Sandy Hook anchoring is not that good in anything from the north, NE or NW. You need to get behind the breakwater, and there is not much anchoring room. If you can anchor, the holding is not good if the wind kicks up. The AHYC has many moorings for a not unreasonable price, includes showers, launch. Once on a mooring, life is great. I have done the trip from SH to Barnegat in a 6 am - 4 pm day and then to Cape May the next day - I used to go straight from SH to Cape May, but once I did Barnegat the first time, there was no reason to go overnight - -I might think twice about Barnegat in a really nasty ocean, but it also may look extremely appealing in that type of weather - I have gotten into Cape May at all hours of day and night in different weather and it is absolutely a safe, wide and relatively easy entrance on the Atlantic side - day or night - I have done SH to Norfolk a few times and never had to bail. I think Cap't Eisberg knows a few bail out spots. Coming into the Chesapeake I recall you need to give the DELMARVA peninsula side a very wide berth, as there are breakers/shoals quite far out from land