Oh What an Adventure...or I hate the NJ ICW!

So we cast off on our voyage , making our way up through Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and through to Cape May, NJ with two fairly uneventful cruises (the Delaware Bay was rough but we expected that). As many of you have already seen over at our Website, we've posted a picture of the week showing our night at cape may. The next day we'd planned on cruising just a short way to a more protected anchorage, however upon reaching the entrance to said anchorage, we ran aground on a small shoal. Our port side was hanging on it, and it didn't look good. Luckily enough, between our finagling of the transmission and throttles, and the wind pushing us around, we were able to easily get off the shoal and back out into the channel. Realizing that the entrance to this anchorage would be too shallow for us to pass, we decided to look for another. We found one near Strathmere, NJ between Flat creek and Whale Creek... More like Skinny Creek or you gotta buy another prop after you run aground creek, as upon reaching the branch off to get there, we realized it too would be too shallow. At that point out of frustration, our hitting about 3 more shoals on the way up to that point, and having gone 3 hours longer than we'd originally planned anyways, we decided to make our way up to Ocean City.
Upon reaching Ocean City however, We decided to continue on an hour more to Ventnor, NJ. There just wasn't a very good protected anchorage in Ocean City, and there was tropical depression Barry coming through that night and the following day. In Ventnor we found a very good anchorage. We were basically the only boat in there, and we barely got touched by the storm. All in all it was pretty comfortable. We waited 2 days in Ventnor for the storm to pass and then cruised up to Atlantic city, where we stayed in a transient slip at Krammers. We restocked our fuel, food and water, and also met some fellow loopers who have joined us in the journey.

On June 5th, we took off in tandem with Vickie and Mike (Drifters, a 45' Californian that actually draws 6"s more than us). I volunteered to go first up the waterway and radio any shallow water. Good plan...not. After about an hour on a glorious morning, we neared an inlet. I was in the head and Ashton was staying exactly in the channel when....you guessed it, another shoal...this time we skidded to a halt with 2 ft breakers all around us. To make matters worse, Drifters following behind hit the shoal as well ( things were too chaotic to get off a radio call...so much for plans). After about 10 mins of trying to ruin our transmissions we called Boat Tow US ( yeah baby, I got the unlimited plan before cruising!) and threw out our anchor to wait for the tow to arrive. Ok, so my anchor holds and Drifter's anchor doesn't...appropriate with their name. Our problem is they drifted into us. So when the tow arrived everyone was in various states of panic as we were fending off 40 tons of boat in two foot surf. Insane. Tow US immediate threw us a line and dragged us free. We anchored about 100 yards to the North and watched for the next hour as he wedged Drifters off the sand bar. End result was we both headed for the nearest marina to lick our wounds. Only real harm was some cosmetic scratches to my davit and Drifters hull.

The next day we stayed with our "Waveaway go first plan" but with better spacing and MUCH MORE appreciation for inlet shoaling following storms! The day was glorious and the trip uneventful.

On the 7th of June, we headed outside into the Atlantic for the first time for a wonderful trip up to New York. We are currently at a marina South of New York planning for a very boring weekend...I need it. Two good days following a really tough New Jersey ICW section...next time, we go outside the entire trip.

Plan is to head up the Hudson on Tuesday when Cathy returns from a touch and go at work. Ashton is having his girl friend visit this weekend and dad gets to wax the boat and trouble shoot voltage issues. My kind of weekend...must be getting old.