Friday, June 20, 2014
June 20, 2014 Friday leaving Avalon, New Jersey
Quiet night, no storms,weatherman off again,saying winds out of the N at 3 miles/hr. but seems stronger than that. Beautiful sun shiny day, storms predicted this evening. Need prayer warrior coverage for us to get to New York safely and in the Hudson River Channel.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
June 19, 2014 Thursday Leaving Cape May, New Jersey this morning
Slept in this morning with air conditioner keeping us cool during the night until the wind started blowing and it started raining and lightening, no bad thunder like before, just a little shower. I even had a dream, don't remember what but that is unusual for me to have dreams, I sleep so hard. Woke up to the big fishing boat rolling the cart out to his boat, ready to take wantabe deep sea fisherman out for the day. Creepy guys, just staring at us, me, on our boat. We left shortly after they did, had to get gas and water and pay our bill. Not the best of Marinas, public bathroom, slip on floating dock 3 ft or less but we were tied up to the dock during the blow last night and electricity for the air conditioner, it was in the high 90's yest. With the bridges fixed at 35 ft. we need to go out on the ocean today to Atlantic City. Forecast for weather not real good today. North to Northeast winds this afternoon with thunderstorms and rain early this morning and later afternoon. Winds this morning 5 knots from the northwest switching to the north and northeast later afternoon. Well let me tell you, the weatherman was off part of the day anyway. This morning getting out of the Cape May Inlet at 9:30 we had partly cloudy, sunny in the east with darker blue clouds in the west. Going out the inlet the tide was coming in making for a rough exit, in addition the rudder kept popping up and was very difficult to steer the boat. Curt tried putting it down but wouldn't stay down, big boat coming out behind us so we motored out of the opening into the ocean and let the boat go by then stopped to let Curt fix the rudder, found the cable had somehow wrapped around a place it is not supposed to be. After Curt found that and corrected it, we started once again with the rudder staying down this time. Put up the jib, great discussions of weather to put up the mainsail. I won this time, sailing with just the jib since winds predicted to change. The swells were about 8 seconds apart, comfortable with west winds, according to Curt's new wind gadget they were out of the NW at 20 kts gusting to 25 kts. which seemed like it. Comfortable. Cruising along thinking this isn't bad, maybe we can get to Atlantic City before the storms and NE winds hit. At 11:30 we had gone 10 miles, listened to the weather again because the wind had changed to the N and waves were getting higher along with closer swells. Weatherman said rain at noon with winds increasing from the NE. Well at exactly noon it started blowing from the NE, waves higher, we were pounding and had to cut the waves by going North instead of NE and started to rain. 2pm We decided to turn back and go into the edgy, shallow waters at Townshed Inlet.after watching two other bigger boats go in it on our way there. Amazing how calm it was when we turned and had following winds, riding up and down the now 5-6 ft waves we edged our way to the inlet. Crossed over a shallow area with our depth meter not reading meaning less than 3 ft. But with the tide up, we hoped we would get more than the 3-6 ft depth as the charts showed. I held my breath, I'm driving again in crappy conditions, Curt's watching the GPS and telling me which way to go, we headed for the red buoy, red right returning. I started to breathe again when the depth meter started showing 5 ft then 7 ft, then 8 feet. Then my next thought is how are we going to turn into the marked channel with the 6 ft waves coming at our starboard side. Crap, Curt says just turn the wheel, we wallowed down the channel, with the tide pouring out at least 2-3kts, which made it even rougher and swirling. Curt called the bridgetender to open the bridge, hoping he would get it open before we got there. Then we saw the narrow channel under the lift bridge, nervously I approached with Curt giving his opinion on how to get thru it, the bridge started going up on one side, but didn't open straight up so I had to go closer to the opposite side which I wasn't to keen on, since I wanted lots of room on both sides to twist and turn if the current and wind caught me. Whew, made it thru turned to the south and calm water, quiet winds, another world. Carefully made it up the spotted shallow waters to the Avalon Marina, $2.00/ft, ouch but safe since the dark clouds are building to the northwest again and prediction for storms tonight. Oh well, at least they have a shower, sort of, warm water and electricity with floating docks but the current is super fast and Wifi that sort of works. Should be interesting getting out of the slip in the morning. Had a very quiet relaxed night except for the no see ums biting. 2 hrs. to make 10 miles today and afternoon 3 hours to make 5 miles. Got the fly splats washed off the boat from the Delaware Bay crossing. This is one of the barrier islands but the marina is a long ways from anything so no sight seeing tonight. As the evening went on the sun came out, storms seemed to bypass us and go south and looking out the inlet from a distance, the ocean looked calm. Oh well, we needed a night to take a break from the adventure.
leaving Cape May Harbor along the canal,
The nice marina for 2.75 per ft.
down the canal
houses along the canal off the Cape May Harbor
along the canal heading to the ocean
Panoramic view after out in the ocean
heading northeast to Atlantic City, not too populated beaches today but water temp 75 degrees and air temp 70 degrees this morning.
a big cargo ship out in the ocean, not too bad of waves.
Amusement park, looks like they just redid it after hurricane Sandy, a torn up rollercoasert farther north of here.
They left us in their dust, looked like the name of the boat was Pink???
June 18, 2014 Wednesday leaving Chesapeake City
Woke up early to the other boats leaving our anchorage. Tide going against the direction we want to go but soon to change (in from the Delaware Bay).
Pulled anchor around 0800 and set off east thru the C&D canal (Chesapeake and Delaware Canal) with an out going tide Weather clear, 80 F. and winds WSW 10 miles/hr. Speed was average 4 knots.
0900-Pulled into Summit Marina for gas, back on the canal in 30 min.
1030-Exited the canal into the Delaware River, with the tidal current and wind current we did 8.3 kts. Once past the Salem Nuclear Power Plant speed dropped to 6.3 kts. Tide has started turning coming in or against us. 50 miles from the canal to Cape May. May be a long day. Charts and information report weather can change in different parts of the River rapidly and is very remote with only few shallow rivers along the sides with it widening out to the ocean and farther from shore and very shallow a few miles off shore. Waterway Guide reports the skills of the navigator are likely to be tested here since only GPS can be used as navigation rather than the red and green markers. Big ships might rumble by at full speed, more mindful of their draft than they are of you. A boat must be able to proceed on her own to a safe harbor some distance away along stretches of coastlines belonging to Delaware or New Jersey. The Bay is reported to be considered by many boaters to be rough, tedious and inhospitable but on the other hand remote and lonely mystique with great appeal for adventurous mariners who enjoy exploring. Very treacherous place to be with varying winds and weather. We were nervous after the Chesapeake Bay adventure. Soon after we turned southeast from the Nuclear plant the dreaded flies attacked us. The waterway guide warned of these terrible biting flies called Greenheads, they appear during the day from the end of June until beginning of Sept, unless wind is coming off the ocean, they are cousins of the horsefly have been known to bite through clothing and leave large painful whelps. Mosquitos are troublesome after sunset. Great, we not only get a mystique adventure but flies with it. And yes, as we passed the Nuclear Plant, Curt brought out the fly swatter and started murdering the regular looking flies that bit like the horsefly. So we had a bloody mess on the boat, literally bloody mess. And instead of taking over steering the boat to let the other person rest, we took over killing flies before they attacked us 3 or 4 at a time biting severely, and rested steering. Weather and current okay but slowly down still, promise of current to change soon and be going out making our speed pickup again. We were killing flies constantly for 6 hours down this Bay. The boat was a mess, and they kept coming swarming over their dead to suck out the blood from their own.
2000-Pulled into Miss Chris Marina in Cape May right off the C&D canal, very shallow waterway, in fact the depth finder didn't register when we pulled into the slip, meaning 3 ft or less. Storms and winds promised for during the night so we took it anyway since it was the cheapest in town. Actually it is a fishing boat marina with public bathrooms, no showers but tied up in a slip with electricity for the air conditioner since it was in the high 90's today and high 80's as we pulled in. We can manage for a 1 night stay. Walked over to the WaWa convenience store for bottled water and hot dogs and chips for supper, good on the grill with potatoes and fresh green beans steamed in the foil pack on the grill. Sad not to take time to go look around Cape May but too far to walk and too tired and late to get the bikes out.
June 17,2014 Tuesday East Harbor Marina Day 240
0900-Untied and left Baltimore Harbor. Not nearly the traffic as Annapolis. Lots of garbage in the water, so sad. The City has changed alot in the last 35 years since we lived here. Entered Baltimore River 3.8-4 kts with at least 2 kts of current due to the tide going out.
1800-Planned on docking at the free city dock at Chesapeake City but everything was full so, even rafted two deep so we dropped anchor in the basin with for other sailboats. Took the Dinghy into town, walked around.
1800-Planned on docking at the free city dock at Chesapeake City but everything was full so, even rafted two deep so we dropped anchor in the basin with for other sailboats. Took the Dinghy into town, walked around.
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