New York City

the new World Trade Center

What can I say?  No other place on earth like it!  We spent 4 days & nights in the city & had a blast!  Sue is still vibrating from all the noise & excitement.

By staying in Staten Island, it took us just over an hour each time we went into or out of the city, either by subway/ferry or by bus.  There is a Looper who lives at Great Kills in Staten Island who is the AGLCA Harbor Host for NYC & he went way above & beyond to make our stay comfortable & memorable.

We have been to NYC several times before, especially since our daughter went to college at New York University – right in the middle of Greenwich Village.  We had even done Times Square at New Year’s Eve, so we had that one crossed off our bucket list.  So this time, we did something old, something new, and most importantly, we DID NOT get lost in the city!

At the 9/11 Memorial.  The buildings above our heads
are REFLECTED by the glass building behind us.

At John's Italian restaurant, where we first ate in 1994



Riding the Staten Island Ferry, we had an escort with
a machine gun

We saw the new 9/11 Memorial & museum, ate Italian at a favorite restaurant in East Village, visited MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art) & saw the original painting by Henri Rousseau which our granddaughter had copied for an art contest in New Orleans, saw two Broadway shows (we finally saw “Phantom of the Opera” after our daughter had seen it twice; and we saw “Airline Highway”, about life in a slum motel along Airline Highway in New Orleans), ate some good food but also ate hot dogs from the corner street vendor (and survived), and made many many memories.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sitting in a Dunkin Donuts along Fulton Street, I look across the street
to see the original headquarters of Keuffel & Esser.  All you engineers will
recognize K & E as the inventor of the slide rule.  I remember using my
father's slide rule when I started college (in the prehistoric days!)

Is there any other reason NOT to drive a car in downtown Manhattan ?!?

Oh wait........how about non-stop traffic jams !?!

We saw familiar sights

 

Times Square at night

Next to Times Square, you chocoholics will love this place!

 

Nonchalantly cruising into New York Harbor
 

 

A highlight of this part of our travels was taking our own boat through New York Harbor, dodging the ubiquitous ferry boats, to take some dynamite photos right in front of the Statue of Liberty.  At the time, we had another Looper boat with us, so we photographed each other’s boat in front of the lady.

 

 

 

Just because I'm heading into the world's busiest harbor,
do I look worried?

 

Looking right at the Lady

Our friends proved that we were there, even with our dirty moustache on the bow.

On our departure day, we started by leaving Staten Island into Raritan Bay, where the seas were 2-4’ with whitecaps everywhere, and ended the day 50 miles north of NYC along the quiet calm Hudson River.  Quite a day.

Just a passing friend.  Minutes later we saw him shooting all
his water cannon in lower Manhattan

P.S. (for those of you who used to write letters with paper & pen)
I saw this slogan on a Looper's website:

         ADVENTCHA BEFORE DEMENCHA

seems to fit

AC in a day; NJ coast in a day

Fire control tower used during WWII to aim
the large guns at Lewes DE to guard the
Delaware Bay

The winds at Cape May continue to howl; every day we see south winds at 20-25 mph gusting to 30.  Remember in our USPS weather class, the discussion about a “Bermuda High”?  Well, this is it!  The seas offshore have been running 3-6’, certainly not for a fair-weather pleasure boater like us.  Between Cape May & Atlantic City, the inside Intracoastal Waterway has shoaled so badly that we cannot get through it, even at high tide.  So we must go outside at least up to AC, and, ergo, the need for good weather outside.

 

In Cape May, we found the ugly ducklings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beach house in Cape May

 

 

Along the Boardwalk in Atlantic City

We rode our bikes all around Cape May & wore ourselves out, so we rented a car to travel up to Atlantic City and act like a tourist.  We wanted to see some of the casinos (those which haven’t gone bankrupt yet) and walk the boardwalk.  Sue had been to Las Vegas (a.k.a. “Lost Wages”) and was impressed with the opulence of the casino lobbies.  Unfortunately, the casinos at AC were not as impressive.  Along the boardwalk, it was cold & windy, so there was not much activity.  We kept looking “Under the Boardwalk” – the rock ‘n roll song by the Drifters.  We did find it interesting looking for all the streets named in the board game Monopoly (the creator of Monopoly named the board spaces after the streets in AC).  But, after most of the day, we had seen enough.

But the next day, Sue found the Cape May Brewing Company, the local craft beer place, and we made our obligatory visit to sample as many different beers as humanly possible.

The new Miss America!!
The pageant has returned to Atlantic City

And then, when we were beginning to think it would never happen, a weather window opened up on Friday to travel outside!  Looking carefully at it, we were trying to decide just how far we could go at our “crawler” speed of 10 mph, because New Jersey has very few ocean inlets and marinas which can accommodate us.  It was a window of only one day, and then it turns crappy for another 4 days.  Many of our fellow AGLCA “Looper” boats were comparing notes on how far they could travel & where to pull in for the night & when they’d be able to continue cruising.  In the end, 3 boats departed Cape May at midnight (no, we weren’t one of them), and we departed at 0600 (my complaint again, do you realize how early you have to get up to depart at zero-dark-thirty?)

Inside Caesar's Casino in AC, a tribute
to Augustus Caesar

 

 

 

We followed a parade of boats out of Cape May Inlet into 2-3’ swells off the starboard quarter, and confused seas.  We rocked ‘n rolled for several hours & were thankful that we secured everything below deck.  But as the day wore on, the seas calmed down the farther north we went, to the point that we eventually had no wind & calm seas.  We were glad that we decided to go all the way to NY Harbor, traveling in one day what boaters normally travel in 4 days.

We passed the towns along the Jersey shore where we used to live in 1973, and saw Atlantic Highlands next to Sandy Hook, where Sue lived in 1965 when her father was commanding officer of a radar site to provide guidance for the anti-ballistic missiles to defend New York City against potential Russian ICBM attacks during the Cold War.  Ahhhh, the good ol’ days!

We finally made our marina at Great Kills Yacht Club on Staten Island after a looooooong 13 hours and 138 statute miles at sea.  There was a welcoming party of several other Loopers waiting to tie us up at the dock.  We all went to dinner that night, and Sue & I walked like drunken sailors.  We didn’t quit rocking until the next day.

So now we’ll visit the Big Apple for a couple days before heading up the Hudson River.

Horseshoe Crabs !!

So, let me see if I can get all this technical jargon correct.  Our son’s college friend Joe (whom we had the pleasure of meeting earlier this week, along with his wife & dynamite daughter) is an authority on several migratory shore birds.  We could have called him an “expert”, but you have to live at least 50 miles out of town to be brought in as an “expert”.

I guess we could go ahead and call him an expert on the following birds:  Red Knot, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Semi-palmated Sandpiper (as real “snore” of a name), and the Willet.  Some of these birds migrate from Brazil & South America up to the Artic to breed (I could make a joke about traveling this huge distance to breed, but I won’t).  The point in all this is that all these birds stop along the shore of the Delaware Bay to feed, and many of them land along the restored beaches just north of Cape May.

“So, what do these birds eat around here to give them the energy to migrate so far”, you ask!  Why, they eat the eggs of the horseshoe crabs, which are spawning on the sand beaches this time of year.  So Joe goes to the beaches to count not only the birds, but also the horseshoe crabs.  And yesterday, he dragged along two city slickers who were astounded at what they saw!

 

 

Joe showing what's under the shell

We find that the horseshoe crab has been living in the Delaware Bay area in higher concentrations than in anywhere else in the world.  And the blood of a horseshoe crab has some special foo-foo dust (lysate) that is used around the world to test for bacterial contamination.  So the population of horseshoe crabs is monitored for several important reasons.

This crab had been trying to right itself & made a
pattern in the sand.  Yes, we put him back in the water

At the shore, we saw thousands and thousands of crabs along the beach.  Joe showed us how to tell a male from a female (that’s important if you’re a crab), how the female burrows into the sand to lay her eggs, and what an egg cluster looks like.  He explained how the crabs come to the beaches mostly at high tide, and we saw how sensitive the crabs were to the breaking waves of the surf (it’s been very windy & rough for a week around here, which is why we’re still in Cape May).  When the crabs get turned upside down by the surf, they try to right themselves by pivoting their rear joint & tail, which doesn’t work very often.  Sue & I spent most of our time righting the stranded crabs & placing them back into the water.

 

This crab is trying to right itself by pivoting its tail

These are the eggs which the birds are looking for

An egg cluster found on top of the sand

Let’s just say that we had a fantastic time, seeing and learning things we had never seen nor knew before.  It was much better than going to the tourist attractions around town.  And I’d think that most other transient boaters who pass through Cape May, can’t claim that they played with horseshoe crabs!

the female is buried into the sand to lay the eggs. 
She is surrounded by 5 males that have grabbed onto her

Some crabs won't make it back into the water.  The gulls
will eat the eggs or the stranded crabs.

A budding biologist!!

 

Cape May, New Jersey

This sailboat either wasn't watching his charts, or
dragged anchor at night.  Either way, he isn't
having a very good day, since he's at high tide now
& still can't get off!

Back at Delaware City Marina, the owner gives a nightly weather briefing (using NOAA’s Delaware Bay Operational Forecast System) to forecast the winds and seas on the Delaware Bay the next day.  The weather guessers all said that the next day is a no-brainer to make the 60+ mile trip down to Cape May.  So we departed at 0600 (do you realize how early you have to get up to depart at 0600?!?) in order to catch the ebb tide and a 2+ mph tail current. 

Good thing we looked in our rear view mirror!

All the guessers were right for the first 2/3 of the trip, but the winds stiffened to 10-15 knots as we got into the tide shift.  Being in an area where the winds oppose the tidal flow is never a good thing, but we were fortunate that the seas didn’t build as much as they could have.  It was a sloppy ride in the confused seas, with no real wave pattern.   Good thing that we have a nice big ya-chut.

 

 

Lots of commercial traffic on the Delaware Bay.
Lots of tankers moving crude oil.

Hey James, recognize this ferry?  Goes from Cape May
across the mouth of Delaware Bay to Lewes DE

 

Well, May 30 used to be called "Decoration Day"

We made our marina & took on over 150 gallons of diesel (and quickly spent this month’s Social Security check).  Because it is Memorial Day weekend, we decided to decorate the boat.  I’ve been accused of being a “flag-waver”, but since both Sue & I have military experience, I’ll have to plead “guilty” to that charge.

 

 

 

 

The following day we took a tour of the historic section of Cape May & saw the gaudy opulence of the Victorian gingerbread houses.  In the late 1800’s, all them rich-folk from New York & Philadelphia built their “summer cottage” in Cape May to enjoy the cool sea breezes, and to let everyone else know how rich they were.

 

 

 

 

Esther, Lucy & Joe

We also met up with a college friend of our eldest son, since the two of them have remained in contact through the years (and have taken some “memorable” worldly adventures together).  Joe, his wife Esther, and his daughter Lucy, led us to a wonderful local restaurant, and we really enjoyed their company.  Joe is a wildlife conservationist specializing in migratory birds, so he had some interesting stories to tell about the local wildlife.

 

As for cruising, the ICW between Cape May & Atlantic City has some pretty bad shoaling (to the tune of only 3’ deep at low tide), so we had planned to go offshore.  But King Neptune seems to have plans of his own, by keeping the winds at 20-25 mph & the seas 4-6’ for the next couple days.  So we don’t know how long we’ll be in Cape May.  I guess we’ll just continue to act like tourists & spread some of those Yankee greenbacks around town.

From Chesapeake Bay to Delaware Bay

Carol, here's an osprey nest you haven't
photographed yet!!  Both mommy & daddy are home!

We spent 3 nights in Rock Hall MD (because if you paid for 2 nights, you got the 3^rd night free) and ended up doing mostly chores around the boat.  Still trying to work down the list from the boatyard.  We didn’t really get out into the town like we did last year.

A Coast Guard buoy tender doing what he does best:
tend buoys !!

It looked like we had a good 2 day weather window to make the trip up the Chesapeake to its end (or its beginning, depending on which way you’re looking), across the C & D Canal (which links the Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware Bay, DUH) and then down the Delaware to Cape May NJ.  But as you know, the weather guessers are one of the few professions where you can be wrong 50% of the time & still have a job.

We departed Rock Hall on Thursday and ran in the cold 52 degrees rain all day.  But we had two good things on our side.  1) The winds and seas were quite calm, and 2) We caught a flood tide (with a tail current as much as 2.5 mph) all the way up the Bay and across the C & D Canal.  It quickened our planned arrival time by more than an hour.  I’ve learned that in this neck of the woods, the tidal current can be your real friend or your worse enemy.

In Delaware City, this is what low tide looks like.
The flat boat on the left is sitting on the mud.

The tides on Delaware Bay were not in our favor, so we diverted north 3 miles to a small marina in the small town of Delaware City DE.  On Friday, the winds on the Delaware Bay were causing 3-5’ waves, so we used our superior executive judgement skills, which we had honed over many many years of real-life working experience, to decide that you’d have to be an idiot to go out in the Bay today!  So we took a stroll into the quaint small town to discover its history, and we’re very glad we did!

As we’re looking at the old lock in town, we strike up a conversation with a nice lady who obviously knows quite a lot of history about this area.  We soon learn that Pat has lived in the area all her life, she used to be an American history teacher and loves the history of this area, and her father originally built the marina we’re staying in!  On top of that, we found that she must be the nicest & friendliest lady in town, as she invites us to ride with her to one of the historic forts across the canal.  And then, she takes us on a 5 hour tour of several nearby historic towns & becomes our personal tour guide.  Both Sue & I were amazed at her generosity and willingness to treat some visiting boaters like royalty.  Thank you, Pat, thank you.

The weather guesser promised us that the winds on the Bay will settle down tomorrow, so we’re getting ready to get underway to New Jersey tomorrow.

B-O-A-T (Break Out Another Thousand)

Crossing the Bay, we see these boats using nets to
catch menhaden (or "pogey" fish to you New Orleans folks)

So, we spent 1-1/2 days with the MARINE service tech aboard (the price doubles any time you hire a MARINE serviceman) and spent another “Boat Unit” of money (a.k.a. $1000), on top of the many many boat units which we spent just 2 weeks ago in the boatyard, but our aft head works even better than when we bought the boat.  That keeps Momma happy, and when Momma is happy, everyone is happy. 



 

 

This is why we come to Crisfield!!

We waited one extra day to let the winds & 4’ seas die down on the Chesapeake Bay, & then departed Deltaville VA on Thursday May 14, heading east across the Bay.  The seas were still 2-3’ with 15-20 mph winds, so there were whitecaps everywhere.  We gave the decks a good wash of sea spray.  Our destination was Crisfield MD, where we had spent 2 weeks last year & really enjoyed ourselves, stuffing ourselves with crab after crab.

Upon arrival, we gave the boat a fresh water washdown & then proceeded to feast on crab cakes & Smith Island cake for dessert (you’ll have to see our blog from last year to learn about Smith Island cakes).  And then the next morning, we had a crab omelet for breakfast.  Ahhh…life just don’t get no betta! 

 

Crisfield obviously has a major parking problem!!

 

 

Crisfield's past glory

We also wanted to buy some fresh crab meat from the hard crab picking house, but we were too early in the season for local crabs.  The watermen were going south to Cape Charles to catch the hard crabs, but they were catching peelers locally to put in the pens for soft shell crabs.  (You need to have read the book “Beautiful Swimmers” to know all about the life & movements of the crabs).

The second night we went to the new brew house in town, which we had read about on a boater’s website.  The Admiral has made a point of finding all the craft breweries along our route, starting in St Augustine FL.  Had some good food & drink as we “chatted up” the owners.  At the end of the night, we bought some lump crab meat from their kitchen for $18/lb!!  Try getting that price at any of your local markets!

Near our anchorage, this little tug boat at right
must be saying "I think I can, I think I can"

After 2 days of constant 15-20 mph winds, we finally departed Crisfield on Sunday May 17, and ran a long day to make almost 80 miles to a beautiful anchorage off the Choptank River.  Again, we had been in this area last year & loved it.  Even though the weather forecast was 40% chance of rain & thunderstorms, we decided to go anyway.  It was a good decision since the weather turned out beautiful, so calm that we let “Otto the Pilot” guide the boat most of the day.

While at anchor that night, we tried to figure out the tides & currents for later in the week, when we will head through the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, and then down the Delaware Bay to New Jersey.  The currents can run up to 3 knots, so we want them behind us as we crawl along at 9 knots.  And since the times change every day, we need to pick a day of good weather in conjunction with favorable tidal currents to make the transit.  As we’ve traveled up & down the coast, I’m surprised at how much planning it takes, with the navigation charts, weather forecasts, tides & currents forecast, etc, etc.

As we left our anchorage Monday morning and re-entered the Bay, the winds were dead calm & the seas totally flat.  We used that opportunity to “swing” our new magnetic compass to calibrate it to the boat.  For 45 minutes, we kept going in circles, and I’m sure the boats nearby were wondering who the crazy folks were on the yacht.

In the Chesapeake Bay ship channel,
these guys run 25 mph

 

The Navy came to save us!  The twin radio towers in the
background are landmarks just outside Annapolis MD

Monday afternoon we made our marina in Rock Hall MD (due east of Baltimore) for a couple days & to pick up our repair part for our shore power cord.  Since we started cruising just 2 weeks ago (it seems much longer than that), we’ve traveled over 550 miles.  Guess what?  We again had been here last year & really liked it.  And guess what we’re going to do here?  Wait for it……….  Eat crabs, of course!!!

Hey Carol!  I know you needed just ONE more picture of
an osprey nest !!