurricanes come, that is.

WHAT IS IT?

When we were out in the middle of the ocean, I saw this big fin sticking up and waving around in the air.

SUNFISH! I went back to see it and it was an absolutely huge sunfish. It looked like it easily weighed hundreds of pounds. No way to get a good measurement, I just know it was huge. These are normally pelagic fish (open ocean wanderers) that stay near the surface. I don't know if it's rare to see them or not, but it really was a thrill for us. There were 3 ft. waves and I had to stop and turn around t0 manuver to be able to see it so the boat wallowed around like crazy in the waves, but who cares? It was totally cool!