Finishing the Loop #8 – Pennsylvania to New Jersey

Monday 6^th May – Philadelphia

 Although we have finished the Loop from a boating perspective, we still have to reach New York Harbour to have completed it entirely. Which means we won’t have done it until we reach Jersey City, New Jersey in a couple of days. On our Loop trip, we would have crossed from Baltimore to Philly via the Chesapeake Delaware Canal, to reach Delaware Bay – hence our rip to Philadelphia by car.

This began with the route march to the Hertz agency in the Baltimore Hilton from our repositioned berth, then Hertz proceeded to rip me for $55 by way of billing me for an “upgrade” that I didn’t request, they didn’t tell me about, and I didn’t get anyway! I didn’t pick it up at the time, but I will be having words with them when I drop off the car at Dulles airport next week.

We set Carmen to avoid toll roads, which led to a scenic  tour up Highway one over the Conowingo dam on Susquehanna river. We arrived in the early afternoon, but Carolyn was too sick with the cold she picked up in the last few days to go anywhere.  So we didn’t get to visit the Liberty Bell museum. – just went to an ACME (truly) supermarket for fixins for dinner in our motel room and had an early night.

Tuesday 7^th May – Atlantic City NJ

Departed early at 8am for the 1hr drive to the old Silverton factory site in Millville, NJ, where Loopy Kiwi was built. While it is still there, there is not a lot to show what it once was, but I took a few pix for nostalgic reasons anyway.

We continued on to  Cape May at the mouth of the Delaware Bay and visited the lighthouse there.

 This end of Cape May is subject to major coastal erosion, and great chunks of the township have been washed away over the years the pic below shows a photo that was taken in 1944. The town trolley tracks that used to run up to 1918 would now be 1/4 mile offshore, and the shoreline has moved even further inland since the photo was taken. The WW2 bunker below, now on the beach, was originally 900ft inland.

The ICW cuts across the peninsular with a canal and then continues up the Atlantic coast.. The city of Cape May is mile after mile of Hotels, motels, condos, restaurants and theme parks – all deserted and closed, so it was like driving through a ghost town. However, we noticed that their “season” opens on 10^th May, so I think it will be a very different story after this weekend.

We followed the ICW up to Atlantic City, where we had booked into Balleys Casino. However, registration didn’t start till 4pm (unless you pay a $10 early check-in fee) so we took a walk to the nearby Tanger market so Carolyn could go to Skechers to buy more shoes. Balleys is not only big, it is also physically linked to Caesars Palace and the Wild West Casinos. We decided to partake of Caesars Buffet dinner and had to walk through the Wild West to get to it.. Which, after partaking of the feast of roast turkey and other stuff, meant we had to come back the same way. Carolyn decided to play the “1c” pokies, which are actually 80c pokies as the minimum bet is 80 tokens @ 1c each, so  $20 disappeared in 5 minutes, so we soon flagged that away. It would appear also that I am coming down with Carolyn’s cold…..

Wednesday 8^th May – Jersey City NJ

….Which I was.

So, feeling grotty, we departed Atlantic City and drove inland a little to to Egg Habor Yachts, the company that bought Silverton’s assets when it went belly up in 2013. I took a few pix, then went inside and met VP Sales and Marketing who, after hearing my Silverton story, took me on a factory tour. There were only a few boats under construction and mainly sportfishers with outboard power. One 42 footer was to be fitted with four 425HP Yamaha outboards. They wouldn' allow cameras in their factory, so I asked if I could get a pic of the mold for the Silverton 453 (there had been a few Silverton molds in the factory yard), but he told me it had been scrapped (sigh)..

When we left, Carmen wanted to take us inland, but we forced her back to the coast and up to Jersey City. The .motel was on the side of a cliff, quite reminiscent of houses in Wellington and, although it didn’t face the Hudson River, it was directly opposite Chelsea Pier, where we began our Blount cruise to Chicago last year. So that constituted the end of the Loop. Yet another supermarket dinner as we were both feeling to shitty to go out, which also explains no pix of New Jersey – although there wasn’t anything photogenic about where we were, anyway - unless you like looking at railway yards.

The Great Loop is done!

Finishing the Loop #7 – Maryland

Sunday 5^th May – Baltimore MD

Further to the Kentucky Derby run yesterday, Carolyn’s horse, Maximum Security, “won” the derby and she got 1/3 of the prize pool, the massive sum of $15.50. However, there was an appeal by another rider and the horse was disqualified (the first time ever in a Kentucky Derby) so she had to pay it back - and only 1 guy won the whole $46. But we also “won” the silly hat competition, although there were only 3 competitors so we all get a prize – not that we have seen it yet.

This morning we were greeted with a grey, drizzly day on awakening at 6am. We were headed up the Patapsco River towards Baltimore with a cruise ship, Carnival Pride, right behind us. In fact we were going too slow for her, so she overtook us before we reached Baltimore harbor. Plenty of activity as we cruised towards our berth, and lots of marinas up here – but still no Silverton 453’s to be seen.

However, when we arrived at our berth alongside USS Constellation, we found another vessel the “Pride of Baltimore” docked where we were supposed to be, and they insisted they had booked the berth for the next 2 days, just as Blount had. Since they were already there and didn’t seem inclined to move, we had to go over to a marina on the other side of the inner harbor and tie up there. No real issue, except the walk to the Hertz office to pick up our rental car tomorrow just went from 4 blocks to 1¼ miles!

In the afternoon, I took a walk down to Harborview Marina, about 20 minutes away, and caught up with a couple from the Silverton Owners Club,  Mark and Nicholle, who own a Silverton 39MY, the baby brother to our 453. It was still raining when I left so Mark gave me a lift back to the boat, which was in the process of shifting further up the dock so the passengers who did the tour to Washington DC didn’t have so far to walk back

Tonight is the Captains farewell cocktail party and for dinner we have Prime Rib – so we will be able to compare with Coinjock’s and see who prevails.

Angels in a blanket (scallops wrapped in bacon)

Shrimp

Crab salad

Simosas, cheese and crackers

It turned out the Rib was almost on a par with Coinjock's - just as tasty, but not quite as big. And we had the Captain at our table to ensure there was no misbehaviour. 

PS. Coinjock is the Indian word for the Mulberry Bush - for those who were dying to know.

PPS.  Not only did we have to give back the "winnings" from the Kentucky Derby, we never did get our prizes for the silly hat competition we were promised.  Blount giveth and Blount taketh away. "Blessed Indian-giver" be the name of Blount!

Finishing the Loop #6 - Virginia

Friday 3^rd May (continued)

We reached the Nth River bridge at 2pm and, as promised, it was manually cranked open for us. However there was also a Tow in front of us, heading the same way we were and slowing us down considerably. 

We had several more bridges to clear, and 1 lock, with no room to pass before the lock. So our skipper arranged with the tug captain that we would pass him at the lock and enter it first – after telling him of our saga of the day before and that we had passengers to meet in Norfolk. He was quite OK with that, but the Lockmaster was not. He considered that HE was the one to make that decision and insisted that the tug go first. There was a heated exchange between him and our Captain, resulting in some name calling and our captain hanging up on the Lockmaster. So the tug went into the lock chamber first and, although there was enough room for us as well, the Lockmaster made us standby while he locked the tug down the 3 (yes three) feet to the Chesapeake Bay, and it was the slowest lock lowering I have ever witnessed. Once the tug cleared the chamber, the lock gates remained open for another 10 minutes then after closing, the lock remained at the lower level for another 15. Finally the lock crew came out of their building where it appeared they had been having an afternoon break and slowly filled the lock back to our level – about another 10 minutes. The gates were opened and we entered and tied up, but the gates (which are usually closed as soon as you enter the lock) remained open. We waited another 10 minutes or so, then  the Lockmaster got a call from a couple of recreational vessels (probably Loopers) asking for a lock down, so he said he would keep the gates open until they got there to lock down with us – so that took another 20 minutes. Finally we were lowered the 3 feet to the Chesapeake water level and wished a “safe journey” by the Lockmaster as we left. Before we departed on our Great Loop back in 2013, a Michigan boatie had warned us about offending Lockmasters, or Tow captains that probably had friends or family that were Lockmasters, as you could be subjected to “delays” as you reached the locks. There was a term for it, and I’m pretty sure that is what we were subjected to because of our Captain’s personality clash with the xxxxx Lockmaster. We were well and truly Lock-f**ked and had an unnecessary hour added to our already long day.

And the tug goes in

and so do we (30 minutes later) - but lets keep the gates open for a while

Here come some more boats - lets keep the gates open a bit longer!

Everyone's in and the gates are finally closed

The Lousy Lockmaster - We were glad to see the back end of him, too!!!

To add insult to injury, the last bridge before Norfolk was a lift bridge and lifted only at certain times in rush-hour traffic. We arrived at 5pm and had to wait for it to be lifted at 5.30. If we hadn’t been delayed at the lock we would have made the 4.30 opening. By the time we got to the marina at Norfolk at 6pm, the passengers that had gone on the Yorktown tour had been waiting over an hour for us and had missed happy hour too! But we had a good fun day, the 7 of us that remained aboard.

Waiting again

Past the last hurdle

At dinner they announced the new plan (I cautioned earlier about the best laid plans), which was the tour of Norfolk tomorrow would not include the Naval Base, and that we would be sailing from Norfolk at 3pm, directly to Baltimore and skipping Yorktown and Annapolis. Missing the other 2 ports was not an issue – we were still cruising Chesapeake Bay and that is what this trip was all about – but I only wanted to see the Naval  Base at Norfolk, not the rest of the tour, so I cancelled. Apparently we sail right past the Base tomorrow, so will see plenty of ships, anyway.

Saturday 4^th May – Norfolk

Waterside marina at Norfolk  had not only us, but a lot of Loopers, and they kept arriving as the day progressed. Considering the number of marinas around, plus plenty of sheltered anchorages, there must be a lot of Loopers hitting this area right now. We got underway at 3pm and, as promised, passed lots and lots and lots of warships on the way down the Elizabeth river and into the Chesapeake Bay. Here are a few of them, but there were squillions more (no aircraft carriers though - they are all away)

 We are now cruising up the Chesapeake heading the 150-odd miles to Baltimore. It is cocktail hour and we are sitting watching the prelude to the Kentucky Derby - run in about 20 minutes. There are mint Juleps on the Bar, a sweep at $2 per bet, and a silly hat competition

The race is about to start so I'm going to (try to) post this. I'll let you know if we win anything!