Location: =On the Barnegat Bay, 5th day of vacation on the boat in this spot= Anchored at Tice's Shoal which is the bayside of the Island Beach State Park barrier island, midway between Seaside Park, NJ and the Barnegat inlet=separated from the ocean by only 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile of barrier island - you can easily hear the surf=ocean is east of meTime:=predawn. Came up onto the back deck to watch the shore lights sparkle and to read for 45 mins or an hour=looking at the sky over the ocean and waiting for the dawn to start=it is now 5:30-ish amNoticing the object:=slightly north east of me, over the ocean, I notice a bright star =I am now looking at the star just because it is the brightest thing in the sky =the star begins to move southInitial reaction:=I am thinking it is a jet liner because McGuire AF base....and Lakehurst former naval air station are both west of me on the mainland and certainly not very far by jet planeSubsequent behavior of object:=I am about to dismiss the star object when I notice its movement speed as it travels south. It is moderately faster than anything I've seen fly over this area.....and I have been boating in this area for 1996=The speed was not blindingly fast, was not streaking like a rocket ship, was not confoundingly fast...............but it was measurably faster than anything I've seen fly in the sky....night or day. I would guess 3 to 5 times than any jet liner or large military craft traversing these skies= For the next 30 mins the object traveled back and forth from just north of my location to just before the Barnegat Light house (about 5 miles south of me)= The object went back and forth and back and forth for 35 mins.= Direction changes were 110 to 160 degrees= Direction changes always included an altitude change= Direction changes ...always...included a difinitively noticable acceleration in speed for a small percentage of the newly acquired direction, then it would drop back to its normally faster than averagte speed= Direction changes were both up and down reversals of the original direction= 90% of the direction changes appeared to be possibly ahcievable by fixed wing aircraft.......10% WERE NOT= some views looked like the object was hovering, but if the object were traveling head on to me or directly away from me...it would look like hoveringVisual characteristics= bright star= wildly guessing the object was 10,000 ft= very bright= the light was definitely too big for a traditional aircraft marker light= it did have a very, very slight pulsating quality to the light - like a strobe would pulse= a small percentage ofthe time, a red light was visible on what looked like the bottom of the star object= if it was 10,000 ft, and I am only guessing, then the brightness is unusual. The bright light was large in size, not a strobe marker light. it was the size of a star.= visual contact with the object was lost at 6:03 am when the sky lightened to the point it was hard to see the star object= Lasgt know direction was south= object was probably still there after 6: 03 am, I just couldn't see itConclusion for me - It would be great if authorities could be querried to see if they have any radar signature of this object or if they know of any exercises being performed in that area.The object was ....absolutely....playing around or exercising or practicing or training, for there was no other purpose to describe the seemingly pointless back and forth tracks that the object describedIt was too bright for a normal aircraftThe light itself seemed to have some size to itThe area it was flying in would have a moderate to low viewer potential at that time of dayThe speed was the first thing to catch my attention - noticably faster than anything I've seen in the skies before, but not science fiction fast