May 31 Cape May to Atlantic City

May 31, 2019

With a favorable weather window and forecast we started the offshore passage today up the NJ coast.  While NJ actually has an intercoastal waterway from Cape May to Manasquan it is not part of the Corp. of Engineers responsibility and is therefore not well maintained.  Dredging is the responsibility of the state and other than keeping a few inlets navigable, not much is done to enhance  an inshore passage for pleasure boating.   That is sort of surprising since NJ has one of the higher per capita boat ownership levels so there’s plenty of taxes and registration fees collected to support doing a better job of dredging the inland passage to make it safer and more enjoyable for everyone.  OK - Off my soapbox.  

Captains meeting discussing weather report, departure times, destinations

Due to the shallow depths and our deep draft we must go offshore all the way to NYC.   There are only 2 usable inlets.  Absecon Inlet  (Atlantic City) and Manasquan Inlet.    The easy route if you can get 3 good weather days is Cape May to Atlantic City on day 1, then Atlantic City to Manasquan Inlet on day 2, and then Manasquan Inlet to the NYC area on day 3. 

Leaving Cape May Inlet

 We had a good weather day today so got to Atlantic City without issue.  Left around 8AM with a 5-10 knot SW breeze and seas 1-2 feet.  A nice gentle rolling sea pushing us from behind.   Both of these inlets are pretty big and used by lots of boats, so they are well marked and deep but with a bit of a current. 

Other than a few dolphins and some lobster pot markers (yeah – who knew lobster were caught down this far south??) it was mostly just open water and looking at the NJ seaside resorts a few miles off the port side.  

Amusement rides at Wildwood, NJ

 As we rounded the tip of Wildwood, NJ it was surprising to see the towers of Atlantic City already while they were still well over 20 miles away.  It took 3 hours before we were up to them!

Atlantic City from 12 miles out

Another 3 miles to go

Once past   the inlet we settled on an anchorage behind Plum Point.   Out of the way of boat traffic and current and it offers some protection from winds if they happen to unexpectedly develop.  We’ve been to Atlantic City before so no real desire to spend a fortune for a slip at the marinas here.   We’re just using this as a stopping point for a very early departure in the morning.   Had a great on board meal.  Grilled some veggies and pork chops.  Added some  fresh Amish farmers market tomatoes and corn on the cob.   Even got a nice sunset as a bonus.

Martha taking picture of the sunset

Casino right across the river from our anchorage

Journey for May 31

May 29 Delaware City Marina to Cape May, NJ

May 29

The weather settled overnight and so all 6 looper boats docked at Delaware City took off at 6AM headed down the length of the Delaware Bay for Cape May, NJ.  

Loopers heading out as dawn breaks on a flat calm Delaware Bay

Yesterday we crossed Maryland off the list of states we passed through and today we marked through Del. At least it now feels like we’re making progress again.  After delays due to high water it sounds like the Erie, Oswego and Trent Severn waterway locks are all finally open and beckoning us for the summer. 

Todays waters were as good as anyone could ask for on the Delaware Bay.  Very light breeze, no waves to speak of other than from passing ships and a mixture of tidal currents that  over the day were probably net neutral  for our passage.   Not sure if the light breeze was a good thing as we were invaded during the trip by small biting black flies.  We made good use of the fly swatters the previous owner had left on board!  Yesterdays trip through the C&D was full of boats and bridges and today the scenery consisted mainly of boats and lighthouses.   

Boats and lighthouses

Boats and lighthouses

And even more boats and lighthouses

 We stayed just off the main shipping channels as these big boats travel at deceptively fast speeds and we wanted no part of being in their way.   We also got to see the Hope Creek nuclear power plant, a couple of dolphins and some schools of busting bait fish.

Fellow looper getting close to the  nuke plant

A pair of dolphin surface and say hello

Our only real excitement of the day was upon entering the Cape May canal.   The big car ferries from Lewes, DE have a landing just inside the entrance and as we entered through the breakwater with 2 other boats right at the stern, I hear him signal one long blast and 3 short.   Danger – reversing.  And with a puff of black out the smokestack  he revs the diesels and begins backing.   We all go to idle speed as the entrance channel is not very wide.  With him fully backed out of the slip, he blocked all the navigable water.  He then spins the boat 90 degrees creating a huge swirling backwash and leaves us jockeying for position back into the main channel as he heads out the breakwater.   Wish we had gotten some pictures but we were both preoccupied with watching him, the boats behind us, the chartplotter, and the depth gauges. 

Finished our trip and got tied up at Utch's Marina.  We'll wait for the  right weather window for our offshore passage  up the NJ coast to NYC. 

Snug in our slip somewhere on the right side of the picture

Journey for May 29

May 28 Bohemia River, MD - C&D Canal to Delaware City, DE

May 28

A relatively short distance trip planned for today just to the top of the Chesapeake, through the C&D canal and then a mile or so up to Delaware City.  It wound up being quite an interesting and varied day.   We had hoped to shove off around 8AM to catch a favorable high tide for departing the skinny waters of the Bohemia River.  Weather radar would have none of it with an approaching rainstorm.  Thankfully it passed rather quickly with nothing more to come so at 9:30 we unwrapped the lines and headed out.   We knew it would be an unfavorable current to start so had planned to stop at Chesapeake City after about an hour on the water, walk the town, grab a bite to eat and then head back out around noon once the current changed direction.  That all went as planned but the level of current was a bit of a surprise as we were losing almost a full knot of headway on this first leg.

Approaching Chesapeake City Bridge

Chesapeake City harbor

Chesapeake City was built around the western terminus of the canal in the mid 1800’s and while small has a well preserved historic district of houses.  They do an excellent job placing readable plaques in front of many houses giving their family history, build date, and architectural style. It’s a very pleasant stop with a free town dock and anchorage and several waterfront eateries.   Not long after leaving Chesapeake City we also left Maryland and entered Delaware.  It was a line on our chartbook but no designation at all along the canal to let us know.

Some of the oldest building in town on the waterfront

Reading historical plaques in front of homes

The bridge looms large over the town

Once back on the canal we suddenly were making good time as the current had changed.  Instead of turning 1700rpm just to stay above 6 knots we were now cruising along at 8.5 knots at just 1500 rpm.   Things just got better the longer we kept going as the current dragged us along at times reaching over 9.5 knots!  That’s a crazy speed for us as the boat at WOT running 2600rpm in perfectly calm water is only capable of around 9.3 knots.

Check out that speed!!  9.8 knots!!

The C&D canal is said to be the busiest sea level canal in the world, and we got a chance to see a few big boats.   The canal is plenty wide and deep so passing is never an issue.  And because the canal is used for transoceanic sized commercial ships all the bridges are fixed high clearance – not a draw bridge to worry about which is good because for a 14-mile-long canal it had quite a few bridges. 

Bridges

Boats

More Bridges

More Boats

And even more bridges and boats

 It’s a fairly scenic canal with wooded shores on both sides with much of the land part of a state park.   Martha and I commented how enjoyable it might be if the entire loop were this tranquil.  Flat waters, great speed, good scenery, deep water, no concerns.  The open waters of the Delaware Bay and the NJ coast are looming large in front of us and we hope to pass them quickly and without issues.

After being spit out the C&D into the Delaware we had a short trip north for a few miles once again against current.  There’s only one marina in Delaware City and it runs down the length of the old original canal.  It’s just a single long floating pier on a 60’ wide channel.   We pulled alongside the dock into the current handed off a few lines and then the dockhand pushed the boat out into the current while keeping the stern tied to the dock.  The boat swung 180 degrees with the current and back against the dock and positions you for an outbound passage out the canal in the morning.  Our maneuver didn’t go exactly as the dockhand had planned and we wound up catching the corner of the swim platform on the dock.  Looks like some minor cosmetic scaping but nothing too bad. 

The original canal channel and our marina for the night

All that's left of the original canals locks

There are 5 looper boats tied up here preparing for the trip down the Delaware Bay to Cape May, NJ.   We all got together for dinner at Crabby Dicks to coordinate our 6AM departures.  They had several big screen TV’s all showing weather reports of a nasty line of storms heading our way.  Not long afterwards we heard pounding on the roof as hail began falling.  Not the little small stuff, many were the size of a quarter or bigger.  Here's a little video of the hailstorm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V_UKBgNJmk

 Glad we were in a building and not on the boat where I know the sound would have been very disconcerting.  Once the storm was past and dinner done, we headed back to the boat and so far have found no damage.   After all that excitement lets hope for a stress free and uneventful trip down the Delaware tomorrow.

Journey for May 28

May 25 Rock Hall/Swan Creek Anchorage to Bohemia River Yacht Harbor

May 25

The winds finally let up late Friday afternoon and we could tell it was the start of a holiday weekend on the Chesapeake as our anchorage in Swan Creek suddenly filled with another dozen boats.   With a good weather window finally opening up for us on Saturday we decided it was time to make some progress.   We opted to refuel at Gratitude Marina on the way out.  As we approached, we thought maybe we had spotted the elusive “Chessie”.  Just as the Lock Ness has their “Nessie” it is also rumored that the Chesapeake has a sea serpent that lurks in these waters.  Luckily, we made it around her without issue or damage.

Despite wanting to visit  some of the anchorages we used to frequent years ago  when we kept a boat in Middle River, MD we moved past Fairlee Creek, Worton Creek and Still Pond Creek and pushed our way into new territory for us – The Bohemia River and the Bohemia River Yacht Harbor.   It was getting busy on the bay during the trip with lots of large boats tossing out big wakes.  So, we were glad to pull into the marina and get settled down.     As you get to this northern most part of the bay  the scenery changes a bit as the water narrows and the land rises a little higher.

After having the bay to ourselves so far we had to get used to traffic and getting waked

Back in civilization.  A beachside  full of modular units

Elk River Lighthouse

Small lighthouse marks the start of the marina entrance channel

After a week of anchoring Martha was ready to get some laundry done and I was ready to give the boat a good wash.  Last wash was before Norfolk and since then we got clobbered with saltwater during that move from Cape Charles to Crisfield and I wanted to make sure it all got washed off before corrosion set in.   There’s a very generous AGLCA Harbor Host that is based out of this marina and he was  kind enough to take us shopping.  I needed to replace the generator battery which had become temperamental occasionally needing a jump from the big house and engine cranking batteries.  It’s supposed to work the other way around.   When at anchor if you discharge the house batteries too much, you want to fire up the generator to power the 120V battery charger and bring the big batteries back to full charge to start the engine.  The trip from the marina to Elkton reminded us of the countryside in PA. when we lived there.  Nice rolling farmland with corn just starting to germinate and show itself.   This is a large marina with roughly 500 slips and it is loaded with big boats.  We have a slip right next to the entrance channel and it’s been a constant parade of 40’, 50’ and 60’ boats.   They call it the Pennsylvania Navy as most of the boats are owned by PA. residents who store their boats down here for weekend fun.  We can’t bad mouth them as we used to be one of them!!  It’s a very social marina with a continental breakfast on Sunday with some awesome pastries as well as an  evening  ice cream social once a month that we happened to catch.  Staying put here through the weekend to stay away from the heavy holiday waterway traffic. 

Big boats in and out all weekend. Here's a 62' SeaRay.

Journey for May 25

May 22 Dividing Creek anchorage to Rock Hall and Swan Creek anchorage

May 22

Winds finally settled down overnight so we raised the anchor at 6:30 from our idealic location on Dividing Creek and started on our way to Rock Hall.  We discussed taking the much longer outside route to the main portion of the bay  just to see Thomas Point Lighthouse (the last remaining operable screw pile lighthouse) and  go under the Bay Bridge  but decided the extra time really wasn’t  worth it  for things we’ve seen numerous times in the past.  

Thomas Point lighthouse taken during our run south last year

Blue Angels - also a picture from last year

Plus, the Blue Angels were doing their Navy graduation fly by show today over Annapolis and we know from last year it generates a ton of crazy boaters and boating traffic.  So today we took the shortcut through Kent Narrows.  Kent Island is the Eastern Shore terminus of the Bay Bridge with Annapolis being the western.  After the bridge was built the island became a very popular marina location for those trying to avoid the Annapolis congestion.  There has always been a waterway cut through with a draw bridge.  It still remains despite having the high-rise bridge right next to it.  The channel approaching from the south holds decent water depths, but there were reports of shoaling occurring on the north side with depths of 5’ at low tide. Not much room for error with our 4’10” draft.   We timed our trip to catch the 9AM bridge opening which was at full high tide giving us an extra 2’ of depth.  We needed it as we were seeing depths under the keel of less than 2 feet. It was a bit nerve racking but once free of the channel it was smooth water all the way to Rock Hall and an anchorage up Swan Creek. 

Kent Narrows bridge

This anchorage holds a special memory for us from when we used to boat in this area of the Chesapeake decades ago.   We had anchored in the creek for the weekend with another boat from our marina.  We had visited with them until after dark and as we were dingying back to our boat the water lit up behind us in a phosphorescent show. There were small nonstinging jellyfish all around and with each stroke on the oars it would disrupt them and they would light up the water. Truly an amazing sight still vivid in my memory all these years later. 

No such wonderment today as we dingyed back and forth to town.  We met up with our friends Russ and Jax from "Cat and Dogs" for a late lunch and showed them how to eat a steamed crab.  Then headed to the grocery store.  We heard they had someone who would drive us back to the marina so we loaded up on heavy items – water, beer, wine, soda and a few other items.  Cloud cover moving in with possible rain tomorrow so a disappointing sunset.

Teaching Russ how to eat a steamed crab.  Just a  tutorial, then we had crabcakes and fish taco's

Woke up early today (Thursday) with intentions of moving to Worton Creek which offers more wind protection,  but  with winds already blowing strong from the south  and small craft advisories in place for the next 2 days we stayed put. So Thursday was simply a day for doing nothing.   Mostly just reading and napping.   I find it hard to get a full nights sleep when at anchor  if the wind is blowing and forecast to change direction. I just feel a need to get up several times, check our position on the chartplotter, take a visual from topside   and satisfy myself  we're still holding position.  We had 15-20 knot winds from every direction over the next 2 days and the anchor just kept holding.     As a reward  for staying put we were rewarded with another outstanding sunset. I thought the sunset was great but then the light show really started as clouds took on more colors than you can find in the big box of Crayola Crayons!!

Friday we were getting a  bit stir crazy so despite the choppy conditions  at the anchorage we decided to launch the dingy, head to town and hope we wouldn't get too wet in the process.   We found the local Java shop for a  coffee and some Wi-Fi time.  Then walked around town a bit.  Interestingly,  while Rock Hall is much older than places like Cape Charles  or Crisfield it was never a railroad developed seafood town .  Those towns were developed around the oyster business but Rock Hall has always been more of  crabbing and seafood town.  There goods were shipped by ferry across the bay to Baltimore  and Annapolis. It therefore never had a  boom period and has always been a small town.  Lots of modest  30's and  40's era houses on reasonably large lots. 

Interesting mural on the local grocery store celebrating the watermen

After working up an appetite we finally settling  for a late lunch at the Harbor Shack.   Good view but only  decent cream of crab soup, decent crab cake and decent burger. Supposedly a "Best of the Bay" winner for multiple years but just not a winner  with us. 

Friday afternoon the winds started settling down and boats started arriving to fill in our anchorage.  Clusters of sailboats and powerboats rafting up to start the long weekend.

Journey for May 22