The Jersey Coast

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Chesapeake Bay Beauty

Last week.....where does the time go anyway....sometimes it seems like I live life in a daze, what day is it, where am I, who am I !!  Maybe it's just the old adage time flies when you're  having fun, so I must be having a real ball!!  It's been almost a week since the last time I let you know what we're doing and where we are doing it.

So here goes...

We couldn't leave Solomons on Friday, too windy, so Gary finished the Radar project ....

Oooh....nice legs!

 doesn't this look like fun..

Since we really wanted to attend the antique boat show we decided to head across the bay to St. Michaels early Saturday morning.  We arrived about noon and this is just a taste of a great show, nowhere near the LeChenaux show in the U.P. of Michigan but good none the less.

Gary's heritage.....Chris Craft

The Radio control society

Nice Hacker Craft

Race Boats from 'the heyday of racing'

Then again if you recently won the lottery you can 'hire' the 1939 Trumpy yacht 
Washingtonian for a mere $1500. per hour with a 2 hour minimum.  If you can't catch her in St. Michaels, she'll be at the Ocean Reef Club in Florida in the winter.  Just a thought.

We left St. Michaels and anchored in the Wye River so that we could get an early start on our trip through the C&D canal and Delaware Bay.  This trip has to be planned according to the tides to get you down Delaware Bay without a 'tide fight'.  Our idea was to stay in Chesapeake City but we made such good time that we decided to go through the C&D canal and head for the Reedy Island anchorage in the Delaware River.  It was an easy day...with lots of boat traffic.  The sailboats were LOVING the winds on the bay...they were everywhere.

                                       

C & D Canal Bridges

          Farm Reedy Island  Delaware River

            What a storm looks like from a boat....puts things in perspective..

 We were close to the end of the rainbow...the most awesome one I have EVER seen.  The picture does it no justice at all.

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We got a Nuclear view at this anchorage.

Let's see, we are now up to Monday. When travelling the Delaware River and Bay you are advised to leave at high tide so the water as it goes out can "suck you down the bay" so to speak. We had planned to go to Cape May and Anchor on the south end of the New Jersey Shore and anchor there before heading up the coast on the Atlantic. 

Light Bell...and 'bird sanctuary' on the Delaware River

But once we got there we changed our plan (AGAIN!!)  The water on the Bay was so calm and when we got to Cape May we were almost in the ocean so we thought what the heck...lets just keep going, it's only noon.

So with big smiles on our faces for being so confident (not to mention smart) we headed out the Cape May Inlet for another adventure.

         I remember hearing "It will get better when we get out of the inlet"  

                                                         ...well one can hope..

It wasn't a terrible trip but it wasn't good.  The wind was on our aft quarter, which in Tie A Knot language means..."Let's Roll Baby"

This photo was NOT doctored....and I was steering because
if I don't there's a chance the fish will be eating my lunch.

So after 4 hours of extreme rolling and steering we got to the Atlantic City Inlet.  I had my life jacket on, not taking any chances, and it was a fast ride in....with the waves going in and the tide going out.  Of course we couldn't get into the anchorage we planned to because it was low tide (this tide business is quite daunting...no rhyme or reason that I can see.) so we anchored in front of the Coast Guard Station by the casinos.  That was the worst night at anchor ever, I felt like I was in a giant cradle with a very impatient mother at the wheel.  Turbulence big time.

 Lots of amusement on the Jersey Coast...this is Morey's Piers Wildwood, N.J.

Atlantic City Skyline from the water

Atlantic City Wind Generators on a miserable day

We thought we'd have to stay here for ever to get out into the Atlantic again when we suddenly decided to check out facts on the N.J. ICW....turns out it is very shallow, mostly 5-6 feet in depth, but after reading about a couple who had done it last year we decided it could be done and if not we could always backtrack.

 We weren't sure if they were clamming or oystering but the water is super shallow in the ICW they were kneeling in the shallows harvesting something,

Being led through the dredging maze by a small work boat

 Abandoned Fish Factory in the ICW north of Atlantic City

 ICW Jersey Shore  in the rain

We were being adventurous trying this trip up the ICW but the alternative, waiting 3 or more days to make it 80 miles north in the Atlantic was not appealing so we figured what the heck.  We did do a little research and people had done it last year, but that was pre Sandy.  We found water levels to be very low.  We need more than 4 1/2 feet under our keel and we went through a lot of areas with only 5 to 6 feet of depth.  We ended up making an unplanned stop to anchor last night because it was raining so hard we really couldn't see the bouys and you HAVE to stay between them in this waterway or you will be calling Tow Boat US for sure.  We were going to move when is stopped raining because we were in Barnegat Bay which is very large and shallow but as luck would have it it started blowing 15-25 mph and we were stuck there.  It was another nasty night.  In Atlantic city we rolled, here we bucked like we were riding a bronco.  Not pleasant but over and done with thank God.

We haven't touched bottom yet and we only have about 10 miles to go before we have to go out into the ocean again at Manasquan which is the end of the ICW.  Then another 20 miles in the Atlantic to the Inlet into New York Harbor.  

Wagon  HO!!!

                  Our Silver Bay Anchorage in 7 feet of water at low tide...all tucked in.

                     The Atlantic Ocean and Jersey Shore are at the top of the chart.