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Up early to clean the boat, do laundry, and return the rental car.  Had a great breakfast at a local diner, then made the 20 mile trip to Chesapeake City.  Busy place and anchorage room was tight but we found a spot.  Kathy and Ross caught up and we're both anchored.  Weather looks good for a trip down the Delaware Bay tomorrow.  We'll be up early to get the latest weather forecast, then decide.  The area at Chesapeake City has a free dock that was full and a nice park area to walk the Sophie.  A good stop.  

Underway at 7 am for Cape May.  Funny noises coming from port engine raw water pump, so tried the single engine operations for most of the trip down the bay.  Towards the end started the port engine and the pump ran fine.  New one will be waiting for us in Cape May.  After a 7 hour trip we tied up at Utcsh's Marina, the friendliest marina we've ever stayed at..  

3 Jun 2008

Cape May, NJ

Still here, enjoying the town, a great place to visit.  A weather system will keep us here through Thursday, which is fine with us.  After pulling the old raw water pump determined the new part waiting for us was incorrect so new order placed.  We cleaned up and headed for town.  It is a great place with a large boardwalk area, a long main street next to the Ocean, and many old Victorian homes.   

There are a half dozen long range cruisers here, several planning to complete the down east loop as we are.  We're making new friends and enjoying life.

An interesting story from one couple is their experience coming up the Dismal Swamp to Norfolk.  Traveling up the ditch they hit a pickup truck!  Yes a pickup truck!  The night before a pickup had driven off the road into the canal.  No one knew it was there (apparently the driver had stolen it and swam away) and it was just 2 feet below the surface of the water.  The 40 foot cruiser came up the waterway and hit it, doing some serious damage to the boat.  Towed to Norfolk, repairs were completed and it was on its way again.  Now here in Cape May they have lost a transmission blamed on the collision with the pickup.  Luckily, the insurance company agreed and they are covering the cost of the replacement.  

Quiet day replacing the raw water pump and fixing the choke on the dinghy.  Carey did the laundry and we both enjoyed the day.  Tonight I'm working to rebuild the lap top computer we use for charts as the hard drive was acting up.  Dell shipped us a new one.  Putting all the software back on the machine is a pain, but I'm getting it done.  We'll probably wait until Friday to leave here. 

Replaced six of eight golf cart batteries.  They were four years old and not maintaining a charge.  Finished reworking the new computer hard drive and it's ready for chart plotting on the trip.  The weather is abating and it looks like a good day to move north, so tomorrow morning we're on our way north.  With good weather we'll go outside.

Had dinner with Kathy and Ross this evening.  They have decided to return to Port Kinsale.  The expense of the trip, heavy weather and several personal issues caused them to decide not to make the trip.  We're sorry they are not continuing but understand.  We have been in marinas a lot as a result of heavy weather over the start of the trip.  We're hoping the weather settles down.  

After fueling, underway for 40 miles to Atlantic City on the outside.  Seas were 1-3 feet.  The ride was ok.  We anchored in Rum Point anchorage near Atlantic City.  We're not gamblers and had no desire to go ashore.  We enjoyed a great London Broil grilled at anchorage and watched the sun set, after running Sophie ashore in the dinghy.  A relaxing and quiet day, a 5 hour run from Cape May.  Tomorrow is up early for an 80 mile run to New York. 

Great day.  Up at 6 am, took Sophie ashore and counted the horse shoe crabs stranded at low tide on the beach, loaded the dinghy and underway at 7 am.  Fog had cleared at the anchorage and returned in full force when we approached the inlet to the Atlantic.  Radar and GPS got us out of the inlet and and hour up the route as we sounded the fog horn every two minutes to announce our presence to the fishermen. Nine hours and 83 nautical miles later we rounded the corner at Sandy Hook.  Last time I made this trip it took 7 days up the NJ ICW.  This time we made it in two days on the Ocean.  This way was 30 miles shorter with more than 40 feet under the keel all the way, instead of 4 feet on the ICW.  Once anchored we took Sophie ashore to the marina at Sandy Hook and on the way ran out of gas in the dinghy.  Two friendly New Yorkers towed us to the gas dock.  Of course it was closed.  Another friendly New Yorker took me to the gas station down the way and 30 minutes later we were underway, back to the boat for a good meal and movie.  The views of the harbor and land across from our anchorage are shown below, along with the dinghy and empty gas can.  Tomorrow ... New York Harbor. 

Easy start with run to marina dinghy dock, then underway for Haverstraw Bay, a 50 mile run.  Passed the Verrazano Bridge, Statue of Liberty and then enjoyed the scenery of the beautiful Hudson.  It was an easy trip with tides pushing us fast the entire way.  At the anchorage we encountered 60 boats anchored, enjoying a warm Sunday afternoon.  By 6 pm all but the long range cruisers were gone.  We're eating onboard with the AC on.  It is hot.    

Underway at 8 am we enjoyed a beautiful section of the Hudson, including a close up view of West Point (below right).  At 1:30 we arrived at Marlborough Yacht Club (different spelling then the name of the town nearby) and were warmly welcomed by members of the club.  They gave us a ride to the Raccoon Saloon, where we had a great meal while enjoying a view of a 20 foot waterfall into a small pond that over flowed into the Hudson. Carey was thrilled to see lighting bugs on the walk back to the boat.  Once back, we were included with the club members in a  back of the boat social hour or so ... a fantastic time.  The truth is that New Yorkers really provide hospitality, more than we've seen in any other place.  I wonder how we come to think of "southern hospitality" as the norm in behavior.  In our experience, New Yorkers, and those in New Jersey, have no peer for providing hospitality.  We've never been treated better in any other area.

Stayed put today as the heat wave was predicted to continue.  Carey got a ride to the store for needed supplies and I worked on the boat.  Pleasant and quiet day with the air conditioning working hard. 

Underway about 8:30 for the 38 miles trip to Catskill Marina.  Friends at Marlborough Yacht Club said it was a great place, so we decided to try it.  The ride on the Hudson was great, viewing the countryside and lighthouses on the route.  It was fun to watch the trains run almost continuously along the river bed.  We entered Catskill Creek at 1:30 and found a quaint town.  We tied up at the marina with Mark and Maureen, new friends we've met that are on their way around the great loop.  Our boats are moored together this evening, seen below at right. During the last hour underway we lost the engine synchronizer when a cable broke that provides engine RPMs from the starboard engine.  It is not a real problem and we will have the required part delivered up the route.    

Almost nothing we planned got done, but it was our best day yet.  Underway about 1000, watching some people in a canoe, we headed for Coeymans Free Dock only to find they did not have one.  We moved 4 miles further and stopped at Castleton Boat Club, an inexpensive dock.  Two boats from Canada had just moored and were unstepping their mast.  We talked to them and said, "if you need an extra hand let us know."  Well they did and the afternoon was taken up helping unstep two masts.  Great fun and we made new friends.  They bought drinks at the boat club and we ordered burgers for dinner, finishing about 8 pm.  A really fun day, and the work was not that hard.  Sophie, of course, enjoyed her usual relaxing day.

Underway at 7:30 we made the 16 NM trip to Waterford, passing through our first lock of the trip, Troy Federal Lock (top picture at left).   The 1,000 feet of floating dock space at Waterford was full, so we moored at the available cement wall east of the docks.  There are no services on the cement wall, but it is an easy walk to the quaint town.  By the end of the day over 20 long range cruisers were moored at Waterford filling all of the available space.  We had a Friday the 13th party at the adjacent visitor's center and met many of the cruisers.  Saturday morning several boats left so we moved to the floating docks and plugged in to electricity and water.  The Town of Waterford provides these floating docks at no charge for boaters using the Erie and Champlain Canals.  We had a great breakfast at Don and Paul's restaurant, made the usual liquor and grocery store run, and completed a few chores on the boat.  Don and Paul's gets our best rating for breakfast on the trip.  Eggs, toast and coffee for $1.75.  Bacon or sausage just a bit more.  Service and food were great.  We're off tomorrow to start the Erie canal.    

Not so fast.  We got up Sunday morning and decided to stay another day.  There was a farmer's market today at the waterfront.  We bought home made Danish and coffee, enjoyed the people and the fiddle music that was playing all day.  I paid bills and did a couple of boat chores.  Light work and early cocktail hour.  Maybe tomorrow we'll leave. 

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