Cape May, NJ to the "Big Apple"

Any photo in any post can be enlarged by clicking on it and then be returned to normal size by hitting the "back" button.

We left Utche's Marina on 6/11 bound for the big apple.  A bit behind on my postings, eh?  We chose to go outside on the Atlantic instead of the NJ intra coastal for this part of the journey because we were advised by more than one that the NJ part of the ICW is not being maintained and was unpredictably shallow and had unpredictable shoaling.  That being the case, we lucked into a good day on the Atlantic and it was "throttles forward."

The Atlantic, as well as the Gulf of Mexico is interesting.  We had 3's and 4's waves that were left over from earlier east winds on top of a swell system that you really could not see.  The 3's and 4's were far enough apart that we could plane with little difficulty and without abusing the boat.  But you did have to hang on.  The swell system showed up by causing the boat to slow down as we climbed up the hills and really speed up as we descended downward.  We saw the GPS speed over bottom readout vary from as low as 14.7 knots going uphill to as much as 23.7 knots going down hill.

We slowed down about once an hour to give the horses a rest and have lunch by Atlantic City where we could see the results of all of Trump's activities and the second time for a snack just north of Toms River.

Rounding Sandy Hook and then heading north toward the narrows we were greeted by the Verrazano Bridge.

And to the Manhattan Skyline.  This is only a sample.

The Staten Island Ferry.  These boats stop or change course for no one.  Plot your course accordingly!

The Lady!

This is our first anchoring on the trip.  There is a really neat anchorage behind the statue that will accommodate maybe 6 or 8 boats.  At night the statue was really pretty in all the lights.  There is a story that relates to our anchor not holding at our first attempt and some people fishing on the shore.  A small verbal exchange took place.  I can not tell it accurately and be politically correct at the same time so I will just tuck it away in my memory and have a chuckle about it every so often.

This is the next morning leaving our anchorage for Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City, NJ.  A wonderful view of Ellis Island, an island that had so much to do with our people and our history.

This is the restaurant associated with our marina.  A rather good one too.  We had a small dinner there our second night.  The marina is on the south side of a rather lengthy canal that serves several water facilities.  One of the boats that passed our marina had, besides a capable tender on one side of the top deck, it also had a mid sized automobile next to the tender with the crane necessary to off load it and put it back on the boat.  I did not get a picture of it.  It happened too fast.  I should remark that this was our most expensive marina to date.  It just costs more in the big city.

This was from the top deck of the ferry we took from Jersey City to the financial district of Manhattan. Not visible are some swimmers in the water accompanied by their "team" boats. They were swimming south, the way we are looking. There was an announcement earlier in the day on channel 16 by the coast guard to alert boaters about this activity.

We visited the Trade Center site.  I came away from this more convinced than ever that we have a movement of real enemies, some of whom are cunningly capable.  Pat was glad to leave the area because it had an particularly strong emotional effect on her.

Rear of St. Paul's Chapel where so many pictures of the missing were attached to the fence.  The front of the Chapel is directly across the street from the Trade Center complex.

Work on the new complex is in full swing.  This is going to be even more beautiful than the buildings these will replace.

Pat at the end of the long day taking ferry rides, tramping around Manhattan and gourmet dining.

From Delaware City to Cape May, NJ

New Jersey makes the 7th state the Salt Shaker has visited away from her home state of Florida.

The trip from Delaware City took us down the Delaware River (huge) into and all the way down the Delaware Bay.  At the bottom of the bay we entered the Cape May Canal for a few mile ride into the Cape May harbor.

The bay got a bit rougher as the bay got wider.  We did not have to get off plane but it was this ride that apparently dislodged the plug to the microwave out of its wall outlet.  Anyway the microwave is not working.  Getting to that plug involves a bunch of screws and some disassembly of part of the port (left) side of the cabin.  I gotta be in the mood to tackle this.  Not in the mood yet.

Light house marking the end of a big shoal on the east side of the bay.  It was kinda hazy this day.

Entering the Cape May Canal.

View of Utsch's marina office.  As many marinas do, Utsch's had a visitors package to give out to their guests.  This one had the typical stuff, but in addition was a 3/4 liter bottle of local blueberry wine.  Treat!

And we were greeted by Rich Nick, the Cape May AGLCA harbor host.  The harbor host program is really super.  They are all volunteers and almost every port has one or more of these volunteers.  Among other things, their mission is to be accessible and share local area knowledge and give advice and/or direct assistance that would help in a variety of possible situations.  It is Pat's intention to put us on the harbor host list for our area when we return to FL.

For a wonderful way to end the evening, Wayne and Francine from Ottawa River, Quebec invited us to join them for an already "in progress" wine and cheese party aboard their vessel, "My Way."  If you want to party, partying with our neighbors of the north is hard to beat.

Tomorrow, on to the "big apple."

Going to Delaware City

The trip from Baltimore took us up the rest of the Chesapeake to the Elk River.  The Elk River leads into the C&D (Chesapeake and Delaware) shipping canal.  The original C&D Canal was built around the 1840's and at first was very narrow and had locks to lift the boats up a total of 14 feet to go over the high point of the land.  It was built first by private interests and in the 1920's was purchased from them by the US Army Corps of Engineers.  They widened and rerouted a small length at the eastern end and carved the 14 feet of land out and eliminated the locks.

The C&D canal is a first class waterway.  It is several hundred feet wide and if memory serves me correct is roughly 65 feet deep.  It can handle ships of almost any size.

The marina at Delaware City is located on the section that was eliminated by the Corps of Engineers work.   The Delaware City marina is a first class operation and has the capability to lift large boats (60 to 80 feet) out of the water and do extensive maintenance and repair.  I have a video of their personnel taking a 60 foot (more or less) out of the water.  It was noteworthy because they had to position the boat crosswise of a strong tidal current and maneuver it into the slings of the "travel lift" with out damaging or loosing control of the boat in this rather strong current.

We had the pleasure of one of my cousins (Janice) and her husband (Don) come to visit us there at Delaware City from their home in NJ.  They were able to spend most of the day with us and we had a really enjoyable time having lunch at one of the local eateries and then driving over to Chesapeake City about midway along the canal where they have the operations center for the canal as well as an excellent museum depicting its history.  It is estimated that the canal saves about 40 million gallons of fuel annually by shortening the distance between Baltimore, Philadelphia and other places quite a number of miles.

Pat and I later that evening had dinner at "Crabby Dicks" which is HQ'd in Delaware City.  It was a hoot!

Another unfortunate boat rotting on shore.  This one was on the north bank of the Elk River.

Here is a vintage speed boat on the same river.

Here is a "pick up machine" on the same river.

Here are a set of range lights at a bend in the canal.  Notice the one close is lower.  When you are on a line that goes thru both of them so that the back one is directly over the front one, you are in the center of the channel.  This is important information for the big ships and the big tows as they go thru this part of the canal.

Janice, Don and Pat standing on the bridge that runs Delaware route 9 over the old section of the canal.

View of the old section of the canal from the same bridge at a 750 foot section of marina dock.  The Salt Shaker is several boats down the dock.

The only remaining lock that is preserved in the Delaware City municipal park as a tourist attraction.

At the museum, they preserved for display the two steam engines that operated from the 1840's to the 1920's that operated a water wheel that lifted water from a nearby river into a canal to maintain proper levels in the canal.

Remote monitor in the museum that displays real time canal traffic.

Should you think Delaware City is large, I will despell that notion with this pic of the main street, almost all of it.

3 more pics from Baltimore.

I have a whole bunch of photos from the Torsk and it is difficult to choose.  This is the eslisted men's mess hall aboard the sub.

This is the USS Constellation we toured in Baltimore I mentioned in the earlier post.

The Salt Shaker at the Inner Harbor East at the base of the Legg Mason HQ building as seen from the water taxi.  The marina office is in the LM HQ building.

Day 69 Baltimore, Delaware city, Cape May (NJ) and Jersey City (NYC)

We left Annapolis and back into Chesapeake Bay and then up the Patapsco River toward Baltimore.  This is the Francis Scott Key Bridge you pass under on the way to the Inner Harbor.  The Inner Harbor is a waterfront development that is as active as any I have ever seen.  It bustles with activity.  Baltimore is a thriving city by any measure.

Yours truly keeping track of a tow that passed by us in the Patapsco just after coming thru the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

We took the water taxi from Fells Point near our marina over to Fort McHenry.  We watched a movie in the visitors center that detailed the history of the War of 1812 and the fort and how Francis Scott Key happened to be within sight of the battle with the British and how he was inspired to write the words to the Star Spangled Banner.  We left with a greater appreciation for the things and the people that went into the birth and early years of our country.  Note that the flag has 15 stars.  The original 13 colonies plus two states that joined the union prior to this war.

We took the water taxi from the fort back to a different point of the Inner Harbor where there were 4 ships on display that could be toured.  We had time to tour the submarine Torsk that saw action in WW II and did her assigned task of sinking Japanese shipping.  The tour made living conditions aboard a diesel electric sub very easy to visualize.  I banged my head several times on low items and on the passageways thru the watertight compartments in the boat. 

Forward torpedo room aboard the Torsk.  We had time to tour one other boat so we chose the Civil War sailing gun boat, the USS Constellation.  This is where I came to believe that we are taller than people were in the 1860's.  I banged my head on more low hanging stuff aboard the Constellation than aboard the Torsk.

There was within walking distance of our marina a Whole Foods market and the Bin 604 Wine Cellar wine store.  This was our first visit to a Whole Foods store.  It was much more interesting than most grocery store because of their unique selections.  Watching Pat shop in this store reminded me of me in a West Marine store.  The wine store was unique to us because we purchased two cases of assorted wines and they allowed one of their staffers to put it in one of their carts and wheel our many bottles of wine right down to our marina.  I know at least one cop gave us a funny look because I am sure it looked like it was three people helping themselves to a cart from some unsuspecting store.

We were also within walking distance to Little Italy.  This was a not to be missed neighborhood.  We had dinner at an Italian resturant called Della Notte.  And it was goood!

Once again it is getting late so Delaware City, Cape May and Jersey City will have to wait for another session with Blogspot.

Day 62 continued--Annapolis

The trip up the upper Chesapeake from St. Michaels was a treat!  Pretty smooth seas so we were able to stay on plane and boogie.  As we neared Annapolis we passed a parade of these things at anchor.  5 of them in all, all empty.  Must have been waiting for a berth so they could in turn take on their cargo.

Annapolis is a sailing/party town.  Here are a few boats participating in a race that we passed on the way in.

A family of boaters who have the Chesapeake for their playground.  Ashley, John, Austin, Christine and of course me.  They are friends we made on the Rinker boat owners website who live in the Annapolis area and took the time to come and visit us.  They were able to give lots of heads up on Annapolis as well as Baltimore.  After a bit of wine and cheese (what else?) on the boat the we went to the local Marriot and had a wonderful time at Pusser's Restaurant.

We toured the grounds of the Annapolis Naval Academy.  This is the Chapel that houses the remains of Captain John Paul Jones.  On the weekends it is home to weddings of navy cadets, one an hour, on the hour.  We were able to see at least two from the grounds.  With military precision.  One bride appeared on the steps every hour, exactly on the half hour.

This is the famous flag that Commodore Perry flew from the Niagara after he had to abandon the Lawrence during the battle of Lake Erie.  "We have met the enemy and they are ours." was his well known statement after the battle.  The gift shop had many flags to choose from for purchase, including "Don't Give Up the Ship."  Naturally the Salt Shaker now has one of these in her flag inventory.

One of John and Christine's recommendations was Chick and Ruth's Deli.  This was all they said it would be.  Fast, good, friendly and a time to remember.  They said if Chick was in the deli, which he usually was, we would recognize him.  There he is!  Unfortunately Ruth passed away some years ago.

The large vessel is the "Winning Drive." built by Westport Yachts in 2007.  We were told that she is currently owned by the head coach of the Ravens, hence the name.  She is 130 feet long and 26 feet wide.  I don't think she would fit in the lift where the Salt Shaker lives when at home.

View of the Annapolis harbor.  There is a huge mooring field which is popular.  We are near the small cut that goes up to the main waterfront street called "Ego Alley" or something similar.  There is an almost continuous flow of boats in and then back out of the cut making a sort of parade.  It reminded me of the days as a youth when we would cruise our cars round and round in the more popular drive in resturants.  The city dock is part of Ego Alley.

A boat we ran across on Ego Alley.

Now---on to Baltimore!

Day 62 Left Solomon's Island, visited St. Michaels, MD and now in Annapolis

Sunset from Calvert Marina @ Solomon.  Funny, I do not seem to get any pictures of sunrises.

Kind of like a Viking ship.  It needs some bailing.  Where is the crew?

Pat and Tiki on the bow of Richard and Tiki's boat, the Tadpole.  Missed getting Richard in a picture somehow.  They are fellow loopers from Tampa.  We went out to dinner with them to Solomon's Restaurant, the same folks who own the Kingfisher Restaurant, where we picked some up excellent crab cakes the night before.  Very excellent ones.

The Lady Sarah.  We passed her going up the Chesapeake to St. Michaels.  She was doing 20 knots,  we were doing 22.  Once we got into her wake we bogged down and had to get up to 25 knots to break the spell.  Notice that she has a catamaran hull design.  I believe she is driven by hydrojets at the back.  This looks like the same kind of boat that serves Put-in-Bay, Ohio in Lake Erie from the mainland.

Pat in front of a small local winery.  Needless to say, we came out with a few bottles.  This was after we spent some time in the tasting room of a small but excellent microbrewery, the Eastern Shore Brewery.  Some of their offerings from the brewery are in the bag Pat is holding.

Art and Susan with us on the ferry boat.

Art and Susan, reside mostly in the St. Michaels area but have a home one street over from us in Florida so we are part time neighbors.  They picked us up at our marina and took us all over St. Michaels and by ferry to Oxford.  They took us to the Masthead for a drink and a nice view of the bay, then to their yacht club, the Miles River Yacht Club and introduced us around and showed us their boat.  The Miles River Yacht Club is beautiful and very successful.  At present, they have about 900 members.  The dining room was full and there was a lot of activity.  As a grand finale, We went to Harrison's Chesapeake House for dinner.  This is a popular family operated place, fishing charters, bed and breakfast, meeting facilities, etc.  Numerous personalities and politicians from each party have been here, President Clinton among them.  "Boss Hog" runs it and is an area icon.

Some information about the ferry service.  The boat has a capacity of about 10 cars.  It also has a small assortment of "ferry wear."  I desperately needed a hat and was happy to find that I could purchase one on the boat.

This is a Skip Jack type of sailing fishing boat once in common use on the Chesapeake.  It is in front of Harrison's as something to look at.  I do not think it will be there forever given the amount of deterioration it has already suffered.

This is a canon from the Revolutionary War.  St. Michaels was an early part of our nation's history.

This is a very unusual wood boat that is owned by one of the dignitaries of the area.  It is obviously old and obviously very well maintained.  It would be interesting to know a bit about her.  This was at our St. Michaels marina, the Higgins Yacht Yard.  Among other things, they have a first class wood working capability.

I intended to get a few Annapolis pictures in this post but it is getting a bit late.  We spent last night (Friday) and tonight here in Annapolis.  We will be leaving Annapolis in the morning for Baltimore.  I will combine Annapolis and Baltimore in the next post.