Holiday Week-end

Friday 5/27/11     A great day started for Pam by being able to sleep in. I on the other hand woke up at 5:15am when a fishing boat went by. Once we were both up and ready for the day we took a hike towards the downtown area of Cape May in search of her "Painted Ladies". It's a walk not for the weak limbed but pleasant if you have the time. It wasn't long before we were passing a few of the Ladies.

Painted Ladies of Cape May, NJ.
Once downtown we found the street closed off and turned into a pedestrian way. Something I've always thought our home town of Galena should do with their Main Street. Of course it was lined with restaurants with outdoor seating. Ice cream shops. The obligatory t-shirt shops. And all the other establishments you'd expect to find in a tourist town. We found DQ!

Downtown Mall.

Pam also found this crab she thought wanted his picture taken with her!
From there it wasn't far to the beach at Cape May complete with cabanas. The wind was blowing pretty good so occupancy was down a bit.

Empty cabanas @ Cape May.

On our way back to Tourist we stopped at the Lobster House restaurant and fish market and picked up some fresh fish for later consumption. We had eaten there the night before and it was one of Pam's favorite meals of the trip but I can't remember what she had ordered. The rest of the day was devoted to relaxing.

Pam waiting for me to snap the photo.
Just found out that Snookie is in Italy. No celebrity sightings for us as we travel the Jersey Shore.

Saturday 5/28/11     With the forecast for warm temps, 3' seas, and a possible thunderstorm we decided to stick our nose out into the ocean and check conditions for ourselves. Others were going out as well, an encouraging sign. Once into open water it wasn't bad. The seas were 3' but coming from the south which made for a pleasant though rolly ride up the coast.

View over the bow.

View off the stern while travelling off the Jersey coast.
We passed Ocean City with it's carnival rides along the boardwalk  and before long we pulled into Atlantic City to find an anchorage. A couple of our resources showed a protected anchorage to starboard just before the bridge. Once we got to the entrance it looked a little too shallow and narrow to try and get back into so plan B went into effect. Anchor right off Harrah's Resort Casino in 15' of water.

Tourist in Atlantic City.
Once the traffic picked up we got bounced around some but not terribly. Still going forward I would bypass AC. The Trump Marina wanted $4.00 a foot to tie up for the night and neither Pam nor I are gamblers. We did put the dinghy in and take a ride. We checked out the anchorage we wanted and found out that at high tide we could have gotten in although still a tight fit. We also rode past the Trump Marina and it looked like half the slips were empty.

Trump Marina.
A highlight of the day was seeing Donald Trump's helicopter fly right over us and land on top of the Taj Mahal. There are a couple of restaurants on the water that you can get to by boat but that's about it. Can you tell I'm not a fan of Atlantic City? Never have been. If you're a gambler it's probably a great destination just not for us.

Night view from our anchorage.
Sunday 5/29/11     An early departure found us back on the ocean by 6:15am. Conditions were similar to yesterday so a nice ride up the coast. We decided to make the Sandy Hook area our destination. When we came around the point at Sandy Hook it was a minefield of fishing boats of all sizes covering the water. A few more miles and we pulled into Atlantic Highlands Marina for fuel. At $3.75 a gallon probably the last fuel we'll get under $4.00. The dock hands were kids right out of the Jersey Shore who never quit talking to each other about their personal exploits even while handing you a line. By the time we were done there was a line of boats waiting to get fuel.
We pulled away from the dock and went back to the end of the breakwater and anchored for the remainder of the day and night and watched the boats coming in and out. When the haze lifted we could see the Verrazano Narrows bridge in the distance.

Monday 5/30/11     Happy Memorial Day. Thank You Troops!

The weather radar showed a line of thunderstorms moving our way so we stayed in position awaiting it's arrival. The sky got dark. The winds picked up, and the rain came. We weren't alone in the anchorage and one unlucky couple in a small boat with a cuddy cabin got hit by a cruiser who's anchor drug causing them to come out in the rain to get their lines untangled. All this is happening right in front of us. Fortunately they drifted past us.

The rain quit and the system moved out leaving a sharp breeze that made the water a bit choppy. Not wanting to dodge the fishing boats we pulled anchor before too many were on the water. Our destination, the Statue of Liberty and the anchorage right behind it. We cruised away from Atlantic Highlands aiming for the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Traffic was light as we passed under the bridge.

Verrazno Narrows Bridge

New York skyline.
Of course by now we could see the skyline of the city in the distance. We passed the Staten Island ferry terminal and into New York Harbor. Ships anchored on both sides of the channel and pushing against the outgoing current we moved on to Lady Liberty. Awesome! How lucky are we to be here in her shadow on Memorial Day! After a couple of pictures we followed the marked channel back into our anchorage. A calm spot in the middle of one of the busiest harbors in the world. The only way onto the Liberty island is by ferry so we satisfied ourselves by having cocktails on our  bow while sitting in the presence of the great Lady. Proud to be an American!

Staten Island ferry.

Dockwise Transport ship anchored.

Lady Liberty.

View from our anchorage.

Even this family of geese enjoyed Memorial Day in our quiet anchorage.

Chillin on Memorial Day. Cheers!

Jersey Shore

Tuesday 5/24/11     We decided to stay another day in Baltimore to catch up on laundry and pick up a few groceries. Since the laundry is in the basement of the Rusty Scupper restaurant we thought it would be a good way to kill two birds with one stone. Laundry is laundry but lunch was great! The down side is the walk from Tourist to the Scupper toting the laundry. The up side is the walk. Right at the base of Federal Hill and along the edge of the harbor.

Flag over Federal Hill.

Looking at Tourist with Baltimore in the background.

Wednesday 5/25/11     7:30a.m. and the lines were cast off. We idled out of Baltimore and under the Francis Scott Key Bridge headed back to the Chesapeake.

Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The bay was calm as we entered and headed north. We made a quick stop in Bohemia Bay for fuel and then back out into the narrowing upper reaches of the Chesapeake. It wasn't long before we entered the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal where we we picked up speed courtesy of the tide moving in our direction. A few miles in and we pulled into the harbor at Chesapeake City to anchor for the night. This is one of the few places to stage for the next leg to Cape May, NJ. By the time we went to sleep there were 9 boats anchored plus a few more at the free dock. Our position enabled us to see the canal and any traffic passing by.

Chesapeake City Harbor before most of the boats showed up.

Ship passing Chesapeake City.

Thursday 5/26/11     After one of the calmest nights at anchor we've had we pulled out onto the C&D Canal and headed East enjoying the calm water and passing under the bridges spanning the canal.

Bridges over the C&D Canal. Notice the calm water.

They have lights on both sides of the canal the entire length of it.

Once we hit the Delaware River it was hard to imagine Washington crossing it while standing in the bow of a rowboat. The predicted 1 foot waves were more like 3 to 5 foot on the nose. Not terrible but we needed to hang on when moving about to answer the call of nature. Spray covered the boat as we plowed through the waves. The short video doesn't do justice to the amount of spray we were generating.

Delaware River.

72 miles after leaving Chesapeake City we pulled into the Cape May Canal passing the Cape May Ferry terminal and ending up at Utsch's Marina to spend a couple nights.

Cape May ferry terminal.

Utsch's Marina. Cape May, NJ.

Now let's find Snookie!

A Little More Annapolis and on to Baltimore

Saturday 5/21/11 continued       Saturday the crowds in Annapolis exploded. At times we couldn't step off the boat without moving a couple people. As the day grew on the sea wall beside Tourist became a popular spot because of the shadow she was casting.

As much as the pedestrian traffic grew, so did the water traffic on Ego Alley. Everything from kayaks to cruisers to go fasts. Fortunately for us we were somewhat blocked by the water taxis which loaded right behind us. Unfortunately for one trawler operator trying to back into a slip he hit the throttles instead of the shifter and knocked a piling into the side of the boat next to him causing one of the passengers to get medical attention. It's a wonder that more mishaps don't occur because of the narrowness of the alley.

Another advantage of our location was getting to see everyone get off the water taxi. While we were sitting on the back of the boat people watching I heard a call come into the Taxi requesting a pick-up of 4 people from the yacht Sophie which was anchored in the harbor.

M/V Sophie

The yacht, a Trumpy, is owned by Greta Van Sustrand and her husband and despite my pleas to Pam to leave her alone a picture was taken shortly after they got off the taxi.

Greta with her back to us, next to Tourist.

The week-end started the graduation festivities for the Naval Academy and Saturday night was the ring dance. On our tour Pam asked if any of the Midshipmen ever failed to get a date for the dance. Our guide assured her that that didn't happen. From the number of young women walking around I would say that most could of had two dates if they wanted. All in all it was a quite impressive site watching the Midshipmen in their dress whites and their dates walk by in all their finery.

Sunday 5/22/11    In an effort to get out of Dodge before the natives got restless we pulled out of Ego Alley at 6:15 am and headed to Baltimore.

Leaving Annapolis.

Warship anchored outside of Annapolis.

William P. Lane Bridge.

Passing on 1 whistle between Annapolis and Baltimore.

Fort McHenry as we enter Baltimore.

We arrived at the Baltimore City Docks at 9:45am and got settled in. At $1.50 a foot quite a bargain considering it's location right in the heart of Baltimore's Inner Harbor area. Plenty of Tourist attractions as well as eating establishments and only 3 blocks from Camden Yard, the home of the Baltimore Orioles pro baseball team.

Baltimore Inner Harbor.

Following a nap we prepared for guests. That's right. For the 2nd time since we left Florida we are going to be visited by Kurt & Tina. I think they're stalking us!
Other than their arrival the highlight of the day was watching the trash boat collecting the floating trash in the harbor.

Baltimore Trash Boat.

Our guests showed up late in the afternoon after driving up from D.C. Of course Pam was ready with snacks. Kurt & Tina are new grandparents and it wasn't long before the two grandma's were showing each other their baby pictures.

Monday 5/23/11     Following morning coffee we set off strolling around the Inner Harbor area. We walked past the USS Constellation. The lightship Chesapeake. And the WWII submarine Torsk.

USS Constellation

Chesapeake and USS Torsk

We continued on to Little Italy and found an Irish Pub. After begging them to open we found ourselves inside having Bloody Mary's.

Are you taking our picture?

Our next stop was a couple blocks away for lunch in an Italian restaurant which was very good and filling. Good thing we are walking!

Our lunch stop.

After a few more stops it was time to head back to Tourist so the visitors could gather their things and head back to D.C. to fly home.

Time to go.

See you next month?

With daylight left to burn Pam & I decided to walk back and tour the Constellation.

They wouldn't let Pam climb up to the crows nest.

The gun deck.

Crew's hammocks.

Captain's quarters.

Low headroom!

We made it back to Tourist in time to have dinner before settling in to watch D.W.T.S.

On To Annapolis

Wednesday 5/18/11      Up and headin out by 6:05 am towards the Bay. As we passed Dozier's Marina we fell in behind a 48' Krogen setting a comfortable pace. Unlike yesterday the bay was a bit smoother with only 2 footers on our stern.

Headin Out

Passed these commercial fishing boats in the bay.

With storms threatening we pulled into Calverts Marina at Solomans Island, Md. At a buck a foot for dockage it was one of the few bargains on the East Coast. Of no particular interest to anyone but me I saw two of the boats that participated in the 2004 Nordhavn Atlantic crossing. One was Satchmo, a 46 Nordhavn on the hard at Washburns Boat Yard. And the other was Sea Fox, a 58' Kadey-Krogen.

Sea Fox.

With the weather not so good we just made Solomans an overnight stop. At some point in the next few years we would love to come back to the Chesapeake and spend the summer. Too many places to see and not enough time on this adventure.

Thursday 5/19/11     There was a parade of boats leaving Solomans this morning, us included.

Parade leaving Solomans.

Our destination today was Annapolis with hopes to get a spot in "Ego Alley" which is the City Dock right downtown. As we neared Annapolis the skies let loose with a downpour which made picture taking difficult. The good news was that we got a spot in the alley. Even in the rain the dock attendants were right there to help us get tied up and electric plugged in. A visit to the Harbormasters office and we were set.

We passed Thomas Point Light before the rain started.

Tourist at a nearly vacant Annapolis City Dock. The water in the street is backed up from the bay through the storm sewers. It went down when the tide went out.
That evening we had dinner and a nice visit with Kelly, Darolyn, and Jake Mayo who live about an hour away from Annapolis. It's been quite awhile since we've been together so it was nice catching up.

Me and the Mayo clan.

Friday 5/20/11     Our day started with a short walk up Main St. to Chick & Ruth's Deli (http://www.chickandruths.com/) for breakfast. An institution in Annapolis where every morning at 8:30 they say the Pledge of Allegance. I had a crab & Cheese omelet with a pile of potatoes. Tasty!

Inside Chick and Ruth's. Coloful.

From breakfast we went to the Naval Academy which is a block from Tourist. We arrived just in time to get on a narrated walking tour of the campus. To say this is an impressive place does not do it justice. If you walk these grounds and don't feel an overwheliming sense of pride in being an American and in our military you should find another country to live in.

Gate closest to the boat. 1 block away.

Monument to the submarine service.

Graduating Marines getting ready for inspection. Not a wrinkle!

Tomb of John Paul Jones, father of the American Navy.

Famous rallying cry of Captain James Lawrence.

Our tour lasted an hour and a half and was conducted by an alumni of the class of 1965 who was in the same class as Roger Staubach former quarterback of the Cowboys. This man was defintely proud to be an alumni and still walked witht the same crispness that you see in the midshipmen of today..

Saturday 5/21/11      Happy Birthday Angela!!! Hope you have a great day.

Also Happy Birthday to Ashton, who turned six on the 20th!