July 15-25

Hampton, Solomons Island, Annapolis, Baltimore, Chesapeake City, Cape May, Atlantic City, Snake River, New York City
Nora, Matt

This leg began in Hampton, VA where the delivery crew had left Seabird II at Bluewater Marina.  During the layover their boatyard performed a few maintenance chores, including the replacement of a section of stainless rub rail and reworking some varnish that was improperly done the preceding winter. 

A surprising and unwelcome problem was that the bottom of the boat and the sea chest were covered with sea grapes.  The sea chest was so clogged that water intakes.  We delayed departure by a day in order to have a diver clean the bottom. The bottom paint, which was at the end of its useful life and Zeta Rod system that was supposed to keep sea life from collecting in the sea chest were not effective.

Joining us as deckhand/mate for the next few weeks was Matt Cartier, a college student from my hometown of Lake Lotawana.  Matt is a competitive C-Scow sailor and picked up crewing duties rapidly.  He was a big help at the helm, cleanup and docking.

Departing Hampton on Monday we made a short run to anchor in ?    The next day we cruised to Solomons a very popular and crowded boating destination.    http://www.sba.solomons.md.us/  We stayed at Calvert Marina and had dinner at Riverside Restaurant which was good.  The marina caters mostly to sailboats however and we had problems with the shore power breakers and had to run the generator all night.

Annapolis was the next port of call.  We stayed on the fuel dock at Annapolis Yacht Basin.  The fuel dock was not the best place to be due to waves from harbor traffic, but it was the only berth available.  Matt and I visited the Naval Academy.

Ran into (not literally) Capt Ken Gibson aboard Big Zip at AYB who was again berthed next to us. 

From Annapolis we made a short run to Baltimore.  Most of the time for this run was from the bay into the Baltimore Harbor.  We berthed at the Inner Harbor Marina, which is very well located in downtown Baltimore, within walking distance of a number of attractions, including the aquarium, marine museum and a number of good restaurants. There is a Rusty Scupper at the docks, which is a large seafood restaurant with decent food. Our goddaughter, Katie Rose, joined us for dinner that night at the RS.

Cruised up the bay to Chesapeake City http://www.chesapeakecity.com/ avoiding the worst of a thunderstorm in route.  The CG had been broadcasting warnings about a severe storm and 50Kt winds in our path, but which moved off to the northeast just ahead of our arrival, leaving showers and low visibility, but nothing of the severity anticipated.

At Chesapeake City we were joined for dinner by Jerry and Evelyn Stone from Wilmington.  Jerry is a sailor and fraternity brother from Missouri School of Mines where we both majored in Chemical Engineering.  Jerry went on to a very successful career with DuPont.  We dined at Bayard House which is a favorite (there are only a couple of good restaurants in Chesapeake City).  Bayard overlooks the canal and has a very nice atmosphere, not to mention good food. 

The leg from Chesapeake City to Cape May http://www.capemay.com/ was rather gloomy, with overcast/rainy conditions all day. We had a close call at the entrance to the Cape May canal where we nearly ran aground by edging too far to the right bank of the canal near the entrance to make room for a ferry that was undocking from the terminal.  The channel shoals up substantially on that side although there are no markers.  The ferry captain called an warned us in time to change course and tuck in behind him after he completed his turn.

For the first time we docked at the Canyon Club Marina.  http://www.canyonclubmarina.com/ This is a better choice in my opinion from the South Jersey Marina. There is no current at the dock unlike SS which as an abundance.  The downside is that there are no restaurants or other facilities within walking distance. Upon arrival I donned my wet suit and hookah and spend about 30 minutes cleaning barnacles out of the bow thruster tunnel. The bow thruster had been under performing recently, apparently due to interruption of the water flow by critters. The cleaning improved performance. We taxied to town later in the afternoon and browsed around the old district.  Nora was not feeling well so Matt and I had dinner at Stumpo's.  Most of the restaurants in Cape May do not have liquor licenses, but BYO is welcomed. Wish I had read the cruising guide more thoroughly!

Prior to leaving the marina I cleaned the starboard fuel chiller, removing a couple of dozen small clams that were restricting water flow.  This has been a continuing maintenance issue despite the electrified shock system that is supposed to prevent sea life in the intakes. 

Another dreary day marked the cruise to Atlantic City and an overnight at Farley Marina.  This is definitely the best marina in Atlantic City, the other being Harrah's, which is exposed on the inlet and has some significant current dockside.  Farley is located at the Trump Marina Casino which has a goodly number of restaurants and a health club.  The outside band and bar gets a bit noisy.  It is a 20 minute taxi ride to the Boardwalk, which everyone should visit once (We'd already done it). The best of the restaurants at the Trump is only open on weekends.

Next days run up the Jersey coast was accompanied by perfect weather, the front having moved through leaving clear skies and temps in the 70's.  We stopped in mid afternoon at Belmar, NJ at the Shark River Inlet rather than complete what would have been a long day's run to NYC.  There are only a few good inlets on the Jersey coast, Atlantic City being the best, the only others for larger boats being Manasquan and Shark River.  We timed our arrival for slack tide, which was definitely a good idea as the inlet involves navigating through three bridges and a tight turn between two of them which would be very tricky with any significant amount of current. With the exception of some head boats (fishing) we were the largest boat at the marina.  The town itself if a nice seaside resort town with good amenities and a couple of good restaurants.  There are some large beautiful homes in the inlet between the two draw bridges.

Timing our departure the next morning with slack tide, as did all the fishing fleet, we bade goodbye to Belmar and continued on the New York City. The sunny weather continue till noon then became overcast.  We spent some time on the way through the harbor taking the mandatory pictures of Miss Liberty and Manhattan.  This was Matt's first time in New York and he thought it was pretty awesome, not a bad way to see the city the first time.

We berthed at Newport Marina, which is more conveniently located than Liberty Landing where we laid over last year for a few days.  The downside with Newport is the roll, which, while not as bad as my two previous visits since we were on the back wall facing the river, was still enough to be annoying till the ferry traffic died down.  The docks and upkeep of the marina are also somewhat lacking, although the dockmaster was most accommodating and helpful.  There are numerous restaurants within walking distance, as are a grocery store, mall and the metro and light rail stations.  A couple of good choices are Kamagashi and South City Grill, both an easy walk from the Marina.