Jersey Shore

Coming out of Worton creek was a bit rocky at first. Although the winds had died out overnight, there were still the echoes of the big waves from the previous day. Luckily this only lasted about an hour before we made it behind an island and out of the fetch. Along the way we heard a couple of "pan-pans" on the radio, as some boaters did not listen to the small craft warnings yesterday and there were reports of unmanned boats and overdue boaters.

Once we made it into the C & D canal things were super calm, and we eventually arrived at Delaware City marina. The owner of this place was an over-the-top control freak. He told us to call when we were approaching the channel, then proceeded to give us step-by-step instructions on how to get to the marina. He actually gave us too much info, as we could easily navigate using our chartplotter, and some of his info was wrong (head towards the blue and white ferry - which had departed the docks 15 minutes earlier and was now across the channel).

We passed a group of five Navy patrol boats coming through the C & D canal. These guys kicked up a pretty good wake, and about 15 minutes later we heard a bridge operator telling them to slow down through the no-wake zone in Chesapeake City.

Coming in to dock, we had a huge amount of space, at least 100 feet of linear dock to land on, but he insisted on giving us instructions on precision docking, and got mad at us if we deviated even a little from his instructions. Once we were on the dock, he and his dock hand used our ropes to flip us around to face back the way we came. We have done this many times ourselves, so the procedure was not new to us. The owner was impressed when Louise knew to pass the bow line under the anchor. We got flipped around and set into the slip. Again, he would not let us touch our own lines, he insisted on doing everything, even plugging in our shore power. 

I gotta say this however, the guy knew what he was doing. This is only the second time we have seen dock hands who properly secured a boat (the first was at Hoppies), with correct knots and everything, but he was definitely rigid in his way of doing things.

We got set in and were getting ready to eat lunch when a couple of CBP officers stopped by the boat and asked us to come out. They had seen our Canadian flag, and stopped in to make sure we had reported our port of call.

When we entered the U.S., we got a cruising permit for the boat. This permit allows you to cruise a boat in the U.S., but it requires you to check in with CBP at each port of call (every time you stop). We do this using the CBP ROAM app, and had been checking in at each port of call when we came down the inland rivers. When we got to Florida, the officers told us we were checking in too often, and told us to only check in when we travel from one zone to another. Since Florida, we had been doing that. 

We talked with the officers for about 10 minutes. They were really nice and really helpful, and gave us a couple of tips about using the ROAM app. A bit freaky though to see law enforcement officers stop by your boat, in fact all the other loopers on the dock were asking us what happened because a few minutes later two police officers were also on the dock walking around and they thought the two groups were the same.

Mural on the fence beside the marina.

There was a harbour host - Foster Schucker - nearby who gave a weather briefing to all of the loopers there. The briefing was really well done and informative about picking a good weather window to travel in the ocean. After this marina we had to transit Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The one thing I really remember from the talk was the term "unlimited fetch". Any kind of east wind in the area was dangerous, because the Atlantic created unlimited distance to build up waves, and the concept of "unlimited" together with "waves" was kind of scary.

This was a good piece of info we got from the briefing. The key take-away was that when going up the Jersey coast, NEVER go outside (on the ocean) when there is any eastern component to the wind, as there is unlimited fetch. Rather they told us to go with a west wind and stay within 2 nautical miles of the shore (minimum fetch) to get the best conditions.

After the briefing we had docktails with a bunch of other loopers, then went to dinner with Steve and Maria of Dolly and Trish and Roy of Madi Hati. They asked us to buddy boat with them up the coast. Cool. We chose a restaurant that was recommended by the marina owner, rather than the one suggested by the dock-hand. The dock-hand told us that if we were going to his suggestion, Crabby Dick's, that we not tell the owner as he has some kind of grudge against the place. The place we ended up at, the owner's suggestion, was a cheap diner. Food was OK, but cheap, what a surprise. We should have listened to the dock-hand. No matter, we swapped stories and had a good time visiting with Dolly and Madi Hati. 

Steve had a conch shell that he used to sound tribute at sunset.

Next morning we were off the dock at 6. We had wanted to leave earlier, but slack tide was at 6 which made for an easy start off the docks. The current here was off the chart, so best to go with the no-flow. The ride up Delaware bay was super smooth. The only rocking came from wakes, and those were not too bad. The container ships did not make huge wakes like we saw in the Chesapeake, but the sport-fishers made up for it. We made it to Cape May just after lunch.

Trish of Madi Hati is a professional drone operator. She got this photo of the marina at Cape May using her drone. Unfortunately we are not in the photo, iFloat was parked just below the green boat at the bottom-centre of the photo. If you look straight up from the green boat, you can see the narrow entrance to the marina.

Did I mention this was Memorial Day? The ride in through the Cape May canal was something else. We were pushed by a strong tidal current, which always messes with control. To add to the fun, this was a major wanker-zone. All kinds of idiots on fast mover boats coming and going. The channel was pretty narrow, so we passed pretty close, and we had to constantly watch for boats coming up behind us. At one point we had to pass under a narrow bridge. Was pretty nervous as there were lots of boats approaching us from the other direction. I slowed down to let them go through first, then we made our approach. As we were closing on the narrow zone, we saw a big sport fisher coming the other way. Uh-oh. Luckily for us, this was the one boater in the area who knew what they were doing. He stopped to let us pass first, as we were being pushed by the current (you have much more control when heading into the wind or current). Nice guy and smart. We continued on, and just before we made the turn to the marina, a big Sea Ray came up close behind us, only turning at the last second to go past. What a jerk. Louise thought for sure he was going to hit our dingy he was that close.

The approach to the marina was interesting. There was a lot of shoaling, so we had to pass the bulkhead very close, about 10 feet away. Coming to the marina entrance, we had to stop and pivot as the entrance was small. Louise got out on the bow of the boat to spot to see if anyone was coming out.

After getting tied up we snoozed for a bit, then met the other loopers on the dock for docktails. It was supposed to be a bit of a planning session, but it ended up being more social. We met the crew of Boot Up and Northern Attitude, who both mentioned that they were going to stay here an extra day. We were surprised because the weather window was so good the next day, but they said they wanted to visit the area and rest up.

Sunrise from our slip at Cape May.

Leaving the marina. It does not show well on this photo, but the bulkhead on the right was only about 10 feet off the port side of our boat. The entrance was really narrow here. Don't know what happens when you have 2-way traffic, especially given how the locals drive boats here. You can see the dredge just past the fake Lighthouse. The inner harbour needs serious dredging since it is mud at low tide.

Madi Hati exiting the marina. The entrance is narrow, and you have to stop and pivot when you come out to travel along beside the bulkhead. If you try to turn normally you will run aground.

We were underway just before 6 am the next morning, and had calm conditions all the way to Atlantic City. The ocean was smooth as glass. We were tempted to keep going all the way to New York, but decided we did not want to grind it out. If we had gone, we would have arrived at night and we did not want to try to dock or anchor at a strange place in the dark.

Our view towards the Atlantic in the morning. Spain is the first land, and is about 3500 nautical miles away. Unlimited Fetch.

Coming down the Jersey shore we saw lots of resorts and amusement parks. This is a major tourist area.

Lots of water parks, ferris wheels and roller coasters.

The only rough water we saw was at the Atlantic City inlet. Coastal inlets get rough because the tidal currents interact with the waves to decrease the wave period, basically stacking-up the waves. This only lasted for about a km or so, but it was bouncy bouncy all the way. Once out of the current, we got fueled up and into our slip at the marina.

Approaching Atlantic city we turned in and entered the wanker zone in the inlet. This was a weekday, so we did not encounter much traffic on the way in, but the boats we passed were all going at warp speed. Conditions were pretty light, but the swell picked up as we approached shallow water. The current was running out so the waves were stacked a bit, but this was an easy transit.

We both showered and cleaned up the boat. Then I had a conference call about a course I am working on. While I was doing that, Louise went with Trish and Roy of Madi Hati and Steve and Maria  of Dolly to the Hard Rock casino and walked around the boardwalk.

The beach at Atlantic City. It was a kind of grey day and a week day, so the beach was pretty empty.

View along the boardwalk. This area along the beach is nice, but most of Atlantic City is not. In fact we were warned not to walk around here, rather all trips should be by bus, taxi or uber.

Lots of big casinos here along the boardwalk. This place is a low-rent Vegas.

They planted beach grass just above the surf line to stabilize the beach. Must be lots of erosion issues here.

Someone lost a shoe on the beach.

Selfie on the boardwalk with the crew of Madi Hati in the background.

Selfie with Trish of Madi Hati.

Louise walked to the boardwalk and saw at least 4 different casinos in the short walk. The famous Steel Pier was there but was under construction and the other parts were closed off since it was a Tuesday. The ferris wheel was running but she decided not to go on it since it was $12 a person and we had just done one in November in Orange Beach, AL.

Church in downtown Atlantic City seemed a bit out of place among the gaudy casinos. Set for demolition.

At the boardwalk there were roped off areas with American Beach grass plantings. The grass was planted to help stabilize the shore line and the dunes. The grass grows both horizontally and vertically and will build up the sand dunes in time protecting the shore line.

Couple of super-yachts docked at the marina. This one had rat-guards on their lines. Supposed to prevent rats from climbing the lines onto the boat, but the placement of these I don't think would stop much.

The laundry at the marina cost $2.25 per load. To enter this in the machine, you had to double up coins in some of the slots. It took us a while to figure this out.

Boat name of the day: Rogue One

Sneaking up on New Jersey

The winds were still blowing when we got up on the day of our departure from Annapolis, so we took our time getting underway. The forecast was for the winds to drop off around lunchtime, so we waited until after rush hour as the drawbridge we needed to pass under would not open until 9 due to traffic anyway. Turned out there were a couple of other boats wanting to pass under as well, so we untied the lines and got in line to go under the bridge.

We were in a parade of boats heading out of the harbour. We followed this sailboat through the bridge and out into the mooring field, then he peeled off to go watch the Blue Angels practice.

Out in the main harbour conditions were rocky. It was still a bit windy, but the rockiness was mainly due to boat wakes. As part of Commissioning week at Annapolis, the Blue Angels were putting on a show, and they had a practice scheduled for 14:00 that afternoon. Well, at 9:30 in the morning there was a steady parade of boats headed at high speed for the river where the practice was going to be held. This was creating really rocky conditions near the harbour. For the next 1.5 hours, as we travelled up the river, we were passed by a non-stop stream of boats, all headed at high speed for the show. It was like Waterworld! We could hear the police and coast guard on the radio trying to keep order. What a circus.

As we passed in front of Baltimore the winds died out to nothing, and we had a really smooth ride the rest of the way to Bowley's marina. Coming into the marina we were treated to a kind of air show, a squadron of A-10 Warthogs was landing. One after the other they came in on the same turning course and set in to land. These planes look really strange, all kinds of flaps and engines and things sticking out. After the warthogs, we watched a lot of private jets and other small planes land. Turned out there was an airport here which was a combined civilian and Air National Guard facility.

We took on fuel, got pumped out and set in our slip. They should actually call this place Rolley's marina. There is only a breakwater on one side, and we were rolled all afternoon from passing boat wakes. Everyone here seems to have no idea what no-wake speed is. We saw boat owners returning to their slips who waked THEMSELVES because they waited too long to come off plane. They put us on the end of a T-head, which put us first in line for wakes, and also as far away from anything as possible. The docks were really super-long here. When Louise went to the office to pay for our slip, it took a loooong time to walk the dock there and back.

View looking down the dock. Our slip was over a thousand feet from shore.

Someone had set up a fishing rod on a holder at the end of the long dock.

As we were setting up, the boat got covered in bugs. It was like they instantly appeared and landed on the boat. Had to keep swatting them away as we set up our lines and shore power cord. The midges (fish flies) did not bite, but there were thousands of them flying around. We watched the swifts flying around and chowing down. We became a kind of swift-aircraft carrier. The birds would fly around catching bugs then land on the hand rails to eat, then off again for another meal.

The marina was constantly moving boats into slips. We have seen that the marinas here are "waking up" and getting ready for their summer season. We were surprised that their boating season seems to be the same as ours, even though the weather is at least a month ahead of what it is in Canada. Seems to be that Memorial day is the start of their summer season. Surprising, as some boats apparently stay in the water all year round here.

Chesapeake marinas use special tug boats to move yachts around. These tugs are small plastic pontoons with an outboard mounted on a swivel. The motor can turn 360 degrees making the tugs super maneuverable. The driver turns a wheel to control the boat (orange), the outboard motor is inside that orange wheel that the guys turns. Note the bugs on the window this was shot through.

The tug platform has a V-notch that the front of the boat being towed fits into, then they tie the two bow lines to the tug to keep the boat in place. The little tugs are super-maneuverable and a great way to move boats around.

Around 16:00 in the afternoon, a fleet of power boats came past, all heading inland. We figured that these must have been the boats that had gone to Annapolis for the air show. Of course they waked the marina pretty good. We have not been rocked like this on the loop before. We have been in a couple of rolley places, but this place is off the chart. Even the locals who keep their boats in the marina wake their own facility as they depart and enter. We were in a slip with pilings on both sides, so set out ropes on both sides to spider-web us into the slip and keep us off the pilings. 

This baby tern sat on a piling while its parents fed it. The adults would fly around catching fish, then return to the piling to stuff the food into the baby.

Whenever we arrive at a new place, once we get set in we use google maps to see what kind of interesting things are around. Well, there was nothing here, we are in the middle of nowhere. We were really isolated, on the end of a super-long dock in a marina with nothing. On their website they listed a pool, but it was not open for the season yet. They also listed a bar, which was not open yet. The closest restaurant or store was 5 km away. In scooter range, but the weather forecast was for rain for the next several days, so we were stuck here. The weather was so bad the marina was empty, we saw only a few boaters on the docks.

At dusk the water smoothed out so we headed to bed. However, all night long the boat moved. We are used to the boat moving, its a boat of course, but normally things settle overnight. Even in an anchorage, you don't notice the waves. However in an anchorage, the boat tends to orient itself to face into any swell, which minimizes movement, and the boat gently pitches but does not roll (pitching is up and down movement fore-and aft). In this marina, we are tied in one orientation, and the swell comes at us from the beam and the stern quarter. This causes a lot of rolling (rolling is up and down movement side-to-side) and pitching, so the boat tends to "corkscrew". At about 4 in the morning we were woken up by some heavy-duty waves. We figured a bunch of commercial fishing boats must have been headed out.

This was the view out of our bedroom window first thing in the morning. The boat was covered in these bugs. Every square inch of boat had bugs on it. The boat beside us appeared a kind of grey colour because there were so many bugs on it.

This is the view out of the front window. Each window seems to have its own spider that stakes out the area. Well, the spiders ate really well the days we were there. Not all the spots on this window are bugs. If you look close you can see some big black blobs of spider poop.

The midges left behind poop of their own, which was green. A few days later Louise hosed off the bugs, and the poop created a kind of green effluvium that she washed overboard. The decks were covered in this green liquid while she was hosing off the bugs. Yuck!

We spent the day stuck inside the boat. It was windy, cold and rainy. The boat never stopped moving. You had to hold on to something just to move from one place to another. Gotta say this is the worst choice we have made for an overnight stop so far on the loop. To make matters worse, the weather was forecast to last for 5 days, and we were going to be pinned here. Crap.

Since there was nothing else to do, I decided to wash the bilge. Our bilge is normally dry, but it does collect a bit of water when it rains. I try to get this water out quickly, as it does not take long before it starts to smell.

This gives you an idea of how much the boat was moving. It settled down in the evening a little, but the wind was blowing big waves which refracted around the break-wall and kept us moving all the time. Every once in a while a boat would go by and add its wake to the action.

I am constantly checking weather as we go to update our plans for the next few days. When we are in "big water" I also monitor the Coast Guard website for info. They issued a small craft warning for the northern Chesapeake for the days we were to be here, so we were really stuck. Despite this, we saw a couple of power boats headed out - what were they thinking? At least one of the boats returned shortly after passing the point near the marina, I guess the conditions got really bad there, and they were horrible where we could see in the bay we were in.

In mid-morning a sailboat came in and tied up to the fuel dock, apparently they were seeking shelter. We also saw a rescue boat go out around 10 in the morning. They returned around 14:00 towing a big sailboat. Conditions were nasty for sure.

In mid-afternoon we saw a mega-yacht coming across the bay towards the marina. It was about 70 feet long, and really moving. As he approached the marina, he kept the speed on, only throttling back at the last second before the gas dock. The resulting tsunami, a wave about 4 feet high, swept through the marina. We had to sit down and hang on. Luckily we were spider-webbed to the pilings so no damage, but we could see the sailboat masts swinging like crazy. What a douche. The boat hovered outside the marina, it looked like he was trying to get fuel or something, so I got on the VHF to the marina and told them the name of the boat and what he had done. Shortly after, the boat turned around and left.

The winds picked up around 18:00, and it turned grey and got really miserable as the temperature dropped, and there was a steady, cold rain. We watched in amazement as several people came down the docks in foul weather gear and proceeded to get on a couple of sailboats. We could see a couple of other sailboats in the bay by now, so figured that there must be some kind of weekly race going on. Talk about hard core, the small craft warning was still in effect! We saw at least six sailboats go out. They stayed out until sundown, then returned to the marina at dusk. 

Before it got dark I went out and checked all our lines, and made a couple of small adjustments. Nylon rope stretches a bit when it gets wet, so our stern was a bit loose. I re-set the lines to keep us a bit further from the dock so if waves came through we would not hit anything.

Several times a day I check the weather using two different apps. Windfinder has a nice interface that allows you to see forecast and conditions at various weather stations. You can see info in both graphic and tabular format. The table is really nice for viewing conditions several days into the future. Predict Wind is another app that allows you to choose between 10 different weather models, and it also predicts wave height. Each one uses a slightly different algorithm to predict the conditions, and I usually check 3 or 4 of them. I also check the NOAA website for the area we are in, as well as the Coast Guard site for weather warnings, and finally when we are in coastal areas, I check a weather service called Marv's Weather. I check the weather forecast at least three times a day. Before we went to bed, I did my last weather check of the day and noticed that there was now a break in the weather forecast for the next day. Basically the winds were going to switch directions almost 180 degrees, and there would be a small one or two hour window in between, like the eye of a storm. I figured that this window was too narrow to try to use. Even when the wind drops it can take a long time before the water settles down, and as well, you don't want to get caught in the middle of big water if the wind comes up. Small weather windows can get dangerous.

When I got up in the morning at my usual 5:30 am, the first thing I did was to check the weather like usual. Well, turns out the window had gotten much better, we would have calm conditions all morning and most of the afternoon. We were not super happy with where we were, the marina was not well protected and there was nothing to do here, so I did some research to see how far we could get in this window. Turned out there was a super-well protected and inexpensive marina about 2 hours away. Going there would improve our situation, and it was do-able within the time frame the weather gods were giving us. I woke Louise up and ran the idea by her, and before you knew it we were having breakfast and she was booking us a slip at the new marina online. Moving meant we might give up a day at this marina we had already paid for, but we decided the change in conditions would be worth the sacrifice.

When Louise returned the gate key to the marina she was chased by this squirrel looking for a handout. She had obviously been fed by people, and was not shy about asking for food. Notice she was feeding babies.

Feed Me!

I got the boat ready to go while Louise returned the gate key to the marina. While she was there, she told them we would be leaving a day early, and they told her they would refund us for the unused day. Nice! We got underway around 7:30 am, which is a little late for us, but we wanted the extra time for our destination marina to open, and also for the Chesapeake to calm down a bit. Conditions were wavy but not difficult, we were running into one-foot waves the whole way, which is something the boat handles well.

We made it to Worton Creek marina shortly before 10:00 am and easily got into our slip without help. This place specializes in REALLY big boats, so the slips were massive and easy to get into. The place was really well protected, and looks a lot like some places on the Rideau. While we were tying up the boat, we met Carol of Summer Hours. Turned out she and her husband were new loopers, and were preparing to start their loop the same day we are planning to be moving on. Cool. 

Around 16:00 the Coast Guard re-issued a small craft warning as winds on the bay had re-started. Really glad we moved as the winds were now from the opposite direction, and had we stayed where we were we would have been hit directly with rollers from the bay. At this place, the water was flat calm.

Really impressed with the facilities here. They had the best-stocked ships store I have seen so far on the loop, full workshops and launch facilities. The docks are "no-frills" type, so this is not a rich-man's show-off place, but looks like a great place to be for services. Their boat storage yard was up a small hill, and I was amazed to see them using travel lifts to bring the boats down the slope. Did not think those things could handle the incline.

One of the tradesmen here used a trailer to haul his tools to the dock. Instead of pulling it by hand, he decided to get a little help from his truck.

Here I am going into the small Jeffries tube under the counter. Our sink faucet has a small screen on the hot water input line. Every few months, this screen gets clogged with stuff from the hot water tank. For some reason, this only happens on the hot water side. To fix it I have to disconnect the faucet and clean out the screen. Not the easiest access, but not the most difficult repair on the boat either. 

While I was working on the sink, Louise got the hose and cleaned all the bugs off the side decks of the boat. All of these bugs came with us on the ride across the Chesapeake. Once she washed them off, the boat looked normal again. At least until the next batch of bugs arrived the next morning.

This marina was also isolated, but not as much as the previous one. There was a pizza place nearby called Milano's that delivered to the marina, so we decided to treat ourselves to some take-out. Going out to get the pizza from the delivery guy required layering up as the temperature dropped noticeably in the late afternoon. Since leaving Annapolis, we have had to turn on the heat in the boat in the mornings. Our air conditioner is actually a heat pump that can heat the boat. Once the boat warms up in the morning it usually stayed warm as the day wore on, but this day we had to turn the heat back on in the evening.

Next morning, we noticed that the Coast Guard had posted another small craft warning that was to last two days. We have not seen nasty weather shut things down like this since lake Michigan. 

The marina serviced work boats as well as pleasure boats. They had two big sheds for fibreglass work and painting, as well as a really big machine shop. Here you can see one of the crab boats. They stack the crab pots on the top of the boat. These boats are made of metal, looked like steel.

Close up of some crab pots. You can see the openings for the crabs as well as the bait boxes inside. The pots are made of plastic-coated wire.

They were working on this dredge in the boat yard. Based on the size, I think this one is used in marina harbours. It was way too small to do anything to a shipping channel.

Close up of one of the tugs they use to move boats around the harbours here. The outboard is mounted on a gimbal that can turn 360 degrees. There is a steering wheel welded on top to control the thrust direction.

Bottom of a wooden boat that was rotting away in the yard. We will never understand those who own wooden boats - they are a non-stop woodworking project. Doesn't take long for them to fall apart unless they are constantly maintained.

Gives you an idea of the slope from the boat storage yard down to the launch facility. 

Notice how the bow of the boat is swung off the front. They adjust the straps to keep the boat level as they go down the incline. As a result, the boat swings well forward in the slings.

Around 10 in the morning, the boat beside us in the marina left. He said he was going south, somewhere near Annapolis. The boat was big, a 50 foot sport fisher, so it was able to handle conditions that are too gnarly for us. We don't go out when there is a small craft advisory.

They had a pool at the marina, but it was not opened yet. Seems like Memorial Day is the opening time for summer season, but with the weather so cold here we didn't see anyone who was interested in swimming. A few boat owners stopped by on Saturday, but with the small-craft warning on the bay, nobody was moving anywhere. A few owners were cleaning their boats, but not much else going on.

There was a small winery across the bay from the marina, and as it was the only thing in the area besides the marina, we thought about going, as they were opening for the season on this day. However, Louise called and all they had was a small room for wine tasting, no tours or anything else. We decided we did not want to bother going over for that. Instead, I fixed the radar. The last time we used it it was giving loss-of-GPS errors. So, I broke out the manual and did some troubleshooting. Like a lot of other things, it was a loose connection.

Just after supper we went over to Summer Hours to visit with Carol and David. They were in the process of getting ready to leave. Their plan was to leave the same day as us, however they had two outstanding jobs on the boat that the marina was to finish. Buffing the boat and fixing their autopilot, so they were not absolutely sure they would leave on time. Turned out they had three cats on board, and two of them came out to visit us. Made us realize how much we miss having a cat.

Some pretty heavy duty damage on the side of this boat. Don't know why it is still in the water, seems like it would not be sea worthy in this condition.

The next morning Louise and did some binge-watching, re-watching Bosch Legacy in prep for watching the third season. Louise got contacted by Carol on Sunset Seeker who have just completed their loop. Turned out they were nearby at their home marina, and Carol offered to take Louise shopping. Carol picked Louise up in the morning and took her to the grocery store, while back on the boat I did the engine checks in prep for leaving the next morning. After Louise got back from her shopping trip, we did some more binge-watching.

The crew of Summer Hours got their hull buffed finally, but was still waiting for their autopilot repair and so would not be starting their loop for a few days. Looks like we will be on our own tomorrow.

Boat name of the day: Berth Control

Shut out at The Academy

The eastern seaboard had gotten heavy rains the day before our Washington departure. When we got up in the morning, we could see that the water was high, the breakwall at the park across from the marina was flooded. We were lucky we got out when we did, we had a really strong push from the current, and were underway early enough that there was not yet a lot of debris in the water. Coming under the Woodrow Wilson bridge, we started to encounter floating logs and other crap, but we had seen much worse in the Mississippi, so we were not concerned, the stuff was easy to avoid. Stulie had to wait to get fuel, so we were alone on our trip back to the boathouse. It was a long day, but we had super-good weather and wanted to take advantage, as nasty stuff was going to follow. 

Approaching Colonial Beach, we had to pass through the live-fire range again. Luckily for us they were not doing live fire that day, so we could cross easily. They had some kind of thing going on however, and there were patrol boats out, and they had closed off a section on the range. We did not have to travel near this restricted area, so we made good time and got tied up to the dock. About 3 hours later, Stulie made it in. By that time it was pretty late in the day, so we did not do anything special in the town.

Next morning we were up at 5 am, and got ready to get underway. We had to go across some big water in the Chesapeake, and we have found that you always want to get an early start. No matter what day it is, winds build up in the afternoon due to the fact that water and land heat up at different rates in the sun. We like to get to our destination early in the afternoon if possible to avoid the late afternoon winds while docking.

Our view out the front window. The harbour at Colonia Beach was absolutely infected with midges. They completely covered the boat, and the harbour even hummed from their wings. The spiders on the boat ate like kings, including a big one who staked out a space at the front helm window.

The whole boat was covered in bugs like this. Absolutely incredible. As we travelled, the bugs on the front of the boat got blown off, but the ones in the stern were sheltered and stayed with us most of the journey. When you walked on the boat you had to be careful to keep your mouth closed if you didn't want to taste any, they were everywhere.

Coming out of the boat, once again the harbour was humming and the boat was covered in midges. When I went to disconnect the shore power, I got a face full of bugs that were attracted to the stanchion lights. You had to keep your mouth closed so you didn't inhale any of them there were so many. The weird humming sound made it all seem surreal.

We got underway at about 5:30 and had a nice pleasant ride to Solomon's Island Yacht Club, which had recently become a looper sponsor and was offering a special dockage rate. Along the way we heard a pan-pan from the coast guard, warning of a big debris field on the Potomac river. Apparently there were so many logs in the water that you could not pass though it. They had to use tug boats to clear out the crap. Good thing we left when we did.

As we were on our way to Solomons Island, we passed passed the Patuxent Naval Air Station. They had a gunnery target set up in the middle of the bay for the jets to practice on.

On the left you can see the exclusion zone for the target, which is in the centre of the circle. The area is restricted when they are doing gunnery practice, but there was nothing happening this day so we were free to pass through. We did get a bit of an airshow, as there were fighter jets and cargo planes practicing touch-and-go landings.

We have not stayed at a lot of yacht clubs while doing the route, mainly because not all of them take transient boaters, so its easier for planning purposes to just look for marinas. When we have stayed at yacht clubs, it has been because we have info that they take transients, either because they are looper sponsors, or because others have directed us to them. 

Staying at a yacht club is somewhat different from staying at a marina. A marina is kind of like a hotel for boats. You arrive, get your slip assignment, pay your money and that's it. Marinas generally offer services like mechanical repairs, fuel, or boats parts, and many of them also have a restaurant nearby, which is just a restaurant. Yacht clubs do not provide services other than pumpouts, although we have bought fuel from a really big one in Myrtle Beach. They also do not have normal restaurants on site, rather it is a club, and you need permission to enter. Sometimes you can go in, sometimes you can't. When you do go in, it is full of club members and you are the stranger from out of town.

However, what really sets yacht clubs apart are the rules. Clubs are formed from the members who keep their boats there, and are run like a small town. Each year you have a general meeting or meetings, and every member can propose a rule change to the constitution of the club. When you arrive at a marina, they give you the codes to the washrooms and gates, tell you the operating hours, and off you go. Yacht clubs hand you a list or booklet of rules you have to follow. Most of these are pretty obvious, "don't do jerk stuff" kind of rules of normal behaviour. In fact, you follow these rules anywhere, they just aren't explicitly written, rather they are normal common sense. However, for some reason, yacht clubs feel the need to provide you with a list of these rules.

Colonial beach took it over the top. Louise contacted them by email asking for slips for iFloat and Stulie for one night. She got a reply saying they had space, and providing a form for us to fill out with standard things like boat dimensions, power requirements, arrival dates etc., even though she had provided all this in her original email. OK. I filled out the form, and Louise sent it back to them by email. But, I brain-farted and wrote all the dates as being April instead of May (we did this around May 14 or so). First thing in the morning, Louise gets a call from the dockmaster telling her about the mistake, and asking us to re-submit the form. And by the way, do it quickly as their spaces were filling up. WFT? The mistake was so obvious that they told us about it directly, but rather than them just crossing out April and writing in May, they wanted us to re-submit the form before they would take the reservation that we had already sent the info for in a email. You do what you have to, we corrected the form and re-submitted it. The guy immediately called back to confirm we were good, but now he needed Stulie's form.

Louise contacted them to get their paperwork in, and it worked out, but why they could not just enter the info in their system like anyplace else was beyond us, especially as they could not just correct the dates on the form once they were printed out. OK, its just a form. We laughed about it, and moved on. Well, next she gets sent a few more forms we have to fill out, they want insurance details and us to sign that we agree to follow the rules, etc. Welcome to the yacht club. In the email, they ask us about our ETA, and requested that we call them by phone when we are about a half hour away. Fairly normal stuff, and Louise replies by email.

About half-way through the trip to the yacht club, Louise gets a call. It is the club, asking us where we are and when we will arrive. She gives them the same ETA we sent them by email, and tells them that as per instructions, she will call when we are about a half hour away. They say all is good.

When we are about 30 minutes out, Louise calls to tell them this info. They ask why we are calling. She say as per instructions, and the previous phone call request, we are letting them know we are nearby. OK, now they understand. Louise asks them which VHF radio channel they want us to hail them on when we get to the harbour for docking instructions. She is told they don't use VHF, instead we should call by cell phone. 

We enter the harbour, and Louise calls for instructions. She has to replay the instructions from the cell phone to me, and has to yell over the engine noise. We see the guy on the dock holding a cell phone to his ear and giving us instructions. On a cell phone! This is a boat, why don't you use VHF radio, which can be heard over the engines, like the rest of the world? Anyways, we got set in the slip, and while I connected the electrical hook-ups, Louise went up to the office to fill out more paperwork.

In the end, this was a really nice destination. The facilities were first-class and the people really nice, but a totally different world for sure.

One feature of this location we did not like was that it was not fully protected by the harbour break wall. There was a pretty steady swell coming through, and so we were rolling in our slip the entire time.

The harbour at Solomons Island Yacht Club.

There were some AGLCA harbour hosts here, and the docks were full of loopers. We had a really large docktails at the club, which provided a free drink to all loopers. We visited with Doug and Susan Smith, the local harbour hosts, who were super nice and who gave us some good info about Annapolis and the northern Chesapeake. We also met a number of other loopers we had not met before. We are meeting so many new loopers now that we are almost done.

Lots of loopers at the Solomons Island Yacht club. I think this was one of the largest docktails we have been in by far. We visited with the local harbour hosts, and a couple of boaters from Michigan.

Next morning we were on our own. Julie and Chris had decided to stay in Solomons Island a couple of extra days. They are Safe Harbour members, and as such can stay for free at Safe Harbour marinas for up to three days. Turns out there was a Safe Harbour nearby, and so they decided to spend a couple of days there. We don't get any discounts from SH, and those marinas tend to be a bit expensive, so we parted ways for a bit. We wanted to get moving to take advantage of the good weather window to Annapolis, since some nasty stuff was on the way.

We had super smooth conditions all day long, except when we passed a container ship. As luck would have it, we met in a narrow part of the bay, and so we were a little closer that we normally like to the ship. Close is relative here, as our closest point of approach as 1.5 km, but believe me, we prefer to be much further away from these things, especially when they are moving fast (AIS showed this guy doing almost 35 kmph). 

Views of the container ship as it approached and passed. We saw other ships heading towards Baltimore, but they were moving slower and their wakes were more of a gentle roll. This guy was outbound at 35 kmph and made a big wave.

As we passed, we kept a sharp eye out for the wake. As it approached, I slowed and turned into it, but turns out I didn't slow enough and we had a bit of a ride through it. Video below.

Going over the container ship wake. With a wave this big, you want to cross it at a slight angle. We had passed over a couple of other big wakes the previous day which were fairly smooth rides, so I got a bit complacent on this one. We took it a bit too perpendicular and I did not slow down enough, so we kind of crashed through. Turned out the past couple of days, the other ships were going about half the speed of this guy. At the end, you can hear Louise saying we have to do it all over again. As luck would have it we didn't, as we did not need to pass out the other side of the wake. After we crossed the channel we turned to a course parallel to his course and so never crossed the other side of the wake.

At this point we had to travel behind the containership to get to the far side of the channel. As we got to the centre of the channel, we passed through the turbulence from the ships passing. At this point, the ship was about 2 km away from us. The turbulence was so bad it messed with our depth sounder. All of a sudden, the depth finder went from showing a depth of 80 feet to a depth of 3 feet. We knew we were in deep water, a ship had just passed through, and the chart showed 80 to 90 feet, but still a bit of a pucker moment to see the depth finder showing shoal conditions! This lasted only a few minutes, and then the depth sounder began to work again. Yikes, the turbulence was off the chart. I have only seen that effect on the depth sounder a couple of times on the loop. Once in a really muddy section of the ICW, and once in the Mississippi.

Our arrival at Annapolis was surprisingly rocky. The harbour here was really busy, with lots of boats making wakes. A big change from the middle of the Chesapeake, which was nice and smooth. We trundled through the harbour, then had to wait a bit for a draw bridge to open. Once we passed through to the inner harbour, we got set in our slip at the South Annapolis Yacht Centre. This is a really nice facility, full of boats that look like they are (a) brand new (b) never used. Shortly after we got set up, another boat arrived which looked just like Stulie. Turned out they were docked beside us, and it was another looper couple aboard Bobbin Along (Gerry and Tiffany). We visited with them for a bit, then set off to get something to eat.

As we left the marina there were dark clouds rolling in and we could hear thunder. We made it to the restaurant before the storm, and as we were eating dinner we watched the deluge hit the city. We decided to take our time eating, and even had dessert. We timed it perfectly as we finished just as the storm finished and made it back to the boat before the next one rolled through.

The next day was a lazy day. Initially we had planned to visit the Academy, but we decided to take a break as we had just finished a couple of long days. Louise did laundry while I cleaned out the bilge. We talked with Gerry and Tiffany of Bobbin Along. Turned out he was a Naval Academy alumnist, and he volunteered to take us through the academy the next day. They were having a special muster in the morning, and then we planned to take a guided tour.

Some excellent restaurants here. The harbour is full of expensive boats, and the eating establishments are always packed. We overheard some people at another table discussing million-dollar deals.

A family of ducks visited us in the marina.

Checking the Academy website, it turned out that they had recently made changes to their security, and were no longer allowing foreigners to tour the grounds unless there were special circumstances. Oh well, easy come easy go. Gerry was disappointed, I think he was looking forward to showing us around his alma matter.

We broke out the scooters and did some shopping, and again went out for dinner, although this time at a different place. The area we are in is pretty high-end, lots of Audis, BMW's and similar cars around, and the restaurants were packed. Turns out this was the start of commissioning week, the graduation for the Naval academy. There were lots of events planned, including a Blue Angels show.

We picked up some non-alcohol beer at a local store. This stuff is not always easy to find, so we stock up when we get the chance. We were riding our scooters, and the cases would not fit in our backpacks, so we took the cans out of the cases to fit everything in. (A trick learned from Chrissie on the Miss K).

Looper bottled water.

This was a first. We are at a really nice marina in an expensive neighbourhood in a harbour filled with million-dollar boats. Well, the showers at the marina were outdoors! I think this is the first time we have seen outdoor showers on the loop. Did not expect that one here for sure. Too cold in the mornings to use it.

We awoke to blustery conditions. It was super windy, and even though we were in a well-protected place, the boat was rocking. The movement was not due to waves, rather it was purely wind. Strong gusts would push the boat sideways, which would then roll and recover. The result was like being in a rolling anchorage, even though we were securely tied to the dock. 

The Naval Academy was immaculate. Really nice campus, all the students dressed in white. Too bad we could only watch from the outside.

We broke out the scooters and went for a visit around downtown Annapolis. It was super windy, but once we got downtown, it became less noticeable. The roads and sidewalks here are made of brick, and are really narrow. There were parked cars on both sides of the street, so there was only room for one lane of traffic on most streets. You have to be patient to drive around here, as there always seems to be some kind of traffic jam. We walked by Ego Alley, which is the city-run marina right downtown, but with the nasty conditions there were only a couple of boats tied up. We passed a motorcycle club of some sort, lots of high-end bikes parked to show off. We also went by the Naval academy, but could not go in.

Gives you an idea of how narrow the streets are here. Most of them only have space for two cars to pass, and there are parked cars on every street. Some are one-way streets, but on the two-way streets you see that there is also only room for one lane at a time to pass.

Monument for Alex Haley, who wrote Roots.

On our way back to the boat we had to stop while they raised the drawbridge. It was super-windy, and nobody was moving around except for a couple of crazies in sailboats. The boaters going under the bridge were obviously having control problems, why they were leaving the dock I had no idea. Not a nice day for boating.

The wind had knocked a power line loose, and this loop was dangling at chest height across the sidewalk. Yikes!

We spent the afternoon lazing around again, I think we both napped a couple of times, then went to dinner with Gerry and Tiffany at a really nice restaurant that they suggested downtown. Turned out we talked so much that we were the last people out of the restaurant. I hope we didn't keep the staff too long. Afterward we visited with them aboard Bobbin Along. The name of their boat comes from their business, she used to own a quilting shop.

Our final day in Annapolis was another day mostly on the boat. I did some cleaning in the bilges and in the engine room, and afterward we cleaned the salon and re-organized some stuff. In the afternoon we did some last minute shopping. Conditions here have been super-windy since we arrived, so we are stuck in port. The winds have been pretty strong and gusty.

Boat Name of the Day: OOCL