We finished the day anchored in one of our favorite anchorages anywhere! West Neck Harbor – Shelter Island. Between the “forks” of eastern Long Island.
https://shellerina.com/2017/06/14/waking-up-on-the-hook/
We finally got around to updating our transom with our new “Hailing Port”…
Shelly, Nancy, and daughter Desire (Nick’s GF!)
Here are pics of two special persons that I want to include in today’s blog post.
Steve coordinated the at-sea rendezvous for pics to be taken.
Harry is the guy who took these first pics of our boat underway out at sea. July 19, 2020.
Harry joined us today, and he has been following our blog constantly for almost our whole trip. It was GREAT to meet him and fill in some blanks and answer some questions! Too bad I did not put my photo-chronicler hat in time to catch you on-site!
Chris updates us all on Starlink. Thanks Chris!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dwoz49N7Qsk
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Our son, Nick and GF Desire joined us last evening aboard Shellerina for a reunion, then tonight we had a great dinner at the Seagull Restaurant at nearby Bergin Point!
Everyone helped us celebrate our Wake Crossing and return to Lindenhurst. The meal was great and the service was too. These people have become close family for Nick in our absence; we love you all! Thanks to Wally, Laila, Carol Ann, our hosts at the Seagull.
5548 sm (4827nm)
722 engine hours (delta)
May 25, 2021 – May 5, 2022 // 248 travel days underway (as defined by NEBO “boat movements” which is not necessarily travel days.
More stats to follow!
We anchored in this great protected harbor in Lawrence NY, almost immediately inside East Rockaway Inlet. The municipal Lawrence Yacht Club is were we spent our FIRST night of our Loop about a year ago. It is now a new favorite spot!
We don’t like to be negative, but… Our slip did not have ladders like those shown above. Not really sure why they seemed to put us in their worst slip ?!?!
It all happens tomorrow afternoon!!!
Inside? Outside? Hybrid?
Lets start with the Cape May Canal in 30 seconds time lapse into Utsch’s Marina. (see our post on Utsche’s … including how to get in.)
We had two beautiful cruising days, Saturday and Sunday to make Cape May from Del City, and then did Atlantic City on the outside. However, conditions like that would not last. 2-3 foot waves (but oddly, no wind) was forecast for the next hop.
Weeks ago, my first look at the “inside” route (NJ Intracoastal Waterway) was short-lived. Spots with only 3 feet of water meant we’d have to time it all with the tide… which is changing as you progress your day on the inside. We assumed we’d go “outside all the way”.
After our experiences waiting nearly a week for a good weather window to transit Chesapeake Bay, and nearly another week before we could take this video into Cape May, we needed to re-evaluate! We didn’t want to wait another week in Atlantic City, nice as Atlantic City is. (I mean it has great dining (which we already have on-board), but watching seniors pour their money into noisy slot machines is not OUR idea of “entertainment”!)
Shelly suggested we take another look at the inside route. The passage from Little Egg Inlet to Manisquan River actually looked doable. It was the section from Atlantic City to Little Egg that I did not like.
My work schedule was clear on Monday, save for one call I could simply sit in on from the bridge. There were no winds above 10 mph in the forecast, but waves were predicted to be 1-2 feet off the starboard quarter most of the way.
Tides were irrelevant on the outside, but they coincidentally worked to our favor on the inside passage.
We decided on a float plant to start off outside knowing we could pull into Little Egg Inlet if we didn’t like what we saw. That’s exactly what took place. We did not like it on the outside so we went in at Little Egg Inlet, (which was not fun in these conditions… even with no wind.)
The odd forecast of very little wind but waves after two picture perfect calm cruising days, unfortunately turned out to be correct. Except the waves were more like 2-3 feet with an occasional 4 footer. Not good.
Side note: after two beautifully calm cruising days, how can a third day, still have no wind, but call for waves?!?! Where do the waves come from!!! Trying that logic out… trying to out-smart the forecasts… just didn’t work! LOL
We successfully got into Little Egg and finished our passage to Manisquan River all on the inside with tides in our favor the whole way.
While it was flat dead calm the whole way, I cannot write you to say I was “relaxed” at all! The unknowns of a long trip with only inches beneath our unprotected running gear at times with several hours like that still to come made it a nerve-wracking day… only to be finished by a roller coaster ride through the canal at the end with 1.5 knots of current pushing us along!
Once secured for the day in a rolly Manasquam River (Clarks Landing) we picked up all the stuff that got thrown around the cabin earlier in the day, then Shelly made a killer fish chowder, and then, needless to say, we slept very well!
I was disappointed to hear that Hoffman’s is now getting $5/foot for the night. The anchorage options aren’t great. Perhaps finding an anchor spot before hitting the canal would have worked? Clarks would do for now.
Post evaluation: If sea state conditions were any worse than we had today, making Little Egg Inlet would not be advisable IMO. So, my advice, “Do NOT consider Inlets like these to be a reliable storm ‘escape plan’ if confronted with a bad day on the outside.”
Looking forward:
We have only 25 nm left before we cross our wake! For the finish, we plan on waiting patiently for a VERY nice day in deep, open water, to cross, thank you very much.
After all, I don’t want Shelly to fall over board in the middle of Ambrose Channel (the Atlantic’s approach to NYC) when she is up on the bow changing the old white burgee to a new GOLD one.
Fishermen love this stuff.
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We more often use this equipment to record bottom contours in shallow places.
Here is what the bottom contours look like out here off the south NJ coast.
Less than 10 mph wind on our starboard beam, as seen below.
We’ve seen some dolphins. Now we are watching for WHALES!
Lunch at the helm!
Taco Salad.
Make R-16 from either direction. Then follow their headwall within 35 feet. Turn right just before their lighthouse.
We left this morning soon after dead low tide. No problem with 8 ft, so long as you hug their wall! Fuel Docks, office, bait shop is straight in where yellow arrow points. Bow-in slips down that fairway on left is where they put us.
In the stern, Shelly is prepping for our “push off”. Here’s a good look at our fender boards.
Utsch’s Lighthouse this morning on our way OUT.
This post only makes sense after seeing this one: https:/shellerina.com/2022/04/30/dbofs/
Did my course down the east side of the Delaware River succeed in avoiding the strong 2+ knot northbound current?
This 12 year old sticky note hangs on the chart on the wall above Tim Konkus’s desk.
If you have heard about the informative “Briefings” that are part of staying at this strategically located marina to set up for transiting Delaware Bay, you are not alone. This place is known for them!
I think yesterday we were part of the first “briefing” this season!
Tim gives the briefings here. He teaches us how to use the DBOFS to safely and efficiently get to Cape May or alternative ports like Lewes, Atlantic City, Hancock Marina, etc.
Google DBOFS and CBOFS and get familiar with these tools.
Example, a case study: Shellerina’s passage tomorrow. First, you need a good WIND weather window. We’ve been tied up here for five nights waiting for ours. Tomorrow is a good (hard to find) weather window to leave here and head south to Cape May on our overall northbound Loop trip. I could elaborate more on wind and sea state, but I’m not going to get into that for THIS post. I’m going to focus on currents and TIMING our departure time from this wonderful port, as well as strategically altering our route a bit to avoid current.
Cape May is about 50nm from here. That’s 6 or 7 hours for us in our trawler. (( Mental note: 1/3rd of the way down is a security blanket on the east side: Cohansey River and Hancock Marina. Be ready for strong currents in that river if you need that lifeline. ))
OK… so lets see what is happening tomorrow for currents on Delaware Bay!
8:00am In the upper Delaware River area currents are starting to organize into Flood, northbound flow.
By 10:00 am we see PEAK flow northbound Flood in the upper Delaware “River” section of where we want to go. Again, most of that 2- knot current is on the west bank of the Delaware River.
Without getting into too much detail, we want to be at the entrance to Cape May’s canal by 5:00pm. The currents start to work against us down there by 6:00pm, plus we’ll start loosing daylight!
So given this scenario, what is Shellerina’s Float Plan?!?!
#1 We will exit the Delaware City Channel at 11:00am.
#2 We have plotted a course along the east side of the Delaware River (East & outside of the big ship channel). We are using +/- 20 feet of water depth as our guide. The currents against us are much milder on that side.
Some of our dock mates plan on leaving way before dawn in order to take advantage of southbound currents way BEFORE the 7:00am scenarios shown here. But, they’ll be navigating in the dark with that plan! Daring and adventurous.
Again, wind and weather come FIRST in selecting when to GO or NO GO. This post has been more focused on CURRENT which comes next (secondary) in your timing decision of when to push off. All are fun (and critical) to study for safe passages. Now that we have a weather window, timing the current becomes front of mind.
Tim Konkus’s “Briefings” here at Delaware City Marina will help you understand the very unique characteristics of the Delaware River and the Delaware Bay. It is very much part of the Americas Great Loop adventure to engage in this seamanship!
It is also important to note that the upper “River” part of this waterway is more significant to consider CURRENT compared to the lower “Bay” part of this segment of The Loop.
Every other week, this segment of the Delaware gives Loopers tidal advantages in the morning when winds are typically lighter.
You might try to time your arrival/departure from in Delaware City to be one of those weeks when morning currents in the Delaware RIVER align with lighter morning winds. We didn’t!
I think that our “innovation” not read before in cruising guides or forums, is that favoring the east side of the Delaware River is a good strategy of minimizing the effect of current here when you need to be in this waterway in less than ideal currents… at least for this passage tomorrow.
Agriculture / Farming also takes up a significant amount of the land use.
Nearby Bear DE has a major shopping center. It’s about a $25 Lyft / Uber ride.
There are several options for eating out, all walking distance.
How many of us live in a municipality where a marina’s TraveLift yacht handling equipment is allowed to occupy a city street for hours, without complaint or hassle? This marina is SO important to this community and REGION, it gets lots of special consideration, and RESPECT.
Thanks to my Looper Friend “Gene of Galene”He took my call today when I needed clarity.
Sometimes all the compass needles do not point in the same direction. We all like to poke fun at Navionics’ Auto Route. Here is my latest example of how it must be double checked..,. Triple checked even.
To give credit, there are cautionary symbols, which have no explanation. But this channel is un-navigable. Navionics’ “Dock-to-Dock auto-route algorithm should never have proposed this route.
There is a 6 foot vertical clearance bridge that does not open for boat traffic!
Unaware of these issues, once we got there, I didn’t think this west entrance to the Branch Canal looked very inviting. As seen from the C&D Canal (below.). So, I called my very experienced Looper Friend Gene Rutkowski of Galene. He and Patty have become new lifelong Looper Friends of ours, having met up in multiple Looper ports all year.
“You gotta go around! There’s a bridge down there that won’t open,” Gene explained.
There are some reports of shallow water at the entrance. To address that for everyone coming behind us, we recorded these bottom contours on our way in. See the explanation below.
This clearly shows a measured depth of 6 ft at the [navigable] east entrance to Delaware City’s Branch Channel. This was at 5:00pm EDT with 2-3 feet of water above mean low low water (MLLW). However my transducers are 24” below my waterline, So, coincidentally, those nearly offset each other. Therefore, at low tide we say you can expect about 5 feet of water at the entrance; it gets deeper once you are inside. Like stocks and bonds, “Past performance is no guaranty of future performance!” <wink>
As for the west end of this Branch Canal, it’s probably OK for an ambitious kayaker with strong arms to beat the current! … or one who knows how to time the tide’s ebb and flood.
The modest current in here will be “fun” for some to compensate for with their docking. It may not be for others.
We’ll certainly be back here this fall!
Their fuel was the lowest for miles around.
Lots of pollen in the water, on the boat, everywhere!
The final six routes are entered into the chart plotter and are shown below (not in order).
Total 242 nm, average of 40 nm/day. The next two legs will get us to Delaware City on the Delaware River. We will time both of those to get significant help from tidal current. Good weather windows will be important, as most of this is open water. April is also our end-of-quarter at work, which usually equates to more deal closing! The combination of work and weather makes it difficult to predict when those six travel days will take place.
This type of “interactive touch” monument invites youngsters and adults alike to touch and interact with the objects in the exhibit. Not pictured here was a group of kids who we saw hugging and climbing on these statues. One young girl was even kissing one of the statues of kids her age!
The fundamental message here is “pass it on” … study and pass on your heritage to future generations as the figure of Alex Haley is doing here!
I just took the helm after Shelly’s shift/watch. There are a whole bunch of ships showing up 5-10 miles ahead of us on the horizon.
Above, this is what they look like on the chart plotter with AIS. If I click on one of them, I can get their speed over ground (SOG), vessel name, and other info.
There is a total of six large cargo vessels all anchored in the area just outside of Annapolis, which is our destination for this afternoon.
It is most likely that they are all waiting their turn to go up into Baltimore to unload their cargo OR to make their way into the C&D Canal. That canal cuts across from the northern Chesapeake Bay to the Delaware River and Delaware Bay. We might be passing through that canal on Sunday!
Here are a couple of the ships to our right.
Here is Freedom, a gold Looper from Ann Arbor MI. Looks like she’s having another go at it!
Below is Thomas Point Shoal Light which was close to all this activity.
Here is a larger than average tow that we passed earlier on our way into Solomons MD.
Once in Annapolis Harbor, Shelly prepares to throw Steve a line at the fuel dock. We pumped out got some ice, and squared up for one night right in close to town at The Yacht Basin Company.
After securing last eve in Solomons MD, I started playing with my Raymarine’s RADAR. Doppler is not a setting that I usually use underway. I usually have it on chart plotter overlay. So the echos show up on top of the chart with ATONs and the land around us.
Here is a pic of what I saw in Doppler radar mode when I first turned it on.
Sure enough on my starboard quarter, there was a boat approaching us, going by us while we were tied up at the T-head dock.
After this boat got passed us, the radar echos from this boat turned green on our starboard bow. Green because he is a moving object but moving away from us.
You might ask, “What is the stationary (white) object on the other side of the channel, just forward of your starboard beam?”
In chart overlay mode this is what that ATON looks like up close… here doppler is off, and all echos are yellow or orange.
This morning I finally figured it out!
We have been stuck here in Crisfield MD for 6 days and five nights because it has been too windy and rough to cross the Chesapeake Bay and get to Solomons MD.
So I found out who the person is who is in-charge of the wind turbine and called him up on the phone. I simply asked him to slow down the wind turbine for a few hours so it wouldn’t be so windy. Problem solved!
Addendum… later in the day:
That worked; we are now out in the middle of Chesapeake Bay, and there is no wind! I’ll have call the guy to thank him!
Solomons MD here we come.
The golf carts ($25 /4 hours) are a bonus, as is the swimming pool (which will be opening in a few weeks.)
So, I called the marina, and we will go back in and take a slip for tonight. I know our anchor would hold, and I could even put out a second anchor if we had to. But it will simply be more comfortable secured to a new floating cement dock system (with shore power) rather than bouncing about all night out here in the basin!
This is “pleasure boating” after all! It is OK to opt for comfort.
11:45am Addendum
We are now secured at dock for the big blow!
We are safe. Bring it on!
The sun sets this hour to our stern. While a full moon prepares to come up on the horizon off our bow!
The timing of the first full moon after the spring equinox drives the annually variable dates for Passover and Easter each year.
Happy Holidays everyone. “This is a very special night.” … in many traditions.
Traveling to the freedom of The Promised Land both by day and by night under the full moon is at the root of this holy tradition.
My thoughts turn to our friends in Ukrane, some of whom I have personally done business with… one of whom studies with my nephew Adam in college in Maine. The quest for freedom is centuries old, and it is something to hold dear and protect for everyone everywhere.
The moon goes full for everyone everywhere on the planet. The tides respect this even on a cloudy night.
Being mid-April, it is very early in the crab season. So, the cost per pound is higher than it will likely be in the summer. We were glad to find plenty of good crab in any case, as this is our boat’s first trip into Maryland and Chesapeake Bay waters. It’s what we came here for afterall!
More about the Maryland Blue Crab: https://difference.guru/difference-between-male-and-female-blue-crabs/
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/blue-crab
https://www.bluecrabtrading.com/seafood-blog/maryland-blue-crabs-101.html
This “gauge” tool is used to ensure one’s shellfish harvest is of legal size.
The two videos below give good perspective of what you’ll find in here.
The Maryland Crab Cakes and Oysters were good at the Fisherman’s Grille tonight. We’ll try Linton’s tomorrow at lunch to compare. (The marina rents out a couple golf carts to get around town. It’s early in the season so we think our chances are pretty good.). Uber is the backup plan.
We stayed on the hook last night to help recover from the re-fueling bill. 70F water temps here in the gator-less Chesapeake, and 80+F air temps inspired me to take my first dip of the season!
Shelly sporting her newest SPF T-shirt!
Cheap fuel isn’t the only happening thing here in Kilmarnock Virginia. This marina is putting itself “on the map” for Loopers and other transient cruisers by doubling the number of slips, all to go after the transient cruiser marketplace.
We anchored off last night just to save some scratch after yesterday’s fuel bill. There are several great spots to drop the hook nearby. But, we will certainly be stopping back here for our autumn migration to survey the progress!
Chesapeake Boat Basin in Kilmarnock VA has diesel for $4/gallon as seen in Waterway Guide. But you need to add 5.3% sales tax, making it $4.21.
Next stop?
We cross the Bay to Crisfield MD. Somers Cove Marina for 2 nights. We hear that town might serve up some crabs and oysters rather close to that marina. Also taking delivery of some Rx and Amazon “stuff”… the local stores will also get their share, to be sure! LOL
https://shellerina.com/2022/04/14/chesapeake-boat-basin-kilmarnock-va/
Here is more information about this marina and what they have coming.
Our cameras are mounted and aimed low to mainly show what is happening on the waters fore and aft. So, magnificent cloud formations at sunrise and sunset might get missed. What is interesting in these pics is the cloud formations show up in the reflected waters of this great anchorage inside Glouster Point VA.
Yesterday when we made Norfolk – Portsmouth VA we made it to the “beginning” of the Intracoastal Waterway (mile zero). The other end is in Brownsville TX.
It was also a day when our Great Loop trip odometer passed 5000 statute miles! 5008.2 to be exact.
It was a short trip from Atlantic Yacht Basin to Tidewater, but it followed a record-breaking 72-mile day on Saturday where we crossed Albermarle Sound 20 miles, then we kept going! Today is a day for Shelly to recover, do laundry, and take delivery of an Instacart order. (Not exactly rest!)
We try to pack on the miles on the weekends, as Ray still works during the week.
For almost 20 years, in three different boats named Shellerina, we have flown the US Union Jack from our bow. It’s uncommon on pleasure craft (PC), and its kinda like a trademark for us.
https://shellerina.com/2017/04/24/sore-thumb/
One other PC we met up with in Erie PA and again on July 4 last year flew this flag from their bow. https://shellerina.com/2021/07/05/fireworks-afloat-put-in-bay-oh/
The US Union Jack is flown from the bow of US Navy ships that are on liberty. (It is taken down when they are underway.) It was great to see several Navy ships flying this flag from their bow as we have for years now.
We usually buy new flags every year to put up for the 4th. https://shellerina.com/2021/07/04/new-ensign-for-the-4th-of-july/
Here is an alternative view, from the stern, of that same dock landing… in real time.
Shellerina's Blog 