So, 30 miles past Cape May, I turned around in winds reaching for
30 knots and gusting well over,
I check the buoy data for Cape May area, there was no 30 knot winds,
max was 20 with 6 ft seas,
so reality check: maybe it was 30 knot gust, and it was apparent wind.
The 10-15 doesn't include gusts and definitely doesn't include your
apparent wind.

Isolated storms not withstanding, NOAA does a pretty good job.
Last year I record the weather for the SE coast from Nov 5-Jan 5,
forecasts may have had the wind
direction off by up to 45 degrees and the strength off by 5 knots, but
other than that they were correct.

Sea stories are like fish stories....wind and waves get bigger every
time the story is told.
Tom