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.
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| Harrah's Casino |
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| MGM |
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| Showboat (in the background) |
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| 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.
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| McCormack Boys |
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| Kendall J Herbert |
I took a couple of last pictures of AC, and we were once again underway on the ocean.
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| Ferris Wheel in Atlantic City, NJ |
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| Some section of the Wildwoods, NJ |
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| 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.
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| Ferris Wheel in Ocean City, MD |
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| Rollercoaster in Ocean City, MD |
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| Ocean City Water Tower in the background |
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.
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| So close but so far! |
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| Entrance |
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| "Home of the Original Orange Crush" |
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| Sample of the signage in the rafters |
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| 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.
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