Nine years of watching people walk down the dock at Belmar Marina to board the Jersey Girl, I’ve seen it all. Here’s what I tell every first-timer.
Dress for the Ocean, Not the Shore
Even in summer, the ocean has its own climate. Dress in layers. A sweatshirt you can tie around your waist is your best friend — and yes, we sell them on the boat if you forget. Ladies, leave the heels at home. Sneakers or flat shoes. You’re on a moving vessel.
Sunscreen. Don’t skip it. You’re outside, on the water, with reflection coming off the surface. It adds up fast.
Polarized sunglasses are worth their weight in gold out there. They cut the glare off the water and let you see into it. A whale passing under the surface, a sea turtle lifting its head — you’ll spot things people without polarized lenses miss entirely. I’ve seen people grab a pair just for this trip and never go back.
Camera Advice From Someone Who’s Shot This a Thousand Times
Bring whatever camera you have — phone, mirrorless, DSLR. We have charging ports on board, but come with a full battery. You never know when the action starts.
No tripods. I mean it. A tripod on a moving boat amplifies every wave. Your two arms pressed against your chest are a better tripod — they absorb the roll. You’ll get sharper shots.
If you shoot with a zoom lens, a 100-400mm is ideal. I’ve seen people come on board with 600mm lenses they use for wildlife photography on land. Too heavy, too narrow, too expensive for a moving boat environment. A versatile zoom is the move.
And sometimes the whale will come so close that you just pull out your phone. Some of the best footage ever shot off the Jersey Girl came from an iPhone. Don’t overthink it.
Seasickness: The Honest Version
First — we don’t go out in rough water. We’d rather cancel and reschedule than put 150 people through a miserable trip. That’s why our cancellation policy is what it is: we keep the pressure off ourselves to make good decisions about conditions.
But if you’re prone to motion sickness and you want to take something like Dramamine, take it before you leave your house — or at minimum, the moment you park the car. If you wait until you see the open ocean in front of you, it’s too late.
If you start feeling off on the water: move to the back of the boat — it’s the heaviest, most stable section. Get outside. Fix your eyes on the horizon, on the beautiful homes along the Jersey Shore coastline. Don’t go inside where the walls are moving around you. That’ll make it worse.
Come aboard a little hungry if you’re unsure of your sea legs. Have a good meal after. First time on a boat, you don’t know what your stomach will do — and a full breakfast right before is a gamble.
Young kids, by the way? They almost always love it. A little wave action feels like a roller coaster to them.
For the Kids
Dig out that old iPhone sitting in a drawer somewhere. Charge it up. Let your child take their own photos. They won’t all be masterpieces — but they’ll be their photos, from a day they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.
What we do out there is give families an escape from reality for a few hours. Three hours on the water, away from screens and schedules, watching something genuinely wild happen in front of you. People come back different. A little quieter. A little more connected to what’s out there.
One more thing I’ll leave you with: balloons don’t go to heaven. They go to the ocean. And in the ocean, a whale can mistake a shiny balloon for a menhaden and swallow it. Every whale out there has scars — battle scars from encounters with boats that weren’t paying attention. These animals are not afraid of humans. They’re just trying to eat. We’re guests in their water.
When you leave this trip, you’ll see the ocean differently. That’s a guarantee too — and we don’t charge extra for it.
Only about 1% of the world’s population has ever seen a whale in the wild.
Come join the 1%.
The Jersey Girl sails from Belmar Marina, Belmar, NJ. Book at whalesnj.com
