ATLANTIC CITY By the time we got into the Atlantic, the winds and seas had picked up quite a bit. We had to beat our way out and it was so rough I seriously considered going back and trying another day. It was late afternoon and it would be getting dark soon. Once I got out past the bridge I could begin to turn more north, bringing the wind and seas more on the beam. If conditions didn't improve I'd seek shelter on Maryland's eastern shore. As the sun set, we were gradually able to head a little less east and a little more north. The pounding into the waves eased and we were sailing along on a beam reach with big rollers lifting us as they passed under neath. It was a much better ride, but still not for the faint of heart. The winds kept up all night as we sailed along the Delaware coast and accross the mouth of Delaware Bay. By the next morning we were approaching Cape May and closing in on Atlantic City. A thunderstorm blocked the sunset, Once we got into calm water we started looking for a place to anchor for the night. We picked out a spot in the vicinity of a couple of other boats and settled down for the night. Dinner cooking on the grill and drinks in the cockpit.
Within a few minutes of our arrival the boat traffic started to pick up and soon we were just one of hundreds of anchored boats waiting for the fireworks. I had wanted to be in New York Harbour on the 4th but this is as far as we could get. Atlantic City put on quite a show and we videotaped it. I used the fireworks footage in the closing segment of the Endeavour video. We were all pretty beat by then and fell alseep right away.
The next morning we got up and motored around the harbour to get the lay of the land. Being the 5th of July, we had to wait until a slip became available at the Trump Marina before we could dock. Once docked we spent the rest of the day cleaning up the boat and doing laundry.
With the chores behind us, we hopped on a jittney and headed for the boardwalk. (Jittnies are small busses driven by lunatics.) We had dinner and some Murphy's Stout and walked through the casinos watching the wannabe-rich-people throw their money at Mr. Trump. We kept ours.
After the rough ride we had coming up the coast from the Chesapeake, the plan was to stay in New Jersey's ICW for another day before going back out in the Atlantic for the final offshore leg to New York City. The New Jersey horse flies had other plans. They were so vicious that we decided to go back out and face the ocean rather than the wrath of the "Green Meanies". They're not near as plentiful as the Okeechobee mosquitoes but much nastier. They like to swarm under bimini tops, so unless you have screens, you'd be better off taking your bimini down. By the time we decided to give up on the waterway it was too late to make New York before dark so we took the afternoon off, went into the cabin, opened the windows with screens and enjoyed the cruising life until morning. We slept well until about 3am when some town upstream (we had anchored near an inlet) pumped out its holding tank. Something smelling of raw sewage floated by, but after a couple of hours everything was fine again.
Okeechobee South Florida to South Carolina South Carolina to Virginia Norfolk, Virginia Atlantic City to New York City New York City to Catskill, NY The Champlain Canal |
