Update 5/29/2011 - North Carolina to New Jersey

Greetings from New Jersey!

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Elizabeth City docks

The last 3 (plus) weeks have been a real blur! In our last update, I described our anchorage at South Lake which is in North Carolina. From there, we went to Elizabeth City after a none too gentle crossing of Albermarle Sound.  We walked around town a bit, toured the museum and this became another example of never knowing what you will find when cruising. It was the first Friday of the month and they were having their “art walk”. All of the galleries were open that evening and they were serving free wine and heavy appetizers (enough for supper!). The next morning was the first farmers market of the season, held right in front of the marina.  We added to our produce and of course found some chocolate chip cookies.

Heading up the Pasquotank River

 

After the farmer’s market, we headed out, traveling up the Pasquotank River to the South Mills lock of the Dismal Swamp Canal. After an uneventful locking (our first of the year) we stopped for the evening at the NC visitors center. The trip up the river and canal were beautiful and done at slow speeds to arrive at the lock at the right time. At the visitors center we had time to tour the museum about the history and wildlife of the canal and had a good happy hour on the dock that evening.

The next day we proceeded up the canal slowly again timing the Deep creek Lock and then proceeding up the south branch of the Elizabeth River into Waterside Marina in Norfolk. The 7 mile trip up the river was not relaxing as we first had to rush to make a bridge opening, then wait for it to open because we were early, then avoid the heavy commercial traffic and since it was Sunday afternoon.

We spent the next 10 days in Norfolk waiting for and then attending the spring rendezvous of the Great Loop Cruisers Association.  We did some shopping, worked on the boat (what else is new) and played tourists in Norfolk, visiting the Norfolk & Southern Railroad Museum, the  MacArthur Memorial and Museum, the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, Nauticus and the battleship Wisconsin. We also had a great happy hour every evening on the dock and made many new friends among the loopers present. The rendezvous went well and was attended by over 200 people. My presentation – CD Canal to Waterford went very well.

From Norfolk we went to Regatta Point Marina in Deltaville where we did some more shopping and boat projects ( I changed the engine oil among other things). We were joined there by 5-10 other loopers so the party continued!

Entry into Tangier Island

The next stop was Crisfield, Maryland on the eastern shore. The town, “the crab capital of the world” had obviously seen better days and there was little going on. However, we had stopped there to take the ferry to Tangier Island which we did and found it to be an interesting but short trip. On the island we took a golf cart tour, walked around some, had crab for lunch and visited the museum. We essentially “saw it” in less than 3 hours!

Our group at assategue

Early the next morning we took off up Tangier Sound, trying to get into the Wicomico River before the winds really got going (we succeeded). We traveled about 10 miles up the river and then into Wicomico Creek where we went into a small marina. The creek was interesting as most of it was not charted! However Lees guidance was excellent. We spent the next few days visiting our friends Lee and Carol (from Carol Ann) and were joined there by George and Jane (Time Out) and Larry and Sue (Suzy Q). It was a mini reunion of some of our looper friends and we talked, played Mexican train dominos, played Farkle, bowled on the Wei and took a trip to Assategue Island to see the horses and take a short beach walk. One day we took the jet skis and 2 dinghies and went up the river to Salisbury for lunch. It was a beautiful day to be on the water and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip and our entire visit.

The following day we proceeded down the river and up Chesapeake Bay, passing through the Little Choptank River and into Knapp’s Narrows for the night. Lee had suggested this route as it only involved around 15 miles on the open bay and the winds were  forecast to be in the 10 to 15 knot range. This would have been perfect conditions for the sailbpat but with the power boat, less wind is better.

Knapp’s narrows is a narrow cut passing through an island and was a very protected place to stop.  We enjoyed the pool in the afternoon and then walked around town a bit, finding the general store for some minor shopping.

Delaware City Marina

The plan for the following day was to slide inside of Poplar island into the Choptank River and pass through Kent Narrows to Rock Hall. However, the day sarted earlier and much nicer than forecast so we elected to go out into the bay and traveled all the way to Chesapeake City which is about 1/3 of the way through the C&D (Chesapeake & Delaware) Canal.  We did the 64 mile trip in record time, leaving around 645 AM and arriving around 1500. There were only 3 boats in the anchorage when we arrived and we were surprised that of the 7 or 8 boats which spent the night at anchor there, only 1 was a sailboat.

After a quiet night’s sleep and a leisurely breakfast we traveled the rest of the way through the canal stopping at Delaware City. We played tourist a bit there, shared an evening with 5 other loopers and attended a classic car drive in featuring mostly cars from the 1960’s.

Coming into Cape May on Memorial Day

Today we left about 745 and made the 50 mile trip down Delaware Bay to Cape May, traveling mostly with the current after the first 2 hours. The water was smooth except for the last 15 miles and I found that by powering up a bit we were able to handle the 2 plus foot waves fine, although we did take a lot of spray, some of it even reaching the bridge.

Entering the Cape May Canal was somewhat of a relief. However, being the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, the locals were out in force and we were continually rocked by boats doing 20 plus knot in the narrow canal.  We arrived safely at Utch’s Marina where we took on fuel and had happy hour with our friends, Ken and Sharon.

Still having a great time!

Steve and Jean