2026 October: Chincoteague VA

 

7 October 2026
Depart: Ocean City, MD Sunset Marina 8:15
Arrive: Chincoteague, VA, Robert Reed Park 2:15
Distance: 45 nm
Conditions: 48 degrees at 7:00 a.m. heating to low 60s during the day; minimal wind and wave action on the ocean

With the spider web of lines we had in place after last night's docking, it took me 45 minutes to work the lines to prepare for departure. No sooner did I get dressed than I was out there untying and retying lines. While I prepped the lines, Clark was addressing other pressing issues. Fortunately, we had a shorter travel day planned, so the delayed start was not a major concern for reaching our chosen destination.

As we exited the inlet to Ocean City, MD, I made Clark breakfast and then grabbed something for myself. In between bites, I snapped a couple of "looking back" pictures.

I have said it before, and I'll say it again, "Clark sure knows how to pick days on the ocean!" We had barely a ripple out there all day long. The only time I noticed waves had to be the results of a boat's wake coming our direction from somewhere way off in the distance; otherwise, nothing!

We saw a few boats together. One matched pair passed us early on - perhaps driven by delivery captains??

I could not believe the calm water on the ocean. I took a couple of pictures for proof!

Clark noted that a sailboat named Origami was in Ocean City, Maryland and left just prior to us. We caught up and passed that boat along the way.

S/V Origami 
on an ocean as smooth as glass

Just after 1:00 we arrived at the turn off to travel inland to Chincoteague. Clark said it would be a "long slog" in to town. He had hoped that the current would give us a boost, but unfortunately, it was still going out as we traveled in. Instead of helping us by a couple of knots, he slowed us down instead. 

In between helping Clark spot red and green markers, I took some pictures as we motored inbound.

This snapshot of Google Maps shows our position as we begin our trek to the docks off Main Street in Chincoteague, VA.

We passed the NASA Wallops Flight Facility as we entered the area. All we could see from the boat were a bunch of towers / antennas.

We did see some smoke, so something appeared to be on fire. 

The landscape was somewhat interesting. We saw marshland to one side 

and developed areas on the opposite shore. The size of the first developed property, apparently set up for seasonal occupation, was amazing. Too many matching cabins to count with cars, trucks and campers parked outside. 

"Soldiers" all in a row

Campers outside a cabin

Every cabin was identical to the one next to it with the only distinguishing features being the vehicles parked in front of them! 

Cute cabins with seating on the roof

A playground was included for the children

Playground equipment

and a "Comfort Station" for all residents.

"Comfort Station" on property

Too many to count

Yet more campers!

A little further along, we passed another (apparently) seasonal facility. The cabins were not quite so impressive in quantity or appearance as the first set.

Another cabin "village"

Then came the condos ...

The closer to town we got the more the buildings changed in appearance. 

A restaurant? Looked festive

Sunset Delight coming into Chincoteague, VA

Clark had called ahead to check on availability at the docks in the park and got the "thumbs up" that we would have plenty of space available. Being off season, the manager of reservations said there would be no charge for the night's stay. As we approached the docks, yet unviewable by the eyes, we could see via AIS that we would not be alone on the docks in town. AIS showed a 60' boat at the dock. 

Location of the city docks

With the current having fought us all the way into town, we finally pulled up to the dock at 2:15. Having been here a couple of years ago, Clark knew that some amount of power was available at the docks. He hoped we could plug in to 50 amp service, but the 60' vessel had grabbed that space. Without 50 amps, we cannot run heat on our boat.

I stood with lines in hand on the boat while Clark decided Port or starboard tie? Near catamaran or at other end of dock?  

The docks at Chincoteague are fixed docks with poles and no cleats. A fellow named Gino jumped off the 60' boat to help us tie up. He and I got two lines on - a bow and a stern line to hold us in place while Clark figured out where he ultimately wanted the boat to be situated along the dock. Access to any power whatsoever played a key role in the decision. 

Gino was excited to see that we are from Rumson. He is from the next town over - Red Bank, NJ. I asked if he knew our next door neighbor, John, and he said, "Yes". They belong to the same boat club. Small world!

Since the 50-amp was not available, Clark thought he might plug into an outlet that yields 15 amps at the opposite end of the dock to the cat. He jumped off the boat and checked to be sure that power there was available. It was, so we targeted tying up there.

Then the folks on the Cat said that we could run a line past their boat to get 30 amps. Then Clark had to figure out if he had enough power cord available to reach that far along the dock. He did, so we moved the boat to that end of the dock. By then we had four lines on the boat and all had to be shifted as we "walked" the boat along the dock to the new spot. 

During this process, I got extremely frustrated as there seemed to be a lot more chatting going on than action taking place during this procedure. I finally gave up and went to read a book while they figured it out. Eventually, I got called out to help move lines. 

Then, we needed to run the power cord from our boat, past the 60 footer, and to the power pedestal. Our power cord is run out and stored via a Cablemaster unit. The unit has hardly been used for the summer, and it did not want to cooperate. We had to fight to get the cord to come out of hiding, and when it did, Clark said it was twisted and needed to be straightened. 

Ornery cable controller

Clark decided he needed to take the twist out of the cable by taking it for a walk in a circular pattern to undo the twist. By the way, it is quite heavy!

Round and round he went taking the 
cable for a walk!

Eventually, he declared the cable to be untwisted enough to plug it in. He connected this 50 amp cable to a 30 amp cable and plugged the 30 amp into the pedestal. We have some power to feed his batteries. Other than heat, I can "go wild" using power though what I would use it for was beyond my imagination.

Throughout all this boat positioning and power plugging, I was confined to the boat. Clark is bolder with longer legs than I have. I might have been able to jump the gap to the dock after a while but I was not brave enough to attempt it. If I made it there, I knew I would not be able to get back on board. 

I hate feeling trapped on the boat. It is like a mild case of claustrophobia; I am not scared, but I want out! I was beyond "testy" by the time I could finally get off. Funny that I am fine at anchor with no concern whatsoever about getting off the boat. Put me at a dock without the ability to get off the boat, and I go nuts!

Around 4:30, Clark finally agreed to go for a walk now that all appeared to be situated to his liking. I jumped at the chance to go! I just wanted to go for a walk, but we ended up at a restaurant for dinner. Two nights in a row eating out! Wow! Unheard of for us!

Walking through town, we passed a number of shops - some closed; several still open. We saw nothing that caught our attention until I passed a t-shirt shop with a display out front.

Continuing on, we came upon a place called "Ropewalk". We decided to check out their menu and ultimately decided that we would grab dinner while here. It was early for us being only 4:45, but we got good service as the place was fairly empty.

This place has interesting wall decorations and great murals inside and out.

Mural on front side of restaurant

Mural indoors 

Another mural outside

Walking back to the boat after dinner, we passed by a statue of "Misty of Chincoteague" - the star of a children's book written many years ago. 

Statue of "Misty of Chincoteague"

We were back on board by 6:00. I decided to update the blog while Clark searched for tv stations and watched the news. As I was finishing the blog update, I noticed the sunset and ran out for final pictures of the day.

Our path tomorrow will take us out in the ocean again and into Cape Charles where we will pick up the Atlantic Intra-Coastal Waterway starting in Norfolk. The trip will be close to 80 nm. Once again we will have to fight with dock lines before we can be underway. Anchoring is cheaper, easier, and saves time!

2026 October: Ocean City MD

 6 October 2026
Depart: Atlantic City NJ anchorage 8:05
Arrive: Sunset Marina, Ocean City, MD 5:30
Distance: ~ 73.5 nm; ~ 8.5 hours travel time
Conditions: 51 degrees outside / 61 degrees in our stateroom this morning; Sunny

Usually, when we get going in the morning, Clark has me start moving the boat in the general direction we plan to follow. Today, because getting out of this anchorage is so tricky, he suggested I just sit tight until he could take the helm. I was happy to comply. 

As we departed the anchorage and made our way along Absecon Inlet to the ocean, I snapped some pictures of the area.

Harrah's Casino

MGM

Showboat (in the background)

Absecon Lighthouse

We saw two tows with barges in the inlet - one going outbound coming up from the west of us and one inbound coming in from the ocean. The one heading out of the inlet, in red, was pushing a barge with equipment on it.

McCormack Boys

The tug coming in had the barge "on the hip".

Kendall J Herbert

I took a couple of last pictures of AC, and we were once again underway on the ocean.

Ferris Wheel in Atlantic City, NJ

Clark drew a straight line on the chart from Absecon Inlet to the inlet for Ocean City Maryland. I was so happy that this year the autopilot was functioning well. The boat drove itself basically while we watched for hazards. We were well offshore today. Taking pictures was basically a waste of time. I took one to demonstrate how small the tall buildings of the Wildwoods appeared from our boat.

Some section of the Wildwoods, NJ

At one point, Clark took a measurement to see how far offshore we were and found us to be about 6.5 miles out in the ocean. The chart below shows a big black dot that is our boat passing the Wildwoods at about 6 miles out.

Chart showing southern most NJ

The purple lines shown on the chart above show the traffic sepertion lanes for the freighters, i.e. "big boys", coming into Delaware Bay / the Delaware River. Because Clark anticipates conditions on the ocean allowing us to bypass Chesapeake Bay, we did not make the turn up the Delaware River as we do most years. We are happy to shave a couple of days off our trip south when conditions permit. 

As we passed through the marked area, a large commercial vessel, Overseas Cascade, was approaching the Delaware River / Bay. We were not in his path, but apparently a sailboat was as the captain haled the sailboat and requested him to pass behind his vessel. The captain of the small sailboat said he would comply but was struggling to get the boat to do what he wanted. A wee bit of excitement on the water today - all went well and the sailboat did as requested. 

We traveled on the ocean for close to eight hours, and in all that time, the number of boats we saw could be counted on one hand. Where was everybody?? We saw a couple of sailboats and sportfish but that was about it. Most of our trip was looking at the scenery such as that shown below. I asked Clark about wave heights (I find it really hard to judge), and he said he thought 2-to-3 footers. With stabilizers, it was so calm it was hard to tell.

Needless to say, it was a bit boring. To pass the time, we listened to an NPR radio station for a while until the signal got so bad that the story could not be understood. Instead of looking for a different NPR station, Clark said he wanted music. Yesterday, as we passed Barnegat, Clark found a radio station that he liked, but the further south we got the worse the channel became. 

So, today, when we decided to turn on the new Bluetooth setup and listen to music off my Android phone, we looked into accessing that radio station over the internet and found it! The station we liked is WBNJ (which I figure must stand for Barnegat, NJ) and it is accessible via wbnj.org since it is a not-for-profit station. 

I have not downloaded their app yet, but I plan to do that soon. They play music from the '60s to the '80s. Clark and I knew words to a number of the songs, and we had ourselves a sing-along as we made our way south on the ocean. 

As we passed by the entrance to Delaware Bay, in between the purple lines shown on the chart above, our music suddenly disappeared. What!? Clark guessed that we had lost our Starlink connection, and sure enough, that was the culprit. As soon as we got back under on of their "honeycomb" cells that are part of what we pay for, we had music once again. 

I knew Clark planned to head for Ocean City, Maryland today (even though I had a typo in my blog yesterday saying Ocean City, NJ - fixed earlier today). What I did not know until this morning was that he planned, if possible, to stay at a marina there. Temperatures for tonight are predicted to drop down into the low 40s, but is that the reason for staying at a marina? To have heat? NO! 

Clark wants to see what happens with our batteries if he plugs into electric and get the charge to a full 100%. Does he care for his batteries more than keeping us warm for the night? It would appear the answer is a resounding yes! We just get the side benefit of plugging in!

We entered the inlet to Ocean City, MD at 5:00. We had hoped for 4:30 but we did not get the push from tides we hoped for.  I took some pictures as we approached and came into the city!

Initially, the city was a silhouette as we looked into the sun to see it.

Once we turned, we got a view of the buildings that did not blind us.

Inside the jetty going into Ocean City, Maryland.

Ferris Wheel in Ocean City, MD

Rollercoaster in Ocean City, MD

Ocean City Water Tower in the background

I liked the sea green house we passed along the way in. So pretty with the sun hitting it!

We have never stopped at a marina here before and did not know what to expect. The marina seems nice. The docks frustrated me trying to figure out how to tie up the boat. 

The docks are fixed docks with no cleats to tie to - only poles. The poles were not conducive to tying lines  both forward and aft from midships without some strategy that was beyond my capabilities. With the little dinghy attached to the stern, I had trouble figuring out how to cross lines on the stern. 

The young lady who came out to help with lines was very kind and patient. Tying and retying lines as I struggled to figure out this interesting puzzle that I had to solve. Finally, I had a bow line tied to a forward pole, and she had a stern line tied across the slip to the dock. I threw a short line around a pole by the stern to hold it close while we figured things out. With the boat now secured, albeit maybe not correctly, I asked Clark to come down from the helm and complete the job. 

The whole process of tying lines and checking in took about 45 minutes. I walked up with Clark to check in, and when we were done, it was already past 6:00. Instead of walking all the way back to the boat, we decided to go directly from there to a restaurant I had selected while underway. 

The restaurant I chose, Harborside, was almost the only one open tonight. Another opened the next day at 4:00, and yet another did not open until Thursday. The other nearby choice was Italian, and I wanted seafood. I had hoped to see a bit of the city while here, but time got away from us. 

We did get a bit of a walk to the restaurant as we had to circumvent a section of the marina holding numerous fishing vessels. We could see the restaurant from where we checked in, but it was a distance away due to the water being in the way.

So close but so far!

Pictures of Harborside ...

Entrance

"Home of the Original Orange Crush"

Sample of the signage in the rafters

Rug on floor at the hostess desk

We tried to minimize the amount of time in the restaurant, so we could get back to the boat to take showers and check batteries (of course). However, no sooner did we step on the boat than Clark said, "I have to go back to the restaurant! I left my hat!" 

On the way to the restaurant, he said I walked too slowly. For his second trip there, I sent him off on his own so I would not slow him down.  He got his hat; he got his shower; all is well! 

We watch network television using Over-the-Air at home and on the boat. When we scanned for channels, we found precisely zero! Fortunately, we have a series we are watching on Netflix called "Doc", so we watched that instead.

Clark promises a short, only 36 nm, ride tomorrow to Chincoteague, Virginia. If we can, we will tie up in town; otherwise, we will drop anchor. Clark and I both found being on the ocean for hour after hour tedious and will be glad of a short day tomorrow.