Our day in Atlantic City was cold, wet and miserable. It rained all day, and the wind was just enough to give the drops a sideways trajectory, ensuring maximum soakage when you went out. Early in the morning, a couple of fast-mover looper boats left to try their luck outside on the Atlantic. Brave souls, the weather apps showed waves building to 6 feet starting in late morning. We followed them on Nebo, and noticed that the Coast Guard issued a small craft warning when they were about half way to New York. Yeesh.
Looper catamaran with a really distinctive wrap. Everything was outrageous on this boat, the fenders were neon orange, the lines were bright orange and purple, and the name was pretty unique - Kantinsky
Louise decided to do laundry in the morning. The marina here was really big, and there are laundry stations at either side of the basin. We hauled the laundry through the pouring rain to one of these stations, whereupon Louise could not get the machines to work. Some were unplugged, while the others would not accept coins. She called the marina office only to be told that they would send someone to take a look. They did not give her any other kind of info or instructions.
So, she decided to try to try the other laundry shack at the other end of the basin. We schlepped the laundry bags over - why is it that the rain increases when you go out in it? - and once again she could not get the machines to take coins. We looked closer at the coin slots, which had the instruction "some slots take 2 coins". It turned out that you had to feed $2.25 (9 quarters) into the machine that only had 5 slots. You do this by doubling up quarters in four of the slots with a single in the other. To add to the fun, some slots were blocked, so you had to figure out the "code". She eventually got it and the machines worked. Sucked to have to walk in the pouring rain several times - we were both soaked at that point - but at least this laundry station was much cleaner than the first one.
So, the cost of a load of laundry here was $2.25. You had to use quarters, and they did not have nine slots to hold them. Instead, you put two quarters in some of the slots, and one in others. There was a guide at the top, but some of the slots were blocked off so it took some trial and error to decipher the code.
After doing laundry, we had linner with the crews of C& C Water, Pelican, Dolly and Madi Hati at a restaurant in a nearby casino. We were treated to the worst service we have experienced on the loop. They seemed to have a gift to know what you wanted and to do something else. Anyway, we got through it, left a really small tip, then met briefly with the crews of Dolly and Madi Hati to plan the next day's journey. Steve had found a nice marina for us in Barnegat that had space for everyone, so we planned to go through the ICW to get there.
Linner with C C & Water - Curt and Cheryl, Float's crew - Louise and Bill, Jill and Paul of Pelican, Maria and Steve of Dolly, Trish and Roy of Madi Hati.
After our planning session, we returned back to the boat to binge watch more Bosch while the rain continued to pour.
Took advantage of the soaking we got from the rain to clean the spider poop off the helm window. Yeah, that's all spider poop on the paper towel.
Although there is an inside route through New Jersey, which protects you from the Atlantic, most loopers do not use it. It has a reputation for being poorly maintained, and for shoaling, with tight spaces and all kinds of nasty things. Since Annapolis, a main topic of conversation with other loopers has been if the ICW here is safe to transit. We had all researched the route, and thought we could do it. I think what sealed the deal was that two other loopers had done the route and posted their GPS tracks on Facebook, so we could use them like a Bob423 track to help us.
Low-lying cloud on the morning we left Atlantic City, we had good visibility at water level, but you could not see the tops of the casinos here.
We left the marina at 8:30 in the morning to catch the rising tide, which would give us an extra foot or two of depth. We left with Dolly and Madi Hati, and along the way we met up with Pelican. The trip was uneventful, and we made it to Key Harbour marina shortly after lunch. The channel is narrow and shallow in some spots, but to be honest it was no worse than some other places we have seen on the loop.
iFloat cruising the Jersey ICW on a cold, rainy grey day.
We were all a bit stressed due to our fear of the ICW, but it turned out to be no worse than the southern ICW, the Rideau or the Trent. We had no issues whatsoever. Getting into the marina was a stress reliever, but looking back on it, it was not difficult at all. What difficulty there was was due to all the lore about how bad the Jersey ICW was. Everyone else was warning us we would all die if we took the ICW.
Trish from Madi Hati recorded our track and made a video about the voyage. She chose the perfect music, make sure you have the sound on.
We went for linner with Trish and Roy of Madi Hati, then Louise went shopping with Trish, while I had another conference call back on the boat. Louise took her scooter, while Trish rode her bike. Back on the boat, we watched some TV then turned in early (as usual).
Had the pirate burger. What is it with boaters and pirates? We see lots of pirate flags on boats, Why would someone who is older than 12 want a pirate flag on their boat, or their burger? Arrrrrr.
Woke up early next morning to the sound of robins chirping, first ones we have heard so far this spring. Checking weather - always the first thing to do while coffee is brewing - we saw a weather window on the Atlantic to get to New York on Monday (this was a Friday). Score! Spent the next half hour checking weather and tides to firm up the possibility. The forecast was for crap weather until Sunday, so we would have to wait and travel to the Point Pleasant area on Sunday to stage for going out on the Atlantic on Monday. The ICW ends at Point Pleasant, so we have to make the rest of the trip to New York outside on the Atlantic. We have been warned about boat traffic on weekends in the Jersey ICW, full of wankers on boats who know nothing, care about nothing, and are likely under the influence, but if we leave super-early in the morning we should miss the worst of it.
Planning session with Trish and Roy.
We invited the crews of Dolly, Madi Hati and Pelican over to our boat to plan. Pelican ended up going ahead to Point Pleasant as they had arranged for someone to look at their generator there. Dolly moved to another marina a few km away, as they needed to provision and the place we were at was a little far from the grocery store. They do not have bikes, and so must walk to get stuff. We stayed behind with Madi Hati.
The yard was super-busy here getting boats launched and ready. This boat got hauled out for a bottom wash. Here you can see what sitting in ocean water gives you.
After being pressure washed. We are not really concerned about our boat's bottom. We are constantly moving, so anything that grows should be sloughed off our bottom paint. Once we get into fresh water we should not have big growth problems, and the salt water stuff will die off. Any we do have will be pressure washed off when we haul the boat for winter.
The day was spent lazing around the boats and napping. In mid-afternoon some locals showed up and began setting up their boat beside us. They played really good music really loud, so we got to enjoy some good music for the afternoon. Mostly when you hear someone's music these days it is complete autotune crap (rhymes with rap) played loud to the point of distortion. These guys were our age, so they played the perfect music selection. Took us back to the days when music was the best for sure.
After supper we went for a bike ride with Trish and Roy to a local pharmacy as Trish needed to pick up some things. There was a really nice bike path that went through the woods parallel to the town. The town had taken an old railway and added fine gravel to make a nice groomed bike trail. Really impressed with how well-done it was. After going to CVS, we back-tracked to an ice cream place, then headed back to the boat. Louise met the people beside us when she went out at dusk to hunt spiders. She likes to take her spider catcher out at dusk to remove as many as she can. Recently we have had a really large one hiding in the windshield wiper of our helm window. She makes big black blobs of poop on the windows, so bye-bye (next morning I saw that two other spiders had moved in, the cycle begins again).
The slips here all had car access. Everybody had some kind of gazebo behind their boat set up as a kind of patio. A few people were hanging out, and we got to talk to a couple of local couples, but the rain chased everybody inside pretty early in the day.
Overnight we had a lot of heavy rain, which hopefully washed a lot of the salt off the boat. In the morning the winds picked up and the boat was rocking pretty well due to it being pushed around by the wind. We took advantage of the crap weather by doing some boat chores. While Louise went out to do laundry, I took the opportunity to do an engine inspection. This requires moving things around in the salon, so I try to do it when Louise goes out. After crawling around the engine for a bit, appeared that all was OK, so the next chore was to service the batteries.
We have two types of batteries on the boat. Starter batteries are connected to the engine and generator. These batteries are automotive type batteries that can provide a lot of amps over a short time span. They are sealed flooded-lead-acid chemistry. We chose these because they are inexpensive and match the voltages of our house batteries. Our house batteries run everything on the boat that is not an engine. All the fridges, lights, pumps and systems are connected to these. The house batteries on our boat are are high-end golf cart batteries. These are designed to provide power over a long period of time, and can store much more "usable" amps than the starter batteries can. These golf carts are old-school flooded-lead-acid batteries that require maintenance. Over time, the water in these batteries is slowly lost - the water is split into hydrogen and oxygen by a small over-voltage that is an unavoidable part of battery charging, and the formation of these two gasses "removes" the water from the batteries. Because we have really good quality batteries, the amount of water loss is really small, but we are constantly using our batteries so the loss adds up. About once a month I add water to these batteries to keep them in tip-top shape.
The batteries, like everything else on the boat, are in a confined space which requires some boat-yoga to access. For safety, all of the systems connected to the batteries are shut off when I do this, so it has to be done using flashlight illumination. I use an old measuring cup to add distilled water to each cell up to the full mark. Kind of awkward with bifocals as I have to turn my head at an angle to hold things in focus while making sure that I keep my glasses in between the battery acid and my eyeballs.
We spent the rest of the day watching TV, reading or snoozing. At least three different storms came through during the day, and the local weather service issued a tornado warning in the afternoon. The marina was hosting a Jimmy Buffet event, and they had a live band in their restaurant, so we went there for dinner. The restaurant here was BYOB. Each state has different rules about alcohol. In New Jersey, they limit the number of liquor licenses in each area. Apparently these licenses are also really expensive, so it was not worth it for this restaurant to apply for one. Instead, they allow you to bring your own beverages, so we did.
The band was a couple who sang lots of beach music, especially anything Jimmy Buffet.
When we got to the restaurant, it was packed. However, the patio was closed due to the crappy weather, so the staff brought in some tables from the patio to accommodate more people. These were all shaped like surf boards.
They brought in the tables from the patio. The place was full, so the staff decided to bring the tables from the patio into the restaurant.
It was pretty breezy the next morning when we got up to go. Normally, we would not be leaving in winds this high, but the route we were going to take would limit the fetch so we would not get rocked too badly by waves. We also figured that the conditions would limit local boat traffic, making an easier run for us. As it turned out, everything went smoothly. We went in a flotilla with Dolly and Madi Hati.
Arriving at our destination was kind of unusual. We had called earlier about slips at a state park dock, Trader's Cove, and asked about slips for all of us. They told us there was only room for three boats, and since Pelican had already arrived, only two boats could tie up. We agreed that Madi Hati and Dolly should take the dock spaces, while iFloat would anchor somewhere nearby. Their boats have different power requirements than ours, so we were better placed to anchor overnight from an electrical point of view. However, when we got to the marina, we could see that the dock was huge and also empty, so we decided to ask if they could shuffle boats around to squeeze us in. Always best to ask just in case.
Once Dolly and Madi Hati got set, Trish contacted us to say that she had asked the dock guy, and we should also be able to fit if we tied to the railings. Strange, the dock was really big with lots of space - why tie to a railing? Turned out whoever built the dock only installed a handful of cleats on it, and so there were only spaces for three boats. They put in lots of power pedestals, so lots of places to plug in, but only a few places to tie to. Weird. Anyway, we tied up to the railings. The dock guy was not sure this was OK, but he let us do it temporarily, and said he would check with the boss to see if it was OK and let us know. Turned out they let us stay - they were all super-nice, and even interested in the loop.
The next adventure was trying to pay. We don't carry a lot of cash, we normally pay everything by credit card. Well, the marina was a municipal marina that had only recently installed an electronic credit card system, and it was not yet fully operational. Apparently they used to do everything with paper, but now the city had decided to modernize. The system had been installed only a couple of days earlier, and they could not get it to work. Eventually they managed to get the system to behave enough that the other boats could pay, but their system would not accept our Canadian credit card. Whoever set the computer up, only set it up for U.S. users. You had to input an address, and the address would only allow zip codes, not postal codes. We have run into this many times on the loop, but can usually work around it. In this case however, there was no work around, so in the end we had to borrow some cash from Roy to pay for the slip. Crisis averted.
Super long dock with tons of empty space and lots of power outlets. Only problem, there were only 8 cleats on the whole dock. They advertised that they could handle boats up to 65 feet long, but I think there is a disconnect between the marketing guys and the people who built the docks.
Here you can see how we tied up to the railings. Pretty ugly, but functional.
Gotta say the facilities here were top-notch. Their transient docks were beautiful. We talked with a couple of local boaters who made the same observations, big, long, brand new dock with lots of power pedestals but only a few cleats. Like yacht clubs, it seems that municipal marinas have quirks. Municipal places seem like the person making the decisions has no experience with marinas, or knowledge of day to day operations. They just provide stuff to the staff who have to figure it out.
Ever since we have been in salt water, we have seen crab pot floats. It seems like everyone sets out traps for them. Here is one that was caught by a kid who set out a trap beside the dock. They were not sure they were going to keep it because of its size. To make sure it is legal size they had to measure it from point to point on the carapace.
One more quirk here was the transient lounge. They had this huge lounge just for transients, and only 3 transient spaces. We went to the lounge after dinner with the crews of Pelican, Dolly and Madi Hati to plan for the next day. Pelican had to stay to get their generator fixed, but the rest of us were heading out in the morning for New York.
After meeting in the lounge, Paul and Jill invited us onto Pelican for a drink. We visited with them for a bit, then turned in early so we would be fresh for the run in the Atlantic the next day.
Boat name of the day: Katinsky
