Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com
After spending last Thursday night at Hoffman’s Marina just inside Manasquan Inlet we were back out Friday morning headed for Atlantic City. We left the inlet on an outgoing tide and had no trouble getting through. Once out on the ocean we found bright sunshine, three to five foot waves, winds from the southeast with gusts to 25 knots.
It is interesting. When people first learned of our cruising plans one of the most common concerns that we heard was related to our being out on the ocean. Certainly the ocean has our respect. But we have found that compared to similar conditions on Lake Michigan the ocean is actually easier to deal with. The waves while bigger, are spaced farther apart than they are on Lake Michigan where the waves are sharper and closer together. The waves on Lake Michigan hit you one after the other and at the end of the day you feel like you have been in a washing machine.
We sailed for several hours on Friday and arrived at the wide inlet at Atlantic City at about 4:00 PM. We anchored in a protected bay north of the inlet. That night the winds kicked up and we had gusts to 40 knots according to our wind gauge. The winds continued for the next two days and we stayed put. Finally on Sunday things calmed down a bit and we moved back out and anchored at the side of the channel next to the Golden Nugget Casino.
We put the dinghy in the water intending to go into shore but we were unable to keep our little Tohatsu 5 hp outboard running. It would start and then run for a while but would die a short time later. After several attempts to keep the motor running we gave up and went back aboard Sweet Escape and put the dinghy up on the davits. We were not willing to chance rowing to shore because of the strong current in the channel. That night we had steak on the grill.
We have written about our dinghy problem in the past and the problem has not gotten any better. We have wanted to replace both the dinghy and the engine for some time but have been unable to locate suitable replacements along the way. When you anchor out as frequently as we do, unless you have a reliable dinghy and motor you end up boat bound and you miss out on a lot. We were finally able to locate a hard bottom inflatable and a 15 horsepower Honda outboard in Annapolis, Maryland and are currently en route there to take delivery hopefully later this week.
Monday morning we left Atlantic City and headed for Cape May where we anchored among several other boats in the bay next to the Coast Guard station.
On Tuesday we weighed anchor and left the bay, rounded Cape May and began our 70 mile run up Delaware Bay. Our destination was Delaware City Marina located on a creek just north of the C&D Canal where we would spend a couple nights. We needed to reprovision, take on fuel, pump out and accomplish some minor maintenance including changing the oil in our Yanmar diesel.
We arrived outside the creek at the Delaware City Marina and called the marina on the VHF for docking instructions. The harbor master provided step by step instructions for getting through the very shallow creek entrance. We arrived at mid tide and based on the depths we saw we’re not sure we could get in at low tide. The marina has four very large floating face docks along the side of the creek, enough space for 80 boats. The floating docks are necessary because they have six foot tides here.
This is crab country. Delaware City has a population of 1500 people and virtually every restaurant in town is a crab house. After getting the boat secured and us cleaned up, we were off to Crabby Dick’s for dinner where Judy had her first culinary encounter with soft crabs. Soft crabs are harvested just as the crab sheds it’s shell and before the new one has had a chance to harden. You eat the entire crab, shell and all. She pronounced her dinner delicious. Brian on the other hand, (who doesn't eat any seafood) had a cheeseburger.
This morning, we tackled some of our boat maintenance and afterwards the marina was kind enough to provide transportation for us and some other cruisers to the grocery store. This was a large Pathmark store located in a shopping center along with a Home Depot and a West Marine. All of which we visited.
Once back at the boat and after Judy put the shopping away and Brian finished up some other minor maintenance it was off to another crab house, this one was called Kathy’s where Judy had a crab cake sandwich and Brian had a cheeseburger.
Tomorrow we leave and head for the C&D Canal. Following our 17 mile transit of the canal we will head south along the east shore of Chesapeake Bay where we will anchor in the Sassafras River overnight before heading out to Annapolis to take delivery of our new dinghy on Friday. After that we really have no plans for the next month. We will stay in the Chesapeake and environs for at least that long before we begin heading south along the ICW. Our insurance carrier will not permit us to be south of the Georgia - Florida border until November 15th so we have plenty of time to explore the the many interesting rivers and historic towns along the Chesapeake.
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