Utsch Marina, Cape May, NJ – Farley’s State Marina, Atlantic City, NJ

 Great Loop (Second), Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jun 032022
 

Atlantic City here we come. The winds are still so reasonable. We head out at our usual time of 7:30 am and start the 50 mile trek to Atlantic City. We do have reservations at the Golden Nugget Marina. The marina is onsite at the casino. The cruise is an uneventful day with 1 foot waves and swells low about 8 seconds apart. Scott kicks the engines up for a short time to give them a good run. We pass the folks that left at daybreak. Almost Home, Cat Bottomed Girl, and a couple others started their journey at least an hour before us.

Cruising along the Jersey shore we see lots of folks starting the day on the beaches. Stretches of glorious, sandy beach dot this shore. There are lots of mega houses as well. With the winds so low, as the day progresses, we do see more and more folks out enjoying the spring sunshine.

About an hour outside AC the winds begin to pick up and we do have some chop. The chop becomes abut 2 foot seas and the swells continue. Approaching the harbour of AC we are tossed around a bit but only for a short duration. The harbour is calm again and we find our slip at Farley State Marina at the site of the Golden Nugget. There are a bunch of Loopers already here and we chat with several. They say to use the pool and the 5 hot tubs on the 6th floor of the Casino. After settling in we head up to the pool and enjoy doing some laps and meeting Into the Mystic, another Looper.

Dinner is on boat and then out for the nightlife that has music blasting the marina. It’s all great. We wander around the Golden Nugget and take night photos of the marina and skyline. We did partake in some gelato from the casino.

As it turns out a boat once owned by Johnny Depp and AK Rowling is here. We noticed it immediately when we came in as it is very different than your average mega yacht. When Johnny owned it he spent $7 mill in renos. AK Rowling owned it for a brief period of 8 months then sold it to the current owner. It has a value of $20 mil. She is a stunningly beautiful yacht made to look like an old ship. Well done woodworking along the entire length of the ship for the guest areas and a pirate plank out front with esquisite hand carved woodwork in the freeboard. She is a beauty.

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Schaffer’s Marina, Chesapeake City, MD – Utsch’s Marina, Cape May, NJ

 Great Loop (Second), Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jun 012022
 

When checking when to leave Schaffer’s Marina check the currents of the Delaware Bay, and not the C & G canal. The currents will be against you while in the C & G but will become favourable on the Delaware which is a much longer transit. You want to time your exit along the canal to be in your favour heading to Cape May. We decide the best time to leave is when the C & G is against us and the Delaware is going to be against us for about 1/4 of the way. Then it will be in our favour and we will have a push from the tides heading out all the way to Cape May. It is still a long day at 8 knts. Scott decides to pick it up for about an hour while we transit the Delaware just to save some time but also the engines have not worked hard in a long time. We need to blow out some carbon. The bay is fairly flat water. We feel very lucky having so many days in a row to cover the Chesapeake and now the Delaware. Yes, this is the same Delaware that George Washington traveled. There are not many areas to duck in along the coast on the Bay so a good weather window is imperative.

A chop starts to build as we get closer to Cape May but it was still very reasonable. We are heading into Utch’s Marina. It is a bow in only as it is too shallow for stern in. The marina entrance is being dredged and we find 5 feet at the channel. It does deepen upon entering the marina. We find our slip and now I can’t get off the boat. Scott finds a step where I climb over the bow rail, find my footing at the step 3 feet away and then climb down the step. I won’t be getting off often.

At the marina we find so many loopers. We meet several at docktails. It was a fun night getting to hear everyone’s journey and where they are from. Cheers to a great night. We all headed back to the boat at 7:00, Looper’s need down time at home too.

It’s also my birthday so we head out to the nearest restaurant. Lucky Bones has an array of menu options at a reasonable price. Scott had the rack of ribs and I had an amazing cabbage and brussel sprout salad. We even treated ourselves to a chocolate chip cheesecake. After dinner we headed for a short walk and then back to the boat.

We did find pickleball and some folks to play easily accessible with an Uber. Great courts with okay competition but we are happy to have had a few games.

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