Small-craft facilities are available at a hotel marina on the southwest side of the inlet.
Gasoline, diesel fuel, water, ice, and marine supplies can be obtained at the several small-craft facilities in the creek and in the small-boat basin. Hull and engine repairs can be made at the facilities in Gardner Basin and Snug Harbor; maximum haul-out capacities are: marine railway, 65 feet; lift, 20 tons. The harbormaster at the State marina assigns slips in the small-boat basin; a fuel float is on the west side of the basin, and the harbormaster’s office is on the east side.
Navigation:
Click the “Map View” button above to see a chart of this harbor.
Absecon Inlet, 8.7 miles southwestward of Little Egg Inlet, is on the northeast side of Atlantic City, the largest resort on the New Jersey coast. The inlet is protected at the entrance by jetties; a revetment extends along the Atlantic City side of the inlet.
The channel through the inlet is well marked to the entrance to Clam Creek and to a junction with the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway, 1 mile and 1.9 miles, respectively, above the inlet entrance south jetty. The controlling depth was 9.5 feet to Clam Creek; thence in 2009, 3.0 feet in Clam Creek entrance channel with shoaling to lesser depths in the north half of the channel, with depths of 10.9 to 15.0 feet in the basin. Current velocities up to 6 knots have been reported in the channel.
Atlantic City Coast Guard Station is on the north side of the entrance to Clam Creek.
Clam Creek, on the south side of Absecon Inlet, has its marked entrance 1 mile northwestward of the south jetty light. The creek includes Gardner Basin, Snug Harbor, and Delta Basin on its southerly side, and the small-boat basin of the State marina on its northerly side. The municipal wharf is on the east side of the entrance to the small-boat basin.
The highway bridge, 1.5 miles above Absecon Inlet entrance, has a fixed span with a clearance of 60 feet.