Cape May to Atlantic City (and July 4th in Canfield) June 25th to July 5th, 2013

After a bit of indecision between Tour de Loop and us whether to head out into the Atlantic Ocean or not, we concluded the seas would be sufficiently favorable for the trip to Atlantic City, NJ.  A side bar—Hurricane Sandy did such devastation last year that the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway is still littered with cars, boats, parts of houses and various other sorts of debris making passage on the “inside” route still questionable.  Other “Loopers” have made the trip but not without incident.  Additionally, the sediment deposited by the storm has made very shallow routes that are impassible during anything but high tide, thus our decision to make our way north via the Ocean route.

Gardner's Basin, the Boardwalk and view of the Golden Nugget from our boat

An early morning departure took us out the Cape May inlet at 6:55 AM and our first experience with off shore passage.  The skies were clear, winds were southwest at 5-10 driving 1-2 foot seas mostly on our stern (a comfortable ride).  We set the autopilot to several points along our northeast route and traveled about 2-3 miles offshore for the entire trip.  We passed along many popular seaside resort communities like Wildwood, Stone Harbor, Sea Isle City and Ocean City giving us a much different perspective of beach revelers.  The clear skies made visibility up the coast seem nearly endless so we watched the skyline of the Atlantic City Boardwalk with its many casinos for hours before making our way into that inlet 6 ½ hours later.  We chose to moor Some R Lovin’ at Gardner’s Basin just inside the inlet at the city docks in the shadow of the City Aquarium and dozens of quaint shops and restaurants.  We were early enough to take a pass through a few casinos contributing to the economy of Atlantic City (we lost our shirts—no not really).  After dinner we started planning for our next leg to Manasquan, NJ about 40 miles up the coast.  Unfortunately, the weather turned ugly predicting 4-7 foot seas for the next 4-5 days.  So, our plans changed (a regular event in our boating life) and we decided to leave the boat in Atlantic City, rent a car and head home to Canfield for the 4^th holiday.

Breakfast at Neff and the Canfield Parade

The Reay's, Ruth, Sammy and Joey x 2

Traditions are important so Sandy’s pre-parade breakfast went on as usual except all our friends brought various dishes making it much easier on us to “host” the event.  Appetites sated, we all headed to Canfield’s Green to enjoy another hometown parade complete with bands, fire trucks, politicians, twirlers and the ever-present Shriners.  We left with bags full of candy that our grandkids collected and headed to BBQ #1 in Grove City to meet Dan’s Mother, Brother, Sister and their families.  After eating our fill of burgers and dogs and catching up on recent family news we headed back to Canfield to celebrate with the Thomas side of the family.  More burgers and dogs, but this time with fireworks to continue the 4^th’s celebration.  It seems every Mike, Joe and Chris buy more and bigger ways to make loud noises and illuminate the night sky.  What great fun!!  Sadly, our fun had to come to an end, as we needed to depart early on the 5^th to head back to Atlantic City to continue our trip north.  Just outside AC we re-provisioned, turned in our rental car and prepared for a second day on the ocean.  At the dock we were met by our Looper friends Tony and Shirley, on Headquarters, who had just made it into Atlantic City earlier that day. Our plan now included Headquarters and us on the ocean heading north.  It’s always comforting to travel with another boat when on “big water.”

Baltimore, MD to Cape May NJ June 22-25, 2013

Shane at the helm

Having guests onboard who like boating causes problems of who commands the helm.  We were off the City Dock in Baltimore at 7:55 AM with south winds at 5-10 knots and waves less than 1 foot, a delightful 7-hour run to Tidewater Marina in Havre de Grace, one of the two final cities considered for our nation’s capital.  Unfortunately, we had an unfavorable tide so only averaged 5 knots most of the day.  Heather and Shane took turns on the wheel while I navigated the upper Chesapeake.  We took a turn up the Susquehanna River for the 6-mile trip to Havre de Grace, an interesting departure from big water and the Bay.  Something unusual was taking place up river as Heather counted 49 dead fish floating by our boat in only 30 minutes. It’s still a mystery.  Despite this unexplained fishcapade we were anxious to visit the quaint village at the end of the Susquehanna and were not disappointed after arriving.  We walked along the historic section of town and found an excellent hometown restaurant followed by a visit to a local ice cream shop.  We planned to wait for Sandy’s return from Cape May there but decided instead to cruise one more day.  (Sandy and I needed to get closer to Delaware City in order to position ourselves for our Delaware Bay crossing), so off we went to Chesapeake City.

A portion of a container ship on the C&D 

The C&D Canal connects the Chesapeake Bay to the west and Delaware Bay to the east allowing a much shorter passage to Philadelphia and Baltimore for ocean going barge and ship traffic. 

Lunch at Chesapeake City Restaurant

We’ve transited probably hundreds of miles of canals but nothing like the C&D.  With tidal currents that can be several knots and flow both east and west, it’s 450’ wide and 35’ deep to the sides.  It’s wise to plan the 12-mile transit to go with the current.  It took only 3 hours to make the trip across the Chesapeake and into the first three miles of the canal arriving at Chesapeake City Marina and Restaurant during a busy Sunday.  We docked, washed the boat, had a bite to eat and waited for Sandy to meet us.  She made it just in time to grill on the boat and even brought dinner – famous Cape May scallops and shrimp.  What a treat!  We enjoyed live music from the marina-front restaurant for most of the evening and watched the almost continuous boat traffic in and out of the marina of Sunday boaters.  After a restful night we said good-bye to Heather and Shane and made our way east to Delaware City only 10 miles away.

June Super Moon over Chesapeake City

Dockmaster Tim met us at the Delaware City Marina and proved to be one of the most knowledgeable mariners we’ve met along the trip.  At 5:15 PM he offered a weather briefing for those of us planning a Delaware Bay crossing.  The Delaware Bay is a dangerous body of water and can turn ugly in a hurry with no safe havens to duck into.  As it turned out, his predictions were “spot on.”  He suggested leaving Tuesday morning at 5:00 AM to catch the Delaware River outbound tide and assured us favorable winds; tide and current that would allow a safe and comfortable trip into Cape May.  For the first 3 ½ hours our speed never dropped below 10 knots.  Considering we cruise at 6 to 6 ½ knots, 12 mph was amazing!!!!  

Sunrise on the Delaware River

Tour de Loop challenges a barge

Nuclear Power Plant 8 miles into our trip on the Delaware Bay

The 50 mile trip lasted just about 6 ½  hours and we arrived at  Utsch’s Marina (along with our crossing buddies "Tour de Loop") hoping for fair winds and seas for the first day of our Atlantic crossing along the New Jersey coast on Wednesday.  We enjoyed dinner at the Lucky Bones next to Lobster House in Cape May, where Mark and Natalie held their rehearsal dinner prior to their wedding nearly three years ago.  Memories…

Bill, Kathy (Tour de Loop), Sandy and Dan

Soloman’s Island to Baltimore June 15-22, 2013

Dan, Sandy, Marsha and Allen (and Tiki God)

Our trip north and west from Tangier to Soloman’s Island took 6 1/2 hours but proved to be the best yet as far a Chesapeake cruising – sunny skies and less than one foot seas.  Our navigation in open water has improved and our confidence in the boat’s ability to handle more than we could increased as well.  We were anxious to get to Calvert Marina, a couple miles up the Patuxent River, and reunite with Marsha and Al for a couple days.  We had heard about the world famous Tiki Bar at Solomon's IS. during our stay in Oriental, NC and decided that it would be among our stops while in Soloman’s.  The bar proved to be a cross between a tropical Tiki bar and biker bar. Very interesting!

The famous Tiki Bar

After an enjoyable drink, we found a nice restaurant for another seafood dinner.  We bid Marsha and Al good-bye Sunday afternoon (Father’s Day) and joined our cruising friends Tony and Shirley aboard Headquarters to watch the final round of the Master’s.

Annapolis Harbor

Monday we left early on our way to Annapolis, MD.  The Chesapeake turned slightly bumpy with opposing tide and wind for the first half of our run and the final hour was a little wet as we skirted the edge of a passing thundershower.  Up the Severn River to Spa Creek we found the Annapolis Basin where we picked up mooring ball 17.

On the way, Dan remembered that a former Air Force colleague lived in town and managed to track Chuck and Lou down.  That evening they met us at McGarvey’s Pub for dinner where we spent several hours catching up on our lives.  

Maryland State Capital sunset

We also called Sheila, our Sister-In-Law who lives in Silver Springs, MD.  She came for a visit on Tuesday and again on Wednesday (mostly to bring the collection of Downton Abbey and a couple books for us to read).  She also helped us re-provision and do a little sight seeing while in town (Having friends with a car is particularly helpful).  Annapolis is such an interesting city!

Before Crab Dinner...

After Crab Dinner

At this point in our journey we had expected to be further along than we were and hoped to meet Mark, Natalie and Claire in Cape May, NJ.  We also wanted to be somewhere so Shane and Heather could cruise with us for their few days off.  Connecting those dots proved nearly impossible.  However, our next stop was Baltimore, MD where Shane and Heather were gracious enough to offer Sandy their car to drive to Cape May while the three of us moved the boat closer to Delaware Bay. 

Claire at play in Cape May

Natalie, Sandy, Claire and Mark

While in Baltimore inner harbor we were entertained by live bands all weekend (it was the first day of summer).  Baltimore also reminded us of the amazing history we have been experiencing along our trip.  The USS Constellation was moored a few hundred yards from us and we passed Ft McHenry and the bridge named for the composer of our National Anthem during the inbound and outbound trip on the Patapsco River.

Francis Scott Key Bridge
"Oh say can you see..."

Ft McHenry
"By the dawn's early light..."

USS Constellation

Captain Dan's mates Shane and Heather en route to Havre de Grace