MTOA Chrisfield, MD

Marine Trawler Owners Accociation
Somers Cove Marina Chrisfield, MD
Monday-Friday September 26-30

We left our anchorage in Duck Point Cove as soon as we had enough light to see. There was not much sleep rolling side to side all night but underway we had a good angle to the wind and waves so we made short work of the 34 mile trip to this rendezvous. Chrisfield is a small Maryland town suffering from economic depression we think due to the decline in crab industry. It is a pretty little town but lots of closed businesses. The marina is lovely and they are going out of their way to make this a good experience. We checked in, bought shirts, received a nice embroidered bag and attended a pot luck supper Monday night. On Tuesday we took a 3 block walk to the waterfront and had lunch at the Waterfront Cafe after visiting the local museum. The main industry here was oysters through the civil war until the early 1900. After that the industry turned to blue crabs. It was fascinating to see the evolution of boats used by the watermen to collect oysters and crabs. It is shallow waters here and the boats can not draw much since they crab in 2-3' of water.

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On Main St

The MTOA group plans group talks each day we can attend with lots of good information. Some of the topics are AC-DC systems, batteries, new  gadgets, shutterfly, women's ideas on food and clothing storage aboard. The fee provides food each day. 

First nights dinner

Cute centerpiece

Italian night

Wednesday night we went to the Waterside Cafe 50's lounge for a choice of burgers or philly cheese steak with drinks, sides, and dessert. We arrived at 6:16 and left at 9:00. It was a long wait.....clearly the little cafe was overwhelmed by apx 80 people at once. A picture is worth a thousand words!! LOL

 Tuesday someone organized crab races. Ours was #36 and was third out of the gate going strong until nearing the bottom then it just stopped and sat there. We came in last!!

Chrisfield's mayor introducing
each crab.

Preparing the ramp

Peter pointing to our crab
It is the first one near the bottom

Number 36......stopped just before victory!!

Another fun time

Friday's weather was not great so we opted to stay in Chrisfield until Sunday. Friday evening we had dinner aboard m/v Next Dance, Mark and Pauline along with 4 others. Everyone brought something to offer and it was delicious. Peter brought along his after dinner drinks and a very good time was had by all!! Saturday evening 6 of us went to the Chrisfield Inn, a local but very nice restaurant. It's owners trained at Johnson and Wales, Providence RI in the 80's. It was also delicious.

Delicious salmon

Rock Hall, MD, Dunn Cove anchorage, Duck Point anchorage

Haven Harbor Marina
Friday- Sunday, September 23-25, 2016

After 8 days of anchoring we decided to go into a marina with friends on The Good Life. This particular marina is highly rated on Active Captain and it deserves this. The dock staff was excellent. We fueled up with 300 gallons at an incredible price of $1.91. We are now in the territory of slips with pilings and fixed docks as opposed to our floating docks in NE. They are more difficult to manage but the dock staff helped a great deal to get us secured. That evening we ate on the rooftop tiki bar and had a lovely meal. The next day we called a local trolley to bring us to a small grocery store then left by 11:00 am.

Our friends on The Good Life 

Haven Harbor Marina

Kent Island Narrows bridges

Saturday's trip was fairly rough due to the angle of the waves so we altered course with The Good Life to go through the Kent Island Narrows and lift bridge. It was much calmer and also more shallow! We draw 4.5 foot which is easier than our sailboat so we have to get used to the shallow depths......like traveling through depths reading 6'. Our anchorage in Dunn Cove was beautiful surrounded by large houses, quiet, and secluded.

Quiet anchorage in Dunn Cove

We left our nice anchorage in Dunn Cove on Sunday to travel 47 miles to our next destination. It was windy and somewhat rough but we made the trip in good time. This anchorage on the Eastern side of the Chesapeake was more exposed than others we have been in but easy to get to and set the anchor in 6.9' of water. Unfortunately the night winds out of the NNW made us rock and roll. We woke about 3 am thinking a boat had passed us since we were rolling side to side. When it didn't stop we discovered the wind had shifted ESE and between the waves and tidal current we were sitting broadside to the waves. No one slept after that. We were anchored with The Good Life and another boat, Second Dance.

Peter navigating from the inside.

Dunn Cove on Tighman Island

Duck Point Cove near Hooper Islands

Jane knew she would find a use for the beach chair umbrella!!

Beautiful place to anchor but not very protected from wind

Delaware Bay, C and D Canal, Bohemia River

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Morning came early in Cape May with the fishing boats leaving the harbor and the coast guard trainees doing their morning rituals. We were excited to be able to go through the Cape May Canal with our 26' boat height. In our sailboat we had to travel in the ocean around the tip of Cape May and it adds at least 2 hours to your day. Peter set a course up the bay outside the shipping channel and once again had to do a lot of hand steering to cross over and back over the big waves. It's a good thing we were sailors and learned how to maneuver like this. Our boat doesn't have stabilizers and can tend to roll in certain wave conditions but Peter handled it well between adjusting the speed and angle to the waves we traveled. We left Cape may at 9 am and got to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal by 2 pm.

Nuclear plant

Our other important tool aboard!

Marker for the commercial channel to Philadelphia

Looks like our Cape Cod Canal

Passing under a bridge

This canal connects Delaware Bay with
the Chesapeake Bay

 On the other side of the canal we pulled into the Bohemia River to anchor for the night. We caught up with our friends, Mark and Mary Woodward, who were ahead of us after we stopped into Barnegot Bay.  We quickly put the dinghy down and went over for drinks and apps.

Sunset over our dinghy

Cape May, NJ

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

The morning dawned calmer than yesterday so our decision was to travel outside along the coastline again. If it became too rough we would duck into Atlantic City and wait it out. The seas were calmer so we were doing great time with the current heading southward. We saw Atlantic City come.......and go as we made the decision to continue another 35 miles to Cape May.  This is a milestone along the route south because it is the tip of New Jersey. Next stop after this is up the Delaware River.

Decision made to keep going to Cape may

Hello......Good bye Atlantic City

Arrival in Cape May was late afternoon in 20k gusting winds. We set the anchor in a crowded field of boats and no wind protection and spent about 2 hours checking on it and our position. After that we decided we were held tight and had dinner and a good nights sleep.

Rounding that last buoy into Cape May
felt really good

Our anchorage spot was right off the Coast Guard training center.

Beautiful sunset

Fishing boats leaving early!!

Barnegat Bay, NJ

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

We had a very quiet anchorage in Sandy Hook and left by 6:45 am to get a head start to Atlantic City, our destination of the day. The trip started out OK but after 3 hours the waves were getting larger and coming from behind. It is difficult to let our boat run on autopilot in this kind of sea because it doesn't track as well as a full displacement boat so the decision was made to head into Barnegot Bay. We had done this before in our sailboat and were very nervous about the inlet, known to create huge rollers between the breakwater. Peter handled the boat well and we were glad to have the extra engine boost. Our anchorage was in 9' of water and calm. There were plans to do the inside route if the weather stayed bad however we would risk getting stuck in Atlantic City for a few days. So we had to wait until morning.

We anchored inside the barrier island
on the NJ coastline.

Barnegot lighthouse

Sandy Hook, NJ

Monday, September 19, 2016

Today our departure was scheduled for 11:15 am to catch the right current going through the East River. It was raining all morning but about an hour into the trip the rain stopped and started to clear.
It was a journey of 36.5 miles most of it through New York City. We dropped anchor by 3:30.

Empire State and United Nations

Awesome!

It's not falling down!!

Port Washington, NY

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Thursday - Monday September 15-19, 2016
Day 7-8-9-10

Our day began at 9:30 leaving Clinton, Ct. We finally had the weather conditions to make a long 65 mile trip to Port Washington comfortably. We arrived at 4:15pm and picked up a town mooring. Port Washington offers transients a town mooring free for the first 2 nights then $25/day afterwards. There is a nice little town and convenient grocery shopping opposite the dinghy dock. We quickly changed and went ashore to meet a long time friend, Kathy Giglio. We had a delicious dinner at Louie's Oyster Bar & Grill on the waterfront.

New York City skyline

Execution Rock

Just a few of the stately homes entering
Manhasset Bay

Dinner with friend Kathy

Manhasset Bay used to be called
Cow Bay

NYC parking

Waking Saturday morning the day was sunny and cool so we decided to go into New York City to visit the 9/11 memorial and museum. We traveled by launch, cab, train, and subway to get there. It took 15 years to see it and we are happy we finally went. It was overwhelming emotionally, poignant, sad, but proud to be an American afterwards. Let the photos speak for themselves.

Outside 7 World Trade Center

Northern memorial pool

Two of the columns of World Trade Center North

Some of the more emotional pictures; an outside staircase where people evacuated before the first tower fell, 2 steel columns from site of the first impact, the memorial tower....last column standing where everyone wrote remembrances on it, and Ladder 3 firetruck that was crushed under the first collapse.

steel beams from site of impact

Memorial tower

Ladder #3

Vesey St staircase, outside tower #1

New public transportation center at ground zero

Saturday and Sunday were days spent planning our next fe courses, grocery shopping, and relaxing. Our plan is to leave Monday about 11:00 am to get the right current through the east river and New York City. The section of the East River next to the United Nations has restrictions due to the UN general assembly this week. Tuesday it is closed completely while President Obama is there. Next stop will be anchoiring in Sandy Hook, NJ to stage for going south along the New Jersey coastline Tuesday and Wednesday.