Wednesday June 1st – We
made it to Atlantic Highlands! Around NYC later today.
(Note: Written Wednesday
morning but not posted until today Thursday)
We arrived yesterday after a 13hr
motor-sail (mostly motor!) up the New Jersey coast from Atlantic City
yesterday. Here is a recap of our travels day by day since the last
post.
We left Fishing Bay Yacht Club on
Tuesday May 24th (after having arrived on Friday May 20th
) and moved about ½ mile over to Deltaville Marina . We
anchored and paid a small fee for the opportunity to use the marina's
facilities as well as their courtesy car to go to the market. We
went to the market and a vet's office (to get more Frontline for
Gracie), three loads of laundry and showers. Deltaville Marina was
a great place to do all this but unfortunately it was not as fun as
the last time we were there (October 11th - 15th) when we
were with the Botulas, Thomas and Sabine and our other friends –
and our evenings in the “mosquito house” (the name given by
Sabine to a screened in porch we all hung out in near the docks).
We left on Wednesday May 25th
for Solomons Island where we reconnected with Tim and Missy Risley.
After a long day (about 65nm) we anchored at the same spot as last
time, in front of the Calvert Marine Museum, and quickly lowered the
dinghy to get Gracie ashore. We were invited to dinner on the
Risley's beautiful 48' Nova Scotia - “Near Miss”. We sat on
their upper deck and had a great dinner Missy had made for us. The
evening, of course, was not complete without wine – and a
demonstration I provided on how to remove a cork from a wine bottle –
without breaking the bottle! We had such fun.
The next day, Thursday May 26th,
we departed for Annapolis, VA. We had not stopped in Annapolis on
our way south in the fall because at that time the Annapolis boat
show was in progress. Annapolis becomes crazy full with boats for
that show. However, our visit now was right at the time of the
graduation for the US Naval Academy so it was still kind of a zoo!
Fortunately, we were able to find a mooring in the harbor right next
to town. We went ashore for Gracie and then to
Pusser's
Caribbean Grille, “a premier restaurant, bar and retail store on
the waterfront. It's the only “true” waterfront restaurant in
Annapolis” for
their famous Painkiller drink which quickly turned into dinner.
Pusser's has an outside deck and allowed us to bring Gracie along
with us. Needless to say, we loved our meal there - and so did
Gracie!
Leaving Annapolis we now begin a
“moving” phase of the trip – LOTS of moving to be able to catch
a weather window allowing us to do some tricky navigation. We need
to have the right winds and timing to go down the Delaware Bay and up
the NJ coast. On Friday May 27th we went to Worton Creek
where we had waited out, for four days last fall, some very nasty
nor'easters associated with hurricane Joaquin. (Perhaps you recall
that we were very thankful for those nasty nor'easters vs getting hit
with a hurricane. Joaquin had originally been predicted to come
right up the Chesapeake – right where we were!) Saturday May 28th
we went through the C&D canal to Delaware City Marina for the
night – as well as fuel and water.
Sunday May 29th was down the
Delaware day. The Delaware can be tricky. We had to go about 67nm
(77 miles) to Cape May so for us this was going to be about an 11hr
day. It was that long because we had to go around the bottom of Cape
May, entering Cape May from its southern entrance, as opposed to
through the Cape May Canal. If we could have gone through the canal
that would have saved us about 3 hours of time. The canal has two
bridges that have 55' clearance. Our mast is 54' tall so the only
time we can go through is at low tide – to have a margin of safety.
Low tide was not until about 9pm and we were not doing that transit
in the dark! We left Delaware City at 5:38am and got in to Cape May
at 4:45!
Monday May 30 – Cape May, NJ to
Atlantic City, NJ - We left Cape May at about 9am because, as
travel days go, this was a relatively short travel day only 6 hrs.
However, we spent most of the time in rain and fog! When we arrived
in Atlantic City it was really miserable – windy and in the
heaviest rain of the day. We were going to try to stay at Historic
Gardner's Basin which had floating docks and was really reasonably
priced but after repeated attempts to contact Gardner's with no luck
we had to go to option #2 - Kammermans. Wet and rainy night all
night!
Tuesday May 31 was the part of the trip
up the coast that everyone hates. Atlantic City up to Sandy Hook –
some 85 nm (about 95 miles). We left Atlantic City at 6am in thick,
thick fog with a 3-5ft swell entering the harbor breakwater. This
was NOT fun and we spent most of the day in varying amounts of fog
until perhaps the last hour or two. We were navigating in the fog
using our radar and gps chart plotters which without which would have
been impossible to do what we did. I normally do not make a
point to go out in the fog but we were trying to get this weather /
wind window while we had it. We negotiated some patch fog
coming down the Delaware (and had a couple of really, really BIG
tankers come out of the fog - and that channel is not big!) and we
also did rain/fog from Cape May to Atlantic City so we had our system
down. So, we were in very heavy fog right from the get go that
morning. It was 13 hrs start to finish !! Thank God it
cleared up at the end so we could see what was going on in NY as we
came in to Sandy Hook. But we are here and happy to have made
it. No incidents. We also do a lot of communication on
the VHF radio with the boats & commercial traffic as we spot them
on the radar. All very tricky!! We anchored in Atlantic
Highlands at about 7 pm and, of course, dropped the dinghy and took
Gracie in for well deserved relief.
Through NYC - the East River to Long
Island Sound – leaving at noon.
Fishing Bay Yacht Club
Fishing Bay Yacht Club
Laundry, fuel, market, showers, etc.
Next stop was Solomons Island where we reconnected with "Near Miss" - Tim and Missy Risley and dinner on their upper deck!
I had to show you the dinner!! Hey - Alfredo Paradiso, eat your heart out!
Our gracious hosts, Tim and Missy Risley.
Next stop was Annapolis, MD. We missed it going south so we had to hit it going north. It was Naval Academy graduation weekend!! Think it was wild?
On the way up the Chesapeake to Annapolis
Next stop was Annapolis, MD. We missed it going south so we had to hit it going north. It was Naval Academy graduation weekend!! Think it was wild?
On the way up the Chesapeake to Annapolis
This was not sunset, it was sunrise as we left Delaware City to head down the Delaware River - a required early start.
The racers?
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