New Jersey ICW or "I don't think I like boating anymore"

Annapolis - Cape May (via C&D Canal)

We left Annapolis early and had an uneventful trip up the Chesapeake and through the Chesapeake / Delaware canal into the Delaware River. Once in the Delaware, we decided to anchor for the night and use the tide/current to our benefit as much as possible, to get us to Cape May.

We found an anchorage and dropped the hook for the night. Gary was getting bitten alive by the ‘no-see-ums’ while on the bow and soon they found me too. I too am covered in bites; it takes a couple of days, then the itching starts…..pure torture.

Anyhow, where was I? Oh yes, ok, so we dropped the anchor and settled in for a nice peaceful night. NOT!!!! Large tankers (I mean 1000 Feet long!!) kept passing us all night and waked the living daylight out of us. Have you ever tried sleeping while your boat is violently being shaken from side to side?? Oh what pleasure boating is!! (Is the sarcasm coming through??) The wakes were so bad that we had water coming in through the aft water drains. Our carpet was soaked!!

Large tankers like this one passed by us during the night and
waked us all night long...
For those who don't know  "a Wake" is the wave that come from the boat as it travels.

Monsters!!

As soon as it got light we decided to get going. It was foggy but we managed and the trip down the dreaded Delaware, although long and boring, was over without any major incidents or breakdowns ( I am talking about me, not the boat/engines)

Look at the buoy, see the current?
And also, see how
GREY everything is? That is Jersey for you!

Ship John Shoal Light house with a
scallop boat next to it.

Cape May -New Jersey

Finally in Cape May and I was so happy, a nice safe intercostal waterway will take us all the way to Manasquan and then a last dreaded outside in the big ocean trip to NYC. Well, I have been wrong before but BOY was I WRONG this time….!

Cape May lighthouse

Anyhow, I digress…..

In Cape May we said a quick hello to our friends on SV Ishmael before they headed out to NYC. (Sailors are very brave people; they were going to do the “outside” all the way from Cape May to NYC in like 24 hours) Us power boaters (ok , me!!) are not. I am a sissy so I choose to do the safe inside route….

SV Ishmael

As soon as we anchored we realised we had made another mistake in choosing a spot. We were getting waked badly again and soon Gary and I pulled the anchor and headed into a better, safer NO WAKE ZONE! anchorage.

Gary says he doesn't mind getting waked by
boats like these....I DO!!!

Early the next morning (I mean EARLY- 5am) we got going to ride the high tide pass all the shallow areas we had been warned about. Thanks to notes and advice from fellow boaters we never touched bottom anywhere although there were some places that we came very close.

Work on repairing the damage done by Super Storm Sandy
in ongoing....

The Jersey shore is very built up area

More repairs being done

Some new land exposed by Sandy's surge?? Who knows?

Atlantic City

We arrived in Atlantic City and anchored near some big casinos that use their buildings as a large billboard to display ads. Not my idea of scenic but quite a sight. Then the wind picked up….and it howled all night long!!!

Notice the big casinos in the back and the shanty type buildings in front?

So, Gary took a picture of the display on the buildings but I accidently deleted it , so
I Googled a shot as seen from the anchorage, voila!
(To the person who took this picture, thank you!)

So, another night of not sleeping well.

Jersey ICW 2nd Day

We wanted to get to Manasquan to meet up with some fellow boaters who are also doing the “outside” trip to NYC. It is not a long day, perhaps a total of 40nm from the anchorage in Manasquan to the anchorage in NYC, but it is a trip one must plan well because the Atlantic Ocean is not a bath tub.

So even though it was foggy when we woke up we decided to get going to Manasquan. Wow. What a day. We now had much less information to go on and this part of the Jersey ICW was hit very hard by Sandy. An already notoriously shallow section of the ICW was now littered with debris from the super storm and channels are shoaled in by shifting sands and on top of this…. we had fog and wind. All in all, a fun day on the water for the Donovans (hopefully my sarcasm is coming through loud and clear!)

Someone's cottage by the "shore"?

The icing on the cake was when we came through Little Egg Harbour Inlet, with winds on the (always fun) beam; we were following our charts (obviously worthless since we got them before Sandy) and hit a shoal. The chart said the depth was 12 feet, the markers said we were in the right spot but still, there we were , just after high tide and hard aground on a shoal.

I suggested calling TowBoat US but Gary said it would take them an hour to get to us, by which time we would be lying on our side. So he threw the engines in reverse and got us out of there. It took some revving but as always the Captain got us through. Luckily the stuff we ran into was “that old grey much” as Gary calls it.

We should have stopped then but we wanted to get to Manasquan so we kept on going…..By this time the fog had cleared (sort of) and that meant that the winds were picking up. I had one of my moments where I told Gary that boating really wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be and then I cried a little. I think it had something to do with being tired from not sleeping well. At which time Gary decided it was time to get off the ever- increasingly bad waters and wind and into a safe anchorage.

To avoid getting waked again and perhaps getting a good night’s sleep for a change we took a 4 mile side trip up Toms River to an anchorage where we would wait out the very bad weather forecasted for the next few days. After we had our late lunch ….

Side note:  Slow cookers are great, when we leave in the mornings I throw things in the slow cooker and by the time we stop in the afternoon we have a nice cooked meal.

So after lunch we decided to relax and not 5 minutes later we heard an almighty loud siren….TORNADO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn’t believe my ears; this day was just getting better and better. We put the dingy in the water in case we needed it for a quick get-away and I called a local marina who much to my embarrassment informed me that it was just the local fire department ‘s siren signifying a fire/accident or something equally  non-life threatening to ME. I almost cried again.

So with winds forecasted in the 40MPH range in the next few days we are not going to make it to NYC till after the long weekend. I was looking forward to spending Memorial Day anchored off the Statue of Liberty, but then again I would rather be in Toms River New Jersey, safe and sound.

The River Lady
a paddleboat came past us at anchor and everyone on board waved at us
(Perhaps I do still like boating)

.............to be continued.

Washington or How spoilt are we???!!

Washington DC
Don and Monica SV Donna Lee , who we met in Marsh Harbour, took us on a tour of Washington DC. They spoilt us rotten!! Thank you guys, for a wonderful day and many great new memories.

The Whitehouse
The home of every president since John Adams.
(Tough to get to due to all kinds of security)

Jefferson Memorial

Smithsonian

WW2 Memorial

Reflective pool and Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial



The National Mall
555 Feet and 51/8inches tall it is the largest free standing stone structure
in the world. Dedicated on Feb 21, 1885 this monument stands in
tribute to the nation's first president and "The father of the USA"

In this temple as in the hearts of the people
for whom he saved the union
the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.

Looking out over from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument

Vietnam War

Vietnam Veterans Memorial
In honour of the men and women of the armed forces of the United
States who served in the Vietnam War.
The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing
are inscribed in the order they were taken

Here I am making rub of a Canadian who died in the Vietnam War
LARRY R COLLINS

Gary Monica and Don
Old Ebbit Grill
Located 2 blocks from the White House many presidents and
other high officials have eaten
Here since 1856.

Watergate hotel

Hall of States
Kennedy Center
Flags of the 50 United Sates are hung in the order
in which they entered the Union.
Also included are the flags of the District of Columbia and
the US Territories 

Memorial bust of JFK weighs 3000lbs

US Marine Corp War Memorial

US Capitol Building
At the U.S. Capitol Building the Senate and the House of Representatives
come together to discuss, debate and deliberate national policy;
develop consensus; and craft the country's laws.

Perhaps one of the most famous streets in the world

Chesapeake - Annapolis

Chesapeake Bay (or Let’s Rock and Roll)

A few days ago I sat down and looked at the charts trying to figure out where we are going.

I was shocked at the HUGENESS of Chesapeake Bay, seriously, I don’t know what I was thinking but it is way bigger than I thought. So I panicked! 

We met a lovely lady in Elizabeth City who sat down and went through the charts and gave us some hints as to where to anchor and so forth.

When I mentioned my fear of the open waters, she suggested waiting for a weather window……as always, the WEATHER!!!!

So after we left the Dismal swamp and said goodbye to new and old friends, we passed by Norfolk and anchored just short of the Chesapeake Bay entrance.

"Docktail" hour at the Dismal Swamp

...is for Lovers

Leaving the Dismal Swamp

A woman's work is never done, cleaning the boat



Very long trip....the flowers we smelt along the way were wonderful



Locking through with MV Spiritus and the FLM.




"Norfolk - Frequently mispronounced.
Properly "NAW-fuk".
Really. 
And make the second syllable as short as possible, almost "fk". 
Think of, "We don't drink. We don't smoke. Norfolk. Norfolk."
If you can make that come out in a humorous manner, you have it exactly right."

Now, I know many of you will ask why we bypassed Norfolk but frankly we are now in a hurry to get home, and besides we are going to be back here in a few months. (And I have seen enough military boats, planes and aircraft) Guess what I saw next?????



A Re-supply ship

A frigate

A large tanker being escorted by a 80 foot tug, big hey!

Hospital ship named Comfort

Aircraft carrier for vertical take off
planes

F18 on George W Bush aircraft carrier

A minion from Despicable me
floated over us while we were anchored near Norfolk

So on a cold and blustery day we set out into the Bay. It was rough and after about 2 miles we decided to turn around. As we turned around we saw another trawler leaving so we figured we were just being a couple of babies and turned back into the Bay once again. After about 8 miles we decided finally that we had had enough rocking and rolling, so I checked my charts and found a nice little anchorage.

Here I was wearing the cap Anna made for me, under my
hoodie and the big fluffy towels that Tammy and Steve gave us, over my legs
and shoulders.
(Not very glamorous but toasty warm)
It was so cold we could see our breath ....

As we approached the entrance to the creek, a guy in a little John boat started frantically waving his arms in the air. Now what?? Turns out they were dredging the channel and he needed to get some of his gear out of the way, a few minutes later we were escorted into the shallow creek, we dropped the hook and looked around us at the flat calm water. One wouldn’t have known it was bouncy in the bay; it was so nice and flat calm in the creek.



The guys dredging the channel escorted us pass the shallow areas into
the nice protected harbour in Salt Pond

It was still early so we went back to bed. When we woke up we decided to lift the anchor and give the Bay another shot. We were able to do another 35 miles until we decided, enough, so we headed into yet, another creek to drop the hook.

Now this creek didn’t have any nice guys dredging her so guess what? We ran aground, not hard, just touched a little and thank goodness it is all sand bottom. So in between weaving our way through damn crab pots and checking the charts and depth sounder for depth ( by the way, I believe the charts are wrong  and I blame Hurricane Sandy for shifting so much sand around)we made it in safe and sound.

The anchorage was so calm and quiet we forgot we were on a boat as we drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, on the way out of the creek we hit another sand bay (also NOT on our charts) but the skipper kept a cool head and soon were in deeper waters and away from all those crab pots.

Ok just a word to all you CRAB eaters out there….do you know what a pain in the A$$ crab pots are?????!!!

Crabbers

Sorry, yet another wonderful sunrise.

The weather started off yucky but actually improved as the day progressed so we decided to cross the Potomac river and head to Solomon’s to anchor for the night.

Solomons

We anchored in a creek near Solomons and after a long day on the water we went right to sleep.

Early the next morning a text from Gerry on MV Teaghlach informed us of the bad weather that was expected for the day so we decided to stay put. They had rented a car for the day and invited us to go and do some shopping and sightseeing with them. We jumped at the opportunity to get off the boat and stretch our legs a little.

Drum Point/Cove Point Light house
Solomons Maryland

Calvert Marine Museum
Solomons



A VERY cool place to visit in Solomons



Mermaid Christelle

Yummy Oysters!!




Pirate Gary

Annapolis

On Wednesday 15 May we left Solomon's and had a smooth, calm, flat Bay all the way to Annapolis. Here we at last caught up with our friends the Mortensens on SV Flying Free who we last saw in November.

The Bay bridge - Annapolis

Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse

MV Teaghlach in front of a huge tanker



The Chapel at the Annapolis Naval Academy

A fisherman just dropped this off for us, Gary filet it and now we have
fresh fish to eat.

Our dear friend Henning



Beware the Goat, yes, seriously, a goat is a mascot for the
Navy football team.

Chapel

A copy of the first plane -Wright brothers

Annapolis Naval Academy, only the best of the
best make it in to this school

Naval Cadets called Mid-ship men



Narrow alleyway

Annapolis

We had met many sailors from Annapolis in the Bahamas and they said to look them up when we got here, so we did.
We are blown away by the amazing hospitality:
Our thanks to Sharon and Pete , SV Kankita, Jim and Ann  SV  Ubiquitous , Diane and Mike SV Varmit , Dawn and Ron SV Dawntreader  
               
                                              THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DID FOR US.!!

Gary, Jim, Mike, Ron
Christelle, Ann, Diane, Dawn



Ego Alley - Annapolis



The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial

The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial commemorates the place                      
of arrival of Alex Haley's African ancestor, Kunta Kinte, to the New World, as told in the book Roots.
It is located in Annapolis, Maryland at the head of the City's harbor.
This Memorial is the only memorial in the United States that commemorates the actual name and place
of arrival of an enslaved African. It portrays in word and symbol Alex Haley's                      
vision for national racial reconciliation and healing, and symbolizes in Kunta Kinte and his descendants
 the triumph of the human spirit in very difficult times.
The Memorial includes a sculpture group of a seated Alex Haley reading from a book on his lap to three children of different ethnic backgrounds.
As he stretches his hand toward the Chesapeake Bay, he tells his family's story and the story of the Annapolis port, a symbolic Ellis Island for African Americans.