Back on the Great Loop!

 TRAVEL DAY 60 - Philadelphia to Delaware City

June 18, 2023

4.6 Hours/40.8 Miles

    After 11 days back in Florida to take care of some family and business matters, we were back in Philadelphia and back on the boat. Philly was an interesting "off the Loop" stop but we were ready to continue on our adventure and head towards Cape May. Now for a twist. My crew received word that a family member was not doing well. We decided that it would be prudent to take this opportunity to go visit them. My youngest daughter filled in and came back with me to continue on the trip until the regular crew wrapped up the family visit.

Goodbye Philadelphia

    The new crew change would pose some challenges, mostly in training. Although not a difficult trip, once the captain and crew understand the day to day of the Loop the rest is just boat handling & itinerary planning. My new crew had a good understanding of boating as she grew up on the water and had gotten enough experience to run a 20' center console fishing boat. It would be the other things; radio usage, scheduling marina stays, provisioning, etc., that would need to be learned. I had no doubt that these would be easy tasks for this smart chick. Also, it would give us some time together, something you never regret and you never get back.  

Bright eyed at 5:30 am

    I already had experience with the swift Delaware River current so the best option was to depart at 5:30 am to catch a 2 + mph current almost all the way to Delaware City. That's what we did, in fact it shaved almost 30 minutes off the trip. The new crew was raring to go and we slipped out into the river and made our way on this Father's Day to our destination. Getting there early in the day meant plenty of time to re-provision and set the boat up for the long voyage down Delaware Bay to Cape May.

Skipper Zelda reporting for duty

    At 4 pm the owner Tim at Delaware Bay Marina gave us a briefing as to what to look our for and what time to leave to navigate the large Delaware Bay. We were given a good forecast with "...as nice a day as we have seen in awhile". If we wanted to leave at 4 am we could catch a good outgoing tide, but would still end up fighting the current mid way. We opted for a more reasonable 7 am departure. It would mean using some extra fuel and time but would also mean some extra sleep.

Philadelphia to Delaware City

TRAVEL DAY 61 - Delaware City, DE to Cape May, NJ

June 19, 2023

7.26 Hours/61.3 Miles

    New Jersey would make state number 9 on this epic journey. We were advised that today was the day to cross the Delaware Bay on our over 7 hour trek, and the advice was spot on. We stayed just out of the main channel as we made our way south to avoid the large cargo ships and huge wakes.

Cape May Brewing

    We made Cape May easily and the only "bumpy" seas were probably the last hour as we crossed the opening to the Atlantic Ocean and prepared to enter the Cape May Canal. The canal was purportedly constructed to allow ships during WW II to stay out of the Atlantic and avoid the "Grey Wolves", German U Boats that patrolled the Atlantic sinking merchant ships in an effort to disrupt trade. 

Cape May Canal

    Once through the canal we located Utsch's Marina and made a call for directions. Then entrance is not well marked and without their guidance on VHF 09 we would have surely run aground. In the marina we took on fuel to top off the tanks and backed in to our new home.

That is a lot of Chiquita Bananas

    We connected with the other 2 Loopers that had made the crossing with us. They decided to go on the next day north toward Atlantic City, as it looked like the last decent day for awhile. There are two routes to follow. The first is "outside" into the Atlantic. This tactic is for boats with deeper drafts and requires a good weather window for open ocean navigation. The second option is the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway or NJICW. This should only be attempted by boats with shallower drafts and most preferably on a rising tide. We chose the latter. I began to second guess my decision to stay behind but after receiving word from the other 2 boats that the trip was brutal, I was glad.

Cape May Homes

   The next day my temporary crew and I rented bicycles and explored Cape May. There is plenty to do here. We had a great lunch, hit some shops & rode to the cape to visit the lighthouse. After 200 steps up & down and a 4 mile bike ride, we certainly got our exercise for the day.

Bike Ride
                                                           
200 steps up & 200 steps down

Cape May WW II Bunker

    The weather forecast was not looking great and Wednesday promised 32+ knot winds so I extended our stay at the marina for 2 more nights. The first day of summer in NJ brought wind, rain and 60 degrees. We decided it would be a good day for an inside activity so we hailed an Uber and headed for the Cape May Air Museum. Coincidentally, Cape May Brewing was in the same industrial complex! What a stroke of luck.

F14 Jet Tube

Zelda The Riveter

    The wind blew steadily from the NE nearly all night with constant rain. The next morning the wind had slowed some but was still howling. With 1 more day in the marina waiting for the winds to subside, we did laundry and prepped the boat for the long trip up to Atlantic City. We crossed our fingers that Friday would be a good travel day.

Delaware City, DE to Cape May, NJ

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 23, 2023 at 10:13 AM

    How exciting!!!! Looks like so much fun!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Bottom Line

Image
    H ere in the Crystal River area where we keep our boat, underwater fouling is minimal. This is due to the amount of fresh water we have. Our canal is "brackish" with not alot of salinity and the closer you are to King's Bay and the springs the salinity goes way down. Out to the Gulf and further south, hull bottom fouling becomes worse. Go to the Keys and the Bahamas and it is very aggressive.  Wintertime when the water is cold, the growth is minimal, but when the water warms it is alive with billions of tiny organisms ready to cling to something and start reproducing. Now that our boat is in Tampa Bay and the water temperature is moving into the 70's the growth is accelerating.  How do we combat this? The list of ways is endless but the basic method is to apply Anti-Fouling coatings. Bottom paint. There is a whole science and tons of info about anti-fouling coatings so I won't go into all of it but basically there are 2 types of paint. Hard & Ablative. Bot...
Read more

Pre Loop Madness and Monotony

Image
   The build up was huge, the anticipation was killing us. Now we're here, living on the boat in Bradenton, FL for the next 14 days before we "shove off". With everything we think we will need for the trip in the back of our car, we load it onto the boat. Where in the heck are we going to put all of this stuff? Organizing and storing in every nook & cranny, sorting and reprioritizing. Re-looking at something and saying, "Do we really need 3 of these?" "Put it back in the car." After two full days, Beth managed to get it all labeled and packed away, somewhere. This little boat has a lot more storage space than we thought. Now, to be able to find it when we want it. I looked for my work gloves for 20 minutes!  "Where is all this stuff going to fit?"     Meanwhile I'm doing the same for all of my tools and gear, gallons of oil, fluids and filters, spare parts and odd things that we just might need to get us out of a pinch.  A few last mi...
Read more

The "REAL" Journey Begins

Image
TRAVEL DAY 1 - Palmetto to Sarasota February 14, 2023 4.2 Hours/31.6 Miles     Today is "really" the day we start of the Great Loop, as opposed to the "Unofficial Start of the Great Loop" . We felt pretty confident that all the preparation and work would pay off . Well, feelings are one thing, realty is another.     We pulled out of our slip and headed for the fuel dock to top off the tanks with a few gallons of diesel and pump out the holding tank. Of course the predicted wind was not what we got, neither was the air temperature, still it was a decent day for a cruise. We're still in our home waters so we basically knew the way. Our destination was Sarasota and a free anchorage. We had planned to pick up an anchor ball at Marina Jack's but it was full. Free anchorages mean more money for food, snacks and drinks! Out of the Manatee River and around Ana Marie Island     Beth had planned some routes on her Navionics and Aqua Maps apps and was ready to assume ...
Read more