South West Cape Hangouts

Thanksgiving

Well it’s Thanksgiving and Mike and his friends have invited me to T-Day dinner. It was a nice feeling to get the invite as it made my Thanksgiving.

Pub Crawling

The next night turned out to be a late one bar hoping around the Cape.

The Overtime Sports bar in South West Cape Coral is a great place for food and drinks with sports games playing on every TV that literally cover the walls.

I don’t believe I found salvation at The Dek but I do love the signage.

Why do I have a Buzz Light year face on my watch? Maybe cuz it’s 3AM and I am just pushing buttons without being able to read my watch?

December 7th a day that will live in infamy

We started it off with a boat ride.

St. James City near Sanibel Island

Dawson Canal is a narrow canal that leads up into St. James City on the southern tip of Pine Island. Lots of good places to tie up the boat and enjoy an IPA.

On our way to Fort Myers Beach

On our way to Fort Myers Beach you pass Punta Rassa. The location was named Punta Rasca (Spanish for “smooth or flat point” and later corrupted to “Punta Rassa“) by the Spanish Conquistadors in the mid-16th century, who unloaded cattle in the area.

We got back just in time to go to Dennis’s Christmas Party. Thanks Dennis for inviting me. It turned out to be a party I’ll remember.

Xmas Bash at Dennis’s Home

This is how you throw a house party in Cape Coral. Complete with catering, live band, tiki bars and so on.

We pulled up a seat on the mobile tiki bar. It’s a tiki bar built on top of a 4 wheeler where the bartender drives the bar around as you are seated.

Spend some time talking with Vince about the PBR circuit and he will amaze you with his stories. Yes, Vince was a professional bull rider who now works as a charter captain.

Claire was my friend to visit with on my morning walks around the marina. Always with a big smile on her face.

The Marina

The next morning I took it easy and walked around the marina.

One of the boats I was told was owned by the band Foreigner’s ex-drummer. Having grown up listening to the Foreigner 4 album I could not resist searching my iPhone for some Foreigner and playing it aboard. I got a strange look from the captain so I’m guessing he was in the band?

Cape Harbour Marina has many nice boats and is surrounded by fancy high-rise towers. You’ll find great restaurants like Fathoms & Rumrunners as well as the V.O. Tiki Bar.

Someone keep me honest on my fish species identification here?

House Partying

If you are into sports like Tom & Chuck you build walls of TVs all streaming different games

Mike’s group of friends were so enjoyable and quickly accepted me into their group of friends. Cape Coral felt like a second home almost instantly.

Night Crossing of Albemarle Sound

We spent Thanksgiving at Top Rack Marian. Kelly used InstaCart grocery delivery service to order everything that she needed and whipped up an amazing turkey dinner. This woman has skills :-).

All the Fix’ins
Yumm
Pie at the helm while underway
Saloon cleaned up after T-Day dinner.

We left Top Rack Marina after sharing an amazing Thanksgiving aboard. However, the temps were dipping into the 30’s at night and we needed to go South as fast as possible.

Leaving Top Rack Marina

a mile or two South down the ICW is the Great Bridge Lock. The water level only drops 2-3 ft so it’s pretty gentle as far as river locks go. However, the ICW (InterCoastal Waterway) is a federal commerce waterway and that means that it’s there for commercial boats first and pleasure boaters second. We had a stand aside while the lock tender let this huge tug and barge in ahead of us.

They asked us if we felt comfortable trying to squeeze past the tug n barge to get ahead of it in the lock. Challenge accepted.

Soon the gates were swinging open.

https://youtu.be/uCdNnLo4Q-s

Great Bridge Lock, ICW in VA

We saw lots of Canadians looking for a warmer winter

We passed through the Centerville Turnpike Swing Bridge

https://youtu.be/8i8TA1ITDwA

Centerville Turnpike Swing Bridge

Then it was through the “normally open except for when a train is a coming” bridge.

If a train comes and it starts a lower.. push the throttle to the pins 😉

Not long after that we were passing Coinjock Marina in NC. This is normally our stopping point for the night but the winds were going to increase early in the AM so we decided to anchor just before our Albemarle Sound crossing. On our way to our anchorage we heard a sailboat on the VHF hailing TowBoatUS to come pull them out of the shallows. It was 1.5 hours before low tide so it was only going to get worse.

This boat had wandered outside of the narrow channel and run aground

Soon we were passing ICW mile markers 55 & 65 and approaching our anchorage for the night.

I did one last check to see if the weather forecast had changed and … it had.

The strong winds were going to come before sunrise so Kelly & I decided do a nighttime crossing of Albemarle sound and anchor in the Alligator River rather than have a lumpy crossing in the AM.

Just before the sun went down we snapped one more photo.

The full moon came up but we were not running into it but away from it. I always prefer to run down the moonstreak as it helps me spot crap pot floats before we run them over and wrap the line around our propeller.

The crossing was a bit lumpy but we picked a spot to anchor behind Durant Island that would give us a lee shore. Tonight we will sleep well and get plan for a sunrise departure before the wind starts to whip in the AM.

Anchored Behind Durant Island (red marker)

Today’s leg was 70 NM from Chesapeake, VA to Durant Island, NC. This year we agreed to throttle-back to somewhere in the 6 knot range and stay in the 3 NM / gallon diesel range. We conservatively plan to make 50 NM / day. That’s 10 hours of daylight x 6 kts minus time weighing / dropping anchor and waiting for bridges to open.

Apple Maps Screen Capture with Finger Drawn Route – A Close Approximation

Atlantic City for Happy Hour

So we started out of the Manasquan River shortly after sunrise and ran aground before my coffee got cold. The captain was not paying attention as used some excuse about being by the morning sun. “Crappy Captain!” is what we shout whenever I do something stupid. I still have much to learn. It was a sand bar @ 4ft and far from what my charts showed. We backed up and pushed our way off the sandy bar and the rest of the trip was without incident.

Right away we were forced to wait @ the Manasquan River railroad bridge which was closed for a train crossing. We waited with 20 or so boats for the bascule bridge to reopen. When it did open, it was “every boat for themselves”. It felt like being at the Raynham, MA dog track… “There goes Rusty”. I think that was the rabbit’s name?

As we passed through the narrow opening for the railroad bridge I felt compelled to snap a pic out the pilothouse door to show how tight the passage feels.

RR Bridge Close — Tight Squeeze to Starboard

The last challenge to get through was the Manasquan inlet which was displaying a phenomenon called “reflected waves”. These are wakes from boats (zipping by us) that are being reflected back off the inlet walls. It’s like having your head above water in a washing machine; there is no rhyme or reason to the direction of the waves.

The cruise South was smooth as the period between the ocean swell was long, 10 seconds or so. This made for a gentle 3-4 foot swell. We made our way South down the NJ coast and as we passed Atlantic inlets we dodged the many sport fishing boats that were fishing atop of one another. We listened on the VHF as they stood holding a rod on the back of a boat at the end of November.

When it was not fishermen we were seeing it was a porpoise or two. Here is a short video of what I think was a porpoise but I’m sure one of you will chime in about what species owns the dorsal fin in the video?

As we approached, Atlantic City could soon be seen in the distance.

Coming into AC was easy as far as NJ inlets go. With the exception of having to stay clear of the bar that can be understood when you see the breaking waves atop of it.

The Absecon Inlet is wide and the ebbing current was only about 1.5 kts against us. Just inside the entrance, we turned to port we left the wind & current behind. As we hailed Farley State Marina and VHF channel 65 as Kelly reminded me to loose my Boston accent and hail “FaRRRley Marina” instead of “Fahlee Marina”. The VHF radio crackled back and they told us to head down the fairway between docks echo and foxtrot and simply pick any slip we liked. We chose a slip close to the Chart House restaurant an 1st mate jumped into action as we backed her down into the slip. Kelly great about waiting till I bring the boat alongside the floating dock before attempting to jump off onto the dock. A miscalculation could lead to winding up in the water between the dock and the 30,000 lb boat as it kisses the dock. This docking however was easy-peezee. The wind was buffeted by the highrise hotel and dockside current was zero.

We tied up quickly and raised a toast to AC. Thankfully the night before I had walked the path from the boat, under the bridge and to the liquor store to buy MORE IPA beer. I learned beer is always a mix of malty barley vs. bitter hops. Like all IPA enthusiasts, the more bitter the better. My IPA of choice is a “West Coast” style IPA that has IBU (International Bitterness Units) between 50-100 and with a citrus pop like grapefruit or mango, etc. Anyway… the liquor store had Stone Brewing’s “Delicious” IPA and I have to say…YUMMMM, what a great IPA.

As for Atlantic City, well… we were starving and decided to go to the Chart House.

The Chart House was great. We caught happy hour and it was Capt & margaritas! & filet & fish tacos.

We are planning a sunrise departure again but I convinced Kelly to do a quick Casino tour. Thirty feet into the casino and the cigarette smoke made us change our minds. Tonight we’ll finish happy hour on the boat while I write this blog update and do some chart plotting before bed.

Tonight I will be scouring every maritime website / app for any & all information I can about the Delaware coast. Today’s Captain is digital. It used to be an old guy who looked like the Gorton fisherman but now it’s a millennial with the charting, piloting, tide, moon phases, sunrise times and weather apps on multiple digital devices.

Gorton Fisherman — Gorton vs. Millennials

Though I must admit…a captain is only as good as his/her experience. I have been boating 20+ years and still feel like a noob at times. I imagine that becoming a full-time cruiser will give me the time to read such maritime tomes as Chapman Piloting and Bowditch – The American Practical Navigator.

Bowditch - The American Practical Navigator

Every captain make mistakes… which we’ll call wisdom later on 😉

That’s all for now. Kelly & I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Shortest Ferry Ride Ever

We are still here at Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City, NJ.
It’s a beautiful marina in the shadow of Lady Liberty. From the boat you can see the NYC skyline of lower Manhattan.

Kelly stayed behind while I took an Uber to the market to purchase turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing for Thanksgiving. Much to my chagrin the market that the marina recommended was an Asian market and it seems Thanksgiving was nowhere to be found. I must have spent 10 minutes staring at the store’s spice display rack trying to find Cumin, Sage and Rosemary.

After coming home to the boat defeated we decided that we’d go out in Jersey City for a drink or two. The marina manager told us about a great place called White Star Bar and it was just a short ferry ride away. So off we ran to catch the ferry. We no sooner boarded the ferry and it pulled away from the dock. We heard the loud bow thruster spin us around 180 degrees. Suddenly the ferry lurched forward and docked on the other side of the channel 50 feet away. We were told to pay our $2 & exit. It was then that we knew our NYC water taxi experience had been ripped from us.

littlelady-photo-homepage — Picture Shows How Far the ferry Ride Was

We hurried down the cold street in wearing the warmest clothes we have aboard. There are no ski jackets or gloves aboard Simple Life. The bar was warm and we enjoyed dinner and drinks. Though they got Kelly’s Captain/Diet Pepsi/NFL (No Freaking Lime) wrong TWICE. Once it was scotch & Pepsi and the other some vanilla liquor & Pepsi. The waitress could not explain it but we were just happy to be in off the cold street.

As for getting further South… The active gale warning has given way to a gale watch for the waters off Manasquam River Inlet.

With this in mind we’ll be checking the forecast tomorrow as well as the real-time buoy data. Fingers crossed that we can again make our way South to warmer weather.