Days 126-127...Ventnor City to Utsch's Marina, Cape May, New Jersey

THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012

     I have no idea why I get such beautiful pictures of the moon and sunrise from the Ventnor City anchorage, but just look at these pictures.

     We got up early this morning and left the anchorage at 5:45 a.m. to try to catch the higher tide and better current since the water in this area is so shallow.  That really wasn’t any trouble since we went to bed so early last night because of the before daylight start yesterday.  We were going against the tide at 5 mph until we got to Little Egg Harbor Inlet (Do you wonder where they come up with those names?) where we started zooming at 8.8 mph with the current.  The view was mostly the same as yesterday with a lot of marsh grass.

     We did come to those cute houses built out over the water that reminded me of Louisiana.  I couldn’t resist taking their pictures again.

     I did see rental jet skis right out in the water.  Gary said they bring the customers to the jet skis.  I'm not sure why they do that but I thought it was different.

     We kept right on chugging along until we made it to Utsch's Marina.  We traveled 45 miles in 7 hours.  We have traveled a total of 2600 miles so far.  I asked the girl who checked us in if I could have soap instead of the wine.  I got two extra bars for our daughters.  I'm very happy about that.  They smell so good.  Now I can check the soap off of my list of things to do on the way back home.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2012

     We are staying one more day to do all the boat chores and walk around town one more time.  We went to the same place for breakfast and ate scrapple again.  Gary's Grandma's was so much better.  The waitresses this time seemed careless and unconcerned.  What a difference a few months makes.

     After breakfast I went to wash our enormous pile of dirty clothes.  I took my book and read in the marina's air-conditioned laundry while they were washing and drying.  While I was doing that, Gary washed the outside of the boat, cleaned the bilge, checked the oil, did some engine room maintenance and all those other things he needed to do before going out into the open water.  MMMM, I know who had the better job.

     We waited until it cooled down to walk to town.  We went to a place called Stewart's Icecream.  I guess I learned another lesson there.  Always ask the price of something if you are in doubt.  Two cones were over $10.00.  Never again.

     Of course, I took more house pictures on the way back to the marina.  The pink house had a nameplate on it that was special.

     We were walking along minding our own business and almost got bonked on the head by an apple.  There was an apple tree right by the sidewalk in the middle of town.  Do you think there could've been an apple orchard there at one time?

    We had an early night because we have another predaylight start planned for tomorrow.  We have to go up the Delaware Bay.  Cape May was one place I wouldn't mind visiting again but in a car next time. 

Day 125...Beach Haven, NJ to Ventnor City, NJ

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2012

     We knew we were going to have to leave early to catch the tide on our way to Ventnor City so guess who was up at 5:00 a.m.  It finally got light enough for us to leave the slip at a little after 5:30 a.m.  I was up almost all night worrying about getting out of the slip without hitting the extremely expensive, 45-foot sportfish next to us.  The swift current would be pushing against us, there was a pretty fast wind blowing us toward the other boat and I was just worried since TRAVELLER doesn’t back up very well in the first place.  I knew Gary would have a good plan but you know me, I was worried anyway.  Well, we slid right down the poles that our stern lines were on and backed up pretty as you please.  See there was nothing to worry about.  We wore our headsets so Gary told me what to do and I did it.  Boy, was I worried, but we got out of the slip with no trouble at all.   

     How about a set of sunrise pictures?

     We were really making good time with the current pushing us along at 8.5 mph.  Now we saw what we missed last time we came through here in the fog following that catamaran with radar.  We didn't miss much since both sides of the Intracoastal were marsh.  The only thing remotely interesting was the distant Atlantic City skyline.  Atlantic City got closer and closer.

     We kept right on going through Atlantic City with the casinos and enormous wind turbines.

     Of course I couldn't resist taking another picture of the Ventnor City watertower and the houses by the water before we stopped in the anchorage.  The tide was dropping and we didn't want to chance running aground by going farther.  We traveled 25 miles in 4 hours and 21 minutes.  Our total mileage now is 2558.

     Since I started out with a sunrise picture, I decided to end with a sunset picture and also a picture of Atlantic City from the anchorage.

Day 124...Mantoloking Bridge to Beach Haven, NJ

TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2012

     We left the anchorage at 6:26 a.m. and went under the Mantoloking Bridge soon after. 

     We couldn’t believe all of the boats out yesterday.  We were wondering if we had missed a new Monday holiday since we've been gone.  This sailboat flying its spinnaker was the first boat we saw after getting underway.

     OK, so I know I took a picture of the Bay Shore Bridge on the way up, but I just like the way the two bridges look together.

     Passed Ocean City again.  I don’t remember this orange palm tree on the way up.  I’ll have to go look at my old pictures to see if it was there then.

     Here are a lot of little sailboats for rent.  Long Island, New Jersey has a lot of tourist towns on it.  It is tourist season now so we are seeing people get the last fun out of the summer before the kids have to head back to school. 

     We made it to Beach Haven Marina about 12:30 p.m. after an uneventful day on the water.  We like uneventful since it means nothing went wrong.  Getting there early gave us the rest of the day to walk around.  We traveled 6 hours and one minute according to the chartplotter.  We went 39 miles and have covered a total of 2532 miles so far.

     While we were walking to the grocery store, we saw another interesting bicycle.  On this one Mom was doing all of the work.

     Now for my first disappointment.  NO pineapple pie or chicken potpie.  I was devastated.  The manager said that I could get the chicken potpie if I came back Thursday (We were only going to stay one day.).  The pineapple pie was a lost cause since they had revised their take out selections.  I guess I’ll have to try to recreate the pineapple pie myself when we get home and cook the potpie at Sara's.

     There were tourists all over the place.  The town was nothing like the last time we were there.  The pace of Beach Haven had ramped up 100%.  It was not the relaxed little place with nothing open like before.  Even the cost of the marina was more since we were “in season” now.  I liked the "sleepy" town of Beach Haven much better.

     Here is a picture of the lights of Atlantic City at night from our stern deck.  We'll go by there tomorrow.

   

Day 123...Liberty State Park to anchorage near Matoloking Bascule Bridge

MONDAY, JULY 30, 2012

     Yesterday when we looked at the weather, it looked like today would be the best day for at least a week to go around New Jersey.  We woke up at 6:00 a.m., but we wanted to wait until the current changed in our favor so we hung around the anchorage until almost time.  We couldn’t wait any longer so we left the anchorage at 7:15.  We said goodbye to Lady Liberty as we entered the harbor.

     Of course we had to dodge the anchored tugs and barges as well as the ones that were underway as we approached the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.  So far so good.  The weather wasn't what the weathermen had forecasted, but it wasn't too bad yet.

     Well the waves keep getting worst and worse.  We were rocking and rolling and bumping alone.  It was ridiculous how awful it was getting out into the ocean.  This was supposed to be the best day to go.  We don't think we'll ever believe another weatherman in our lives.  

     I had already put Uncle Finn's light and the heavy conch shell on our bed so they wouldn't get thrown into the floor.  Then we hit an exceptionally rollie wave.  Everything near the port door was thrown around on the top of the cabinet or thrown into the floor.  How do you like the way Gary fixed our clock?

     The seas got a little better once we finally got out into the ocean, but there was no way it was going to be a comfortable day.  At least you can see the Jersey shore in the pictures today.  Remember the FOG was so bad last time that there were no pictures at all except the fog and fish ones. Of course, I've added another waves picture that doesn't look nearly as bad as they really were. 

      About 5 1/2 hours after we left the anchorage, we entered Manasquan Inlet.  We went from the ocean to almost no water at all.  Gary had to be very careful so we wouldn't run aground.  We saw as little as 1.6 feet of water.  We're amazed we were able to keep on going.

     I did get a better picture of the wall of the Point Pleasant Canal and ladder to replace the really blurry one I took last time.  The trip on the canal this time was much harder since we were going against the swift current.  Also this time we were rolling through the water with at least 6-8 boats in front of and behind us.  It was tough.  As we got to the end I had to take a picture of the scarecrow on the barge.  I'm not sure what they were trying to scare.  

 

      Good thing we were going to go farther before we anchored today.  The place we anchored before was taken over by a bunch of youngsters in tiny sailboats.  We missed all of them as we headed south.

      We went a few more miles to Mantoloking Bascule Bridge and pulled off the Intracoastal near some waterfront houses for the night.  We were exhausted after our ocean voyage.  We traveled 50 bouncy miles in 7 hours and 20 minutes.  Our total mileage is 2493 miles now.