Summary

We were gone 130 days from January 7th until May 16th, 2013. We traveled approximately 4000 miles in total. We traveled 458 miles in the Bahamas. We put 491.6 hours on the motor & 211.7 hours on the generator. We used 2135 gallons of fuel at a cost of $ 9046.23  The cheapest fuel was $ 3.48 at Jarrett Bay in North Carolina & the most expensive was $ 5.68 at Green Turtle Club in the Bahamas. 

Our average speed was 8.1 mph. We had no major failures or problems. We experienced only some minor issues & Al was able to quickly fix them all.

Things I couldn't keep track of: all the great people we met, the sunrises & sunsets we saw, the number of dolphin that played in our wake, all the different wildlife we saw, the number of days the wind blew too hard, the number of crab pots we had to dodge, the number of waves that scared the hell out of us, the number of sailboaters that got mad at us because we passed them too fast.

IT WAS A GREAT TRIP & A HELL OF AN ADVENTURE!

HOME

We left Atlantic City at sunrise hoping it would be calm. There were big waves in the inlet & I was starting to get nervous as we were heading out. Once we got out past the inlet, it was much calmer. The waves were 5-6 ft. with some 7-8ft., but they were widely spaced & smooth. They hit us on the starboard stern quarter, so we were rolling all day. I got seasick once again & Hooper didn't look so hot. Thank goodness Al never gets seasick. We were originally thinking of stopping at Manasquan, but once we were out in the ocean we decided to just push through for 10 hours & go home. When we got to Jones Inlet it looked impassable. All we saw were big breaking waves & lots of white water. The marked channel looked extremely shallow. Luckily we saw 2 fishing boats heading in the inlet. Al called them on the VHF for advice. Finally one of the captains got back to us. He told us the inlet was really bad & the buoys were never moved to mark the deep water. He had gone in along the western side right off Point Lookout, but said the waves were too big for us to go that way. The other fishing boat went in on the eastern side, right along the rocks. He advised us to follow that route & stay really close to the rocks. We took that route & had 10ft. of water. Al had to run the motor wide open to ride a wave in. Al called it a real "ass pucker" moment. Once inside the inlet it was a real easy & calm ride to our house. It was the first time we could relax all day. Hooper cried when he saw his house & yard. He couldn't wait to get off the boat & run in his yard.

After all of our travels, our favorite place to tie-up is at our home in Massapequa. 

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

JI bouy outside Jones Inlet

Atlantic City

We took a gamble and went the inside route (ICW) from Cape May to Atlantic City. We really didn't have much choice since once again it was very windy & the ocean was forecast to be very rough. We would rather face low water & low bridges instead of big rough ocean waves & wondering if the boat will break.

The New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway is very protected, however, very shallow, with many areas 

3-4ft. at low tide. It is recommended to only travel these waters on a rising tide.

We knew to travel these waters on a rising tide, but we started out a little too early. An hour into our journey we hit bottom. We were right in the middle of the marked channel. Fortunately we were going slow & the bottom was soft mud. Al was able to back the boat off into deeper water without damage. We backtracked & tied to a pole to wait for the tide to come in some more. We had breakfast while we waited. While waiting a local guy in a small boat came over to offer help. He told us the water was deeper way over on the right side of the channel. We tried it again & were able to get through. The whole rest of the day Al had his eyes glued to the depth gauge & his hand on the throttle to slow down if needed. In many areas there was only 5-6 ft. of water at high tide. When we got to Atlantic City Al needed a strong cocktail to calm his nerves. We stayed at the Farley State Marina at the Golden Nugget.

We looked at the chart & saw that there was no way we could continue north on the inside. The ICW north of Atlantic City in some spots is only 3-4ft. at high tide. From here we will have to go out in the ocean.

Delaware Bay

Delaware Bay is a passage of 50 miles from the C& D Canal to the Atlantic Ocean that is studded with shallow waters & sandbars outside of the shipping channels. The Bay is notorious for building up short, choppy seas quickly and creating rougher weather than local reports may indicate. Currents can run up to 3 knots.

Tim, the owner of Delaware City Marina, is known locally to be a very good predictor of wind & waves on Delaware Bay. He convinced us to stay an extra day because he thought it would be too windy out on the Bay. He was so concerned about us leaving that he gave us free dockage & said we only had to pay $10 dollars for electric. We are glad we listened to him. Even though we waited an extra day for the wind to calm down, the waves were still bigger than expected. We had a good cruising day because the waves were right on our stern, so we really didn't feel them. Plus we got a big extra boost in speed because we timed the tide right & went with the current right down the bay.

Leaving Delaware City Marina at sunrise.

There were lots of tugs with barges & big ships throughout the Bay.

Lighthouse

Entering the Cape May Canal in New Jersey.

Ferries run across Delaware Bay from Cape May, NJ to Lewes, DE.

This is an old train bridge. Don't ever take a train to Cape May, NJ. This bridge looks so rusty that I think it would collapse if a train went over it.

We stayed at the South Jersey Marina in Cape May, New Jersey. We used our bikes to ride around & see the town. We bypassed Cape May when we were heading south in January. You can just tell that this place must be jam packed with people in the summer. Cape May is reputed to be " the nation's oldest seashore resort."  The entire town has been proclaimed a National Historic Landmark. Cape May likely has the largest collection of Victorian period houses in the country.

Chesapeake

We made it to Portsmouth, Virginia, and pulled into Tidewater Yacht Marina. There are military ships everywhere in varying stages of repair or waiting to be deployed. This area is considered to be Mile Zero, the "official" beginning of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Next we will travel up the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay stretches 200 miles, north to south, and is 30 miles across at it's widest point. The weather forecast looks really bad, so we will stay put for the next 3 days & go sightseeing in Portsmouth & Norfolk.

The forecast finally looked good so we ventured out into the Chesapeake. We had planned on going to Deltaville. Well the forecast was wrong! The wind & waves really picked up, and we got beaten up once again. In fact it was so bad, I got really seasick for the first time in my life. It's not a good feeling. Hooper didn't look so hot himself, plus he was shaking because he was so scared. We headed for shelter on the York River & had to go 10 miles up the river to find calm water & a marina. We ended up at York River Yacht Haven. It really turned out to be a safe haven for us after a bad day on the water.

Thankfully the weather was good the next day & we could continue up the Chesapeake. The water was fairly calm, but the waves continued to grow throughout the day, but they were on the stern & we were pretty comfortable. We had to change our course slightly to hug the western shore because the Navy was conducting live-fire drills right in the middle of the Chesapeake. You would think that they would do this stuff out in the ocean. We ended up at Zahniser's Yachting Center in Solomons, Maryland.

The next day was nice & calm. We went to Rock Hall Landing Marina, MD. It was an easy day because we didn't have to fight the waves today, but we still had to zig zag through hundreds of crab pots & fishing boats.

We had dinner at Waterman's Crab House & Restaurant. We enjoyed a delicious bucket of steamed crabs, shrimp, clams, mussels, potatoes & corn. It seemed like the bucket was bottomless. It took us a long time to peel & eat dinner. The crabs were a lot of work, but worth it. I guess it's worth dodging crab pots all day, when you can enjoy them for dinner.

Tomorrow we will go through the Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D) canal. The C& D canal provides a 12 mile passage between Delaware Bay & Chesapeake Bay. 

We stayed at the Delaware City Marina. We'll have to spend several days here, because once again the weather forecast is terrible, with extremely high winds. We're getting so close to home, but it's taking a long time because the weather just won't cooperate.