Lots of friends and family are concerned about our safety with severe weather here on the east coast.
Know that we are in Cape May NJ tonight. We want to make Delaware City tomorrow or Friday.
Even better than Thursday if needed.
Charlie gave me a lift to the wine store during his lunch break today! Thanks Charlie!
We only got 179 Engine Hours out of the 10 micron primary fuel filter element this time around. I guess I’m going back to the 30 micron variety!
I changed both fuel filters up on the Trent Severn Waterway just 2.5 months ago.
Prior two fuel filter changes were done at delta 435 hours (2022) and delta 729 hours back in July, (both runs with 30 micron.) So this one needed so soon means we go back to 30 micron!
During these 2.5 months, we took on fuel in Peterborough ON, Clayton NY, Whitehall NY, and Manasquan NJ.
A first for us.
We saw no less than 6 feet of water beneath us the whole day. 6.5 hours, 50 miles, not nearly as scary as the charts show!
I recommend it!
Click on video below.
Fortunately, this marina had a reduced rate for a week-long stay. (They use Dockwa.)
We stayed at the Sen. Farley State Marina for seven nights waiting for a weather window on the outside, that never came; plus we spent a night anchoring out in Rum Basin. We lost over a week of progress before finally deciding to try the inside route. Both Janthena & Galene had done this passage years ago, and Destination did it a week or two ago. So, “Can’t be scared!”
As it turns out, it was a very good cruise. We’ll certainly do this route again, without hesitation. “Just time it with the tide.”
Our passage was complete when we pulled into Sunset Lake just north of Cape May.
Very close to Cape May, this is arguably, a better anchorage than by the USCG Station and Boot Camp. No current, less wake, etc.
Just don’t tell anyone!
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It was a relaxing morning! We went back to sleep.
As the day progressed, it got windier later in the day; plus there were lots of weekend pleasure craft and excursion boats in the area. It coulda been better; it coulda been worse.
Monday Morning
The weather forecasts pointed to several days of wind, plus we were out of some staples that we needed. So we used Dockwa to get a slip at the huge marina at Golden Nugget called the Frank S Farley State Marina, named after a beloved US senator from NJ who died in 1977.
Tuesday 9/17/2024
We converted our Dockwa reservation here to a 7-day stay because the weather looks nasty for several days. (Basically we can get 7 days for the price of 5).
We next progressed, with high tide beneath us, just past Little Egg Inlet, which we had actually entered in May of 2022 to go north towards the finishing days of our Great Loop. (See https://shellerina.com/2022/05/03/nj-coast-strategies/ for our first time trying out the inside route of NJ ICW)
This time, we went by Little Egg Inlet and dropped anchor between the two anchor icons you can see below:
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The strategy of short daily passages, using both sides of high tide, helped us make it through the skinny waters that show up above in the hotter colors of the spectrum.
We will continue to use that strategy tomorrow to make our anchorage into Atlantic City called Rum Point Basin.
Using NEBO we see that friends Linda & Brian of Destination are a day ahead of us. Since everything south of New Egg Inlet is new water to us, we pick their brains for a report of what is ahead for us.
He was a masterful speaker/presenter at countless Looper events. We learned so much from him. He made ours a safer boat with his stories and generous sharing of deep knowledge of the sea and waterways, but also showed us how to be adventurous AND curious in our cruising and Looping pursuits.
I think the last presentation of his that I saw was about their Down East Canadian Loop trip, Looper Palooza with Shelly and my brother Russ who flew down (to FL) from Maine a couple years ago.
David Fuller US [Nuclear] Navy (ret)
Anchored here for the night.
Thursday 9/12
We departed Captain Bill’s Landing to transit the Pleasant Point Canal close to slack tide / flood begins (12:30pm), in the southerly direction; heading for NJ’s ICW!
We have heard good things about the Metedeconk River anchorage, which is one of the first anchorages south of the Pleasant Point Canal. That river goes in (west) quite a bit … for good protection. Kinda a big side trip, but good IF you need some protection.
We chose Kettle Creek instead… it shows a bit more progress south for our day’s effort.
Kettle Creek is a bigger “bay” than it appears on the chart. But we were able to find a good spot in the lee of land to drop the hook. It worked for us this day/evening.
Friday
We were awake before sunrise to have some tide beneath us for the way south to Harvey Cedars.
Shelly snags a sun rising after we weigh anchor!
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Harry Cedars NJ
How do you like your stake?
The third pair of stakes entering this area is missing the triangle starboard stake.
Be sure to stay CLOSE that single square one upon exiting. We polished our prop exiting.
Anyway, that’s how we got to Harvey Cedars!
This was our second time in this part of NJ ICW; we were more relaxed this time compared to our first time. So far, so good.
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Point Pleasant Beach NJ
Manasquan Inlet
Capt Bill’s Landing
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Ray is an FCC Extra Class amateur radio operator and ARRL Registered Instructor.
Today he fired up his Icom 7100 transmitter and an end-fed long wire antenna to see what he could work.
DX Stations worked:
T77LA in San Marino (a sovereign micro-state inside of Italy.)
SC5GB in the Dodecanese (Greek islands near Turkey in the SE Aegean Sea.)
PA1WRB in the Netherlands
9A3SMS in Croatia
EA8DMZ & EA8CVX in the Canary Islands
HK3C in Columbia
GI0D in Northern Ireland
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Domestic Stations worked:
K9UIM in IL
WB0VZK in IA
N0JQX in AL
KY4KP in GA
As we get underway, the month and hours ahead look good for us to push off.
Bannister Bay, Lawrence NY
Nice pics off the bow this hour. Rental car is returned, provisioning is done, projects are [almost] all done for this 2-week stay in Great South Bay, Long Island NY.
Generally September is our pick for the open waters off NJ, Delaware Bay, and the Chesapeake. Then we have the protection of the ICW from Norfolk VA south to GA in October. Then FL after November 1, after the National Weather Service prohibits hurricanes in FL.
Plus, we are expecting some company for our last evening here! Any guesses of who might be coming for supper?!
Rest assured, “Grampy Ray”, (tonight’s photographer) got his licks in … holding Lucas during Lucas’s last shift aboard Shellerina for this month.
