BB11: Delaware Bay to Great Kills

Week 3 started with a long journey at dawn down the Delaware Bay with a gaggle of loopers. It took me a little over 7 hours but the current was with me and my little trawler got up to 10 knots! Flying! The Delaware Bay was filled with beautiful scenery and some interesting sites.

It was a wise decision to pick the right weather window to make the trek and I landed softly at an anchorage in cute, little Cape May. I anchored next to my buddy boat, Bahama Problem, and we hit the grocery and explored the shoreline a little.

My best surprise was that friends, Becky and Danny, from the Mount Adams Yacht Club happened to be in Cape May with family. I asked if they wanted a tour of my boat and I picked them up on my dink. My first visitors on the actual loop!

The good news is that I now know exactly how much gas my dink needs before running out of fuel. The bad news is that…. I ran out of fuel taking them back to shore. Whoops! Welcome to a day in my life where some dumb thing happens every single day. We had to row to the closest dock. On top of that, I did not have my wallet nor my phone with me because I was going to “be right back”. They called their niece who was VERY kind and found a gas station, bought a gas can, filled it with gas, and delivered it to the dock where we were stranded. It’s all part of the adventure!

I stayed in Cape May for 2 days and waited for a weather window to go outside on the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. BEST DAY YET!!! My heart belongs to the ocean. I love the feeling of the powerful swells picking up my trawler and moving me forward while the dolphins fish in their pods. My destination was an anchorage about 5 1/2 hours away in Atlantic City, but it was tempting not to just keep on going and take a right toward Ireland instead. Instead, I settled into my anchorage with my buddy boat, Bahama Problem.

Reviews of Atlantic City from other loopers were less than stellar so I did not even get the dink out. Kali learned to use her piddle pad that day and at least we checked that off the list. We stayed the night and decided to head out the next day, either the inside route along the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway or the outside route on the Atlantic again, pending weather. The sea was angry that day so we stayed inside on the NJ ICW.

WORST DAY YET!!! The inside route is a muddy swamp with lots of skinny water. The charts are not updated. It is windy and it seemed to take forever to navigate through all the places with enough depth. I got stuck in the mud. I was following my navigation route precisely!!! It went from 5 feet of water to 3 1/2 in an instant which is where I bottom out. The current was nuts. It was slack tide and changing from rising to falling so the water was going every which way. Thankfully, it yanked me off within just a few minutes and I found enough water again. My depth alarm goes off LOUDLY when I get within 5 feet of the bottom and it went off countless times. I booked a marina by Barnegat Light in New Jersey while underway because my nerves were frazzled. I just needed a shower and for my boat to be tied to something. The marina there is a crabber’s marina and there were no loopers there which was fine because I was not going to be good company to anyone. The staff there is lovely and although they only had one shower which I’m pretty sure was mostly used to wash crab parts off fishermen, it was exactly what I needed. I did not even hook up to shore power that night. I just needed to stop moving and regain a little confidence for a couple days. Guinness and clam chowder at Kubel’s (one of Anthony Bourdain’s favorites) hit the spot. I stayed 2 days to make certain I had a good day for another outside route for Great Kills.

The Atlantic Ocean again! This would be the last time I see the Atlantic Ocean until I reach Florida. I was a little melancholy but it was another fabulous day. Light winds, small waves, gentle rolling seas, lots of dolphins. I was back in the game. I breathed in the salty air and left New Jersey chaos behind me.

Great Kills was fabulous for so many reasons! John, a volunteer at the Great Kills Yacht Club, took care of me. He gave me an easy slip and was there waiting for me. My new friends on Thunderbolt saw me coming and met me on my way in to help me at the pump out dock. In addition to Thunderbolt, there were over 20 other looper boats there! I saw my friends on Time Enough from Captain Chris’s boating school. I reconnected with Bahama Problem. The newest Mount Adams Yacht Club members on Expotition had caught up to me. Toscana was there whom I had my first docktails with. Not-A-Byte from Cincinnati who took the drone pics was my neighbor. Plus, I met so many more at the Yacht Club bar!! I stayed Friday through the next Tuesday and partied at the pub every night with loopers. SO.MUCH.FUN.

However, the best part about Great Kills was that my friend, Lisa, joined me!! She was my first visitor actually ON the loop with me. It was so fantastic to see a friendly face from home!! She would be with me through New York in Week 4.

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King

If you have questions about anything loop or looper-lifestyle related, feel free to leave it in the comments and I will respond in my next post.

To support the adventure or to track The ‘Nati Nomad’s progress, visit greatloop.thenatinomad.com.