Manasquan, NJ.....if the dockmaster asks if you have twin screws when you call.....

What a beautiful day cruising  "on the outside" from Atlantic City to Manasquan Inlet! The forecast had been for increasing winds in the afternoon, so we rose early and had a great ride!  The Jersey shoreline is lined with sandy beaches and homes. We saw a whale and some dolphins along the way.

Jim playing Sudoku with his eyes closed while Buddy proves his head alone is bigger than BooBoo as we cruise to Manasquan.

The shore changed very little as we cruised from Atlantic City to Manasquan.

A few days ago I called Hoffman's Marina per the suggestion of Richard, the Cape May Harbor Host. When I called the harbormaster asked if we had twin screws. No one had ever asked me that before. I wondered.....well, big time current is the reason. The current was so strong when we arrived, the owner of the marina insisted on backing Crawdad into the slip. Still took a very long time as he pulled forward and backed again and again.

Jim and I rode our bikes through the town of Manasquan. Beautiful homes and landscaping except for beach homes, which have little grass or trees.

The marina building was built two years ago. Larry, the present owner is owner #3. They say in real estate, #3 is a charm!

Dinner of fresh sea bass on the grill, caprese salad, redskins on the grill and cheesecake. Can't do much better than this!



Larry, the present owner, has a big sport fisherman and he was describing the big sea bass they caught. As true fisherman, they only keep what they can eat - or give to hungry transients passing through! Thank goodness! Thanks Larry!



This picture doesn't do justice to the strength of the current.

Our slip is adjacent to the commuter train, but it runs only periodically. Good thing! The marina itself was recently renovated and Wayne and Sue joined us for dinner on one of the new picnic tables. The owner came up to us and offered fresh sea bass that he caught yesterday. Yum! Jim is the griller extraordinaire and the fish was perfect!

The railroad bridge has an alarm and closes only when a train approaches. A siren (blasting in our ears) goes off and the boats wait to cross in the streaming current.

This picture was taken outside the door of the boat. I was hoping they would throw us a bone.

Atlantic City, NJ, not so bad after all!

Early start as our cruise today was 45 miles in the open ocean. Not our cup of tea, as we cruise so slowly, around 9mph. Fast by sailboat standards, but a slow ride none the less. High Spirits was behind us and we are always glad to have them with us, but especially in a cruise "on the outside", as we Loopers say.

The start to the day was glorious. Nice flat seas. Light breeze. Liking this!

The ocean is a different animal. Rollers are so different than what we encounter on the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes has waves. Sometimes pounders, ie, ride up and slide down with a bang. Rollers are waves with long intervals in between. It feels like riding up and down and not what I am used to in a sailboat. High Spirits noted that there were times when they could not see our stern, as the trough of the wave was low.

As we entered the Atlantic, the rollers began and Buddy was really unsure of himself on the flybridge, so we came below. He still looks a bit insecure as he cuddles with Boo's little bed. No, Boo was not in the bed.

Starting early always has its benefits, as the morning is usually calmer than later in the day. We picked a good day, but we were still rocking, so we retreated to the helm below, where the boys are much happier. When they cannot get a steady footing, they are uneasy. Must say there is much more to do in the salon below, so we were all happy to move below. Tomorrow we will start on the lower helm and if the weather is exceptionally calm (not predicted), we will move to the upper helm.

This boat was raking the bottom for mussels.



This fishing boat is called "Highroller". Looks like quite a few guys enlisted.

 The second benefit to leaving early is arriving early! Atlantic City has a "Jitney" and for $2.25 you can ride all over town. We walked the Boardwalk (usual elephant ears and psychics) and visited a few casinos. Wayne had never stepped foot in a casino before so we showed him great opulence at Donald J. Trump Taj Mahal. Good thing Donald Trump got that "J." in there! We noticed a number of Trump Casinos.

Jim has become Mr. Clean. He washes the boat daily and wipes it down. He never washes his pickup, so I am a bit confused.

Local knowledge had expressed that the Farley Trump Marina was the only Marina worth visiting, but at a price double what we consider high priced, we started searching. The Historic Gardner Marina at the aquarium was said to be run down and not a good spot, but when we cruised in and were met by Trish, the dock master, we were pleased to see floating docks at 1/3 the price of Trump Marina. With significant tides (4 feet in Atlantic City and up to 8 feet in Georgia), tying to a floating dock is a luxury of life. If the dock is stationary, the boat floats up and down and the lines must be tied much more carefully.

One other Looper boat was in the Marina, "Inconceivable" from Richmond Virginia. Drew, Liz, Sebastian (11) and Paisley (10). Nice family. Dog starved kids who needed a few Buddy and BooBoo licks. We had a wonderful time with the kids and hope we run into them again soon. Sebastian promised he would email me and we could stay in touch. He had better! He promised to read this blog! Paisley is a cutie too. Love those red headed children!

The Taj Mahal was Wayne's orientation to casinos.

Remember those yummy funnel cakes.....or was that what made me throw up on the roller coaster......

Sit in the cart and let the poor guy push you along the boardwalk. I don't think so.

Have no idea what this is, but is looks pretty cool. Anybody know?

Our evening was spent as many are spent with Wayne and Ruth from High Spirits, discussing the next day. Our plan is to leave the dock at 530AM. Yes that is right, so I had better finish this blog!

Must say Atlantic is a pretty place at night.

Cape May, NJ......lovely.

Delaware Bay is a major estuary of the Delaware River, whose water mixes with salt water all the way up the Bay and up the river. The current is significant. Our travel from Delaware Bay south to Cape May, NJ was 61 miles....farther than our typical day. With such a large body of water, we encounter different things than we encounter in other areas. Lucky us. It was a great day!

Yeow! That freighter was mighty close. Good thing we invested in the AIS. Too bad we weren't watching. Don't know why he didn't blow his horn or call us on the radio. Jim is having a heart attack in this picture.

Here we are from High Spirit's perspective.

Salem Nuclear Power Plant.

There are many lights on Delaware Bay.

Ship John Shoal Light.

Gloria's famous wildlife photography. In case you can't see it, this is a picture of the FIN of a dolphin. We were surprised to see dolphins in Delaware Bay.

Cape May-Lewes car ferry.

I just loved watching these boys as they ran along the top of the slippery breakwater.

The more the merrier when it comes to fishing.....

More Victorian homes are in Cape May than anywhere else in the US. Amazing homes. Amazing old hotels still in use. Beautiful beaches line the shores. We are now seeing why the New Jersey beaches are so loved.

Victorian home near the beach.

Jackson Street Bed and Breakfast.

Just can't see too many pictures of the fishing fleet.

This fishing boat just returned from fishing. The flags indicate the type of fish caught. In this case the white flags indicate one kind of fish and the navy a different type of fish.  If the flags are flown upside down, then the fish were thrown back.

Lots of sport fishermen not yet in the water for the season.



Rich and Carol are the Harbor Hosts. They drove us to their home for wine and cheese and then to the Lobster House. Great restaurant! They are leaving on their loop next week.



Can't see too many lighthouses....

View from the lighthouse was incredible. 158 feet high, the lighthouse is still a working lighthouse. The Coast Guard still operates the lighthouse, but a non-profit owns the lighthouse. This is quite typical of the lighthouses we have visited.



 

This is on the beach. What the heck is this thing?

Delaware City, DE....C & D Canal

The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was built in 1829. The Canal connects the Chesapeake Bay to the Delaware Bay. The Canal is 14 miles long.

The C & D Canal bridges are charming. Some are highways, but most are for train traffic.

Tim is the owner of Delaware City Marina. He drove us to buy groceries.

When we arrived at Delaware City Marina, the wind was still blowing.  Ruth and Charlie, from the Marina, tied us to the dock. We had to fit in a spot not much longer than Crawdad.

The dock was fully lined with boats, many of them Loopers on the way to Cape May, NJ.

This is one of the original locks from the early 1800's. There were a number of locks in the original Canal.

We left Georgetown, MD, located up the Sassafras River to travel up to the C & D Canal. The weather forecast was for 10-20 mile an hour winds with gusts up to 25mph. Not our favorite day, but we felt most of our travel would be protected by the Sassafras River and the C & D Canal. As we traveled down the Sassafras River the wind blew 15-25. High Spirits prefers flat water and they probably would have preferred to stay in Georgetown.

I poked my head into the Blacksmith's shop. Lots of tools......

Delaware City is located at the end of the Canal. The 5 mile trip up to Delaware City as the exit to the Canal was wild! The spray reached the fly bridge and we were hanging on, but we made it and once we entered the Delaware City Canal, the ride was smooth.

This is High Spirit as she left the C & D Canal. The picture does not do justice to the weather at that moment.

We enjoyed our time with High Spirit and enjoyed seeing our friends, Merried with Her, as well. We saw Merried with her on our Chart plotter as they have an AIS transponder and we have an AIS receiver. Though they had planned on staying in Chesapeake City, they changed their plans and joined us in Delaware City.

Fort DuPont is located across the Canal. Ghostly campus with most of the windows boarded up. The Delaware National Guard uses the property, but the majority of the property is vacant.

Jim and Kathy from Merried with Her. They have a home in Kentucky on the Ohio River. They are thinking they will probably arrive at the Ohio River and keep going back down to Florida. Many Loopers sell their homes and just keep on cruising.

Ruth and I were driven to the grocery store by the owner of the Marina. Tim and his staff worked very hard to make our stay pleasant.

We are meeting new Loopers and enjoying being the seasoned Loopers! Soon we will have our our Gold Looper Flag. The reward for completion of the Loop!

Georgetown, MD, Sassafras River

The plan for the day was a cruise up the Sassafras River to an anchorage at Turner Creek. Great hurricane hole. We were thrilled as we have not anchored of late, but the weather threatened and we decided with High Spirits to go to a marina instead. Unfortunately, the marinas are in Georgetown, which is another 6 or 7 miles up the river.

Seemed like there were a lot of "random things" as we cruised today. We finally figured out this was part of a range light.

The day was extremely hazy.

In the afternoon, the haze cleared a bit. The scenery on the river was gorgeous....probably the prettiest river we have seen so far on our trip. The sandy shoreline looked inviting!

Ruth and I hitched a ride with Delores from the Marina. Delores kindly drove us to the local grocery store which was extremely small! Too small for carts, so we carried the baskets on our arms and were careful not to buy too much as we could only buy what we could carry in the basket. There was one bunch of bananas and Ruth offered to let Jim have his morning banana. How nice!

Jim and I enjoyed dinner at the dock with Ruth and Wayne. Some nights the four of us go to dinner, but many nights we cook our own entrees and share our side dishes and dessert. Ruth made a delicious fruit salad with grapefruit instead of oranges. The "oranges" we bought at the local market were really grapefruit! We are fortunate to be traveling with such a pleasant couple. We really enjoy their company.

After we returned from the grocery store, we soaked in the lovely pool until we were prunes. At 96 degrees, who would want to leave the pool and cook dinner!

Must have been family day as we saw the Krause Tug Company with each tug named after a Krause family member. I looked for Jan Krause, but no tug with her name. Jan is now Jan Koster, my sister in law.

Saw this picture and thought it was a great name for a boat....and my sister, Marcia Lynn!

Not a very exciting stop and the weather was brutally hot. Thunderstorm warnings with 2 inch hail predicted with high winds.  Hope tomorrow is a better day as we cruise the C & D Canal to Delaware City.