Cape May to Atlantic City

Sorry for the delay.  We have been in areas with no wifi, can you believe it!

Tuesday - May 29, 2018

Well, it turns out that we were the last ones to leave the marina and travel to Cape May, NJ from Delaware City, DE. Our journey today was in perfect weather conditions. No wind and very calm waters. We did have clouds all day but other than that a boater could not have asked for more. One odd thing was, we followed our chart book to navigate down the Delaware Bay and for some reason the numbers on the buoys did not match the actual buoys in the chart book. About half way down the numbers started to match up and all was fine. We never had any real issue as we were able to follow the very clearly marked shipping canal. 

As we approached the Cape May Canal we saw the Cape May Ferry making her way toward the canal entrance, we were about 10 minutes ahead of it. Once in the canal we came down to ideal speed until we exited the canal into Cape May Harbor. Cape May, NJ is home to one of US Coast Guard’s training stations. 

As we were approaching the harbor to make a turn and proceed to South Jersey Marina, I am on the VHF radio trying to contact the dockmaster for a dock assignment when one of our Hot Engine Exhaust alarms goes off. This clearly gets our attention. I shut the engine down and now call the marina on the cell phone and explain I am now on one engine and will need docking assistance and an easy dock assignment. Must say the marina had 4 dock hands to assist us in what turned out to be a very easy docking with only one engine. Turns out, the sensor was placed in the wrong position on the exhaust pipe and has not posed any further issues.

Cape May is a delightful little town at the very southern tip of New Jersey. It holds the unique distinction of having the most Victorian Homes and building in the US. We enjoyed a nice afternoon walk from the marina to the center, better known as Washington Street Mall. This mall was one of Cape May’s main streets that has been closed to traffic and is now a wonderful little 2-4 block street with all kinds of restaurants, shops and candy stores. Have to say we escape without buying one thing. However, I could not pass up a free fudge sample!

Small Portion of Washington Street Mall

View from our back deck

Wednesday & Thursday - May 29-30, 2018

Being that we have both been to Cape May before and the weather forecast for Wednesday looks way better than what Thursday has to offer, we chose to make the 2 plus hour cruise to Atlantic City, NJ rather than stay the extra day in Cape May as planned. Remember, Loopers like to travel in favorable weather. Before leaving Cape May we paid a visit to the fuel dock to fill Zoey’s Adventure with fuel. This is the first time we have taken on fuel since we put her away for the winter in Bohemia Bay Yacht Harbor in Chesapeake City, MD. In addition to fuel we also had the holding tanks pumped out. Not a pleasant job.

We departed Cape May at 9:20 AM . Weather was very light wind, overcast and fog. This would be our first run in fog and have to say was not an issue at all even with being out of boating for 12 years.

The run to Atlantic City was fine however as we approached AC the fog really came in to less than ¼ mile. But thanks to our new chart plotter and radar we had the tools to handle it. We called Farley’s State Marina which is part of Golden Nugget Casino and requested two nights dockage - no problem.

Tonight, it was dinner at the casino. I forget how small the AC casinos are in comparison to what we have in Connecticut. After a nice dinner Lou feed $10.00 (BIG Spender) into one of the machines as we walked out.  Took about 1 minute.

Thursday was a catch-up day, emails etc. as the weather was cool overcast and foggy. In the afternoon we off loaded our bikes and proceeded toward the famous AC Boardwalk. Lou Ann had never been to AC and it has been years since I had seen the Boardwalk. From the marina it was about one mile to the Boardwalk and once there we road in the cool air all the way to the end in Ventnor City. Must say the first part of the Boardwalk where the casinos are  is pretty rundown. However, we were very surprised that the Ventnor City end offered some very impressive homes both overlooking the Atlantic Ocean as well as the side streets leading up to the beach. Super Storm Sandy did a lot of damage to the beaches but with the help of the Army Corp of Engineers and the State of NJ the beaches and boardwalk have been repaired and improved.

Late afternoon I hear a knock on the boat. Turned out to be a fellow Looper who saw our Loop Flag and stopped by to introduce himself. After a few minutes on our aft deck he goes back to his boat to get his wife and it turned out to be our first “Docktail “. This is where fellow Looper's gather for drinks, snacks and tales of the sea!

Rex & Donna on Bella Blue from Austin Texas, just bought their boat after being out of boating for 25 years much like us. We have been out of boating for 12 years, so we had a lot in common. Rex was a bit apprehensive with navigating in the fog and when he found out we were headed to Staten Island the next day and the forecast was for heavy fog he asked if he could follow us. Rex’s boating experience was in southern California where there is no fog. Turns out he left before we did as the fog was light at best.

We have no pictures from Atlantic City as is was so overcast and foggy.

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