Still stuck in New Jersey, waiting for decent weather to cross over to NY. We went from Cape May to Atlantic City on the outside.  We stayed at Atlantic City at the Aquarium; nice weather but then some crazy thunderstorms raced through.  Nice sunset shortly after that. There were a few days of windy weather forecast, so rather than sit in Atlantic City, we moved north towards Manasquan inlet on the inside ICW.  Sudden gale force winds sprang up, whipping up Barnegat Bay into 5-6 foot waves, right on top of each other, with some gusts measured at 60 mph.  It didn’t blow through too quickly, and it took us forever to get here.  We are at Treasure Cove in Brick, NJ close to the inlet and waiting for decent weather to move over to Long Island.  CrazyLove is also here, and thanks to John and Gaby for catching our lines and helping us in.

We were hoping to do a long run from Cape May directly to the south shore of Long Island, (Jones Inlet) which is near our NY home port.  Unfortunately, the weather did not want to cooperate.  We did decide to run outside from Cape May to Atlantic City, as we have been advised that the inside ICW run is difficult, at best.  Three to four footers that are rollers (long wave period) are one thing;  short wave periods and beam waves that make the boat roll and cause the bow to dig in are something else entirely.  So we are waiting in Atlantic City for either a good weather window to make the run directly to NY, or considering an inside run at least up to the Manesquan Inlet, which will shorten our exposure.

Finally out of the C&D Canal.  We next stopped in Cape May, at Utsch’s as we did on the way down.  Not a bad ride, but was a bit of a long day.  We thought that were were seeing more of the dreaded crab pots, but were actually seeing large quantities of dead Horseshoe crabs.  And for the last ten miles we were inundated with a zillion flies, so much so that I had to break out one of my supply of special Belhaven sticky fly traps.  Now I have to go and vacuum the dead bodies. Ah, the joy of living on a boat.  I will not gross you out with photos of dead crabs and flies.  We did see a few of the big boys passing by in the shipping lane.  Also, a nice lighthouse which “someone” insisted was actually a sailboat in the distance. Saw an eagle fly in and land on a pole, but alas, no closeup. Skipper saw what will probably be the last of the dolphins on this leg of the trip.

OK so I am a little restless today.  We are anxious to get home to NY and anxious to continue on with the trip.  We are sitting here in an overly expensive marina (Summit North in the C&D canal; they get five stars for the convenience factor/ location, and a big fat zero for not offering wi-fi and for charging $2 a foot with few amenities).  We are staying an extra day as the weather was supposed to be awful today, thunderstorms, crazy wind, big waves and we are not in the frame of mind to get beat up out in the Delaware crossing over to Cape May.  So of course, it is partly sunny, muggy, not a breath of air let alone wind, and dead flat calm.  I may have to fire up the air conditioner.

In any event, I am trying to catch up on return emails from all who contacted us with offers of help and prayers during the Artie foot debacle. And I just wrote the following to someone:  “Looping reminds me a bit of going to college.  You can have deep, meaningful, intellectual conversations over drinks with people from all backgrounds, that you just met, who then go on to be considered good friends in a matter of hours”.  Ok, profound musings are officially done for the day.

This is our SPOT transmitter, for those of you who are getting our SPOT updates by phone or email.  I am trying to figure out how to post the transmissions here, so that you can follow along and see where we are.  It should come up on Google Maps with a Lat/Lon, but for some reason I can’t import it into WordPress although I have seen it done on other blogs and websites.  Anyone have any suggestions?

We are in the C & D Canal, heading up towards Cape May, New Jersey. Will will then have to decide if the weather will allow us to make a jump from Cape May directly to the South Shore of Long Island, NY.  The alternative will be to go further north on the New Jersey coast, to Atlantic City – Absecon Inlet before making the jump across to NY.  If the weather really isn’t cooperative, we can also go “inside” on the ICW through New Jersey, up towards Barneget Inlet. The Loopers will be headed directly towards Sandy Hook, bypassing Long Island, and then under the Verrazzano Bridge to reach the Hudson, the Erie Canal, and points north.

After we leave Long Island, we will swing back out of Jones Inlet,  go past Brooklyn and then under the Verrazzano.  We will do a drive-by of NY, as this was our home cruising grounds and we’ve covered it already.  Depending on the tides and currents and time of departure, we may try to make it all the way up to Croton-on-Hudson (near Half Moon Bay marina) on our first stop. At that point we will hopefully be catching up with the pack, many of whom will have stopped in and around NJ and NY for sightseeing.

Well, anyone that knows us, knows that we weren’t participating.  However, it was going on all around us in Rock Hall yesterday.  We also saw fellow Loopers Goosechase and Liquid Assets on the next dock over.

We’ve decided to skip parts of the upper Chesapeake.  No reasonable way to do any walking or sightseeing through St. Michaels or Annapolis or Baltimore, as we have to baby Artie’s foot and keep it dry for awhile.   We ‘ve skipped ahead in Maryland, to Calvert Marina at the Solomons and then up to Rock Hall.  Happy to see and hear from some fellow Loopers here at the back of the pack. Calvert’s was as good a stop as it was on the way down, and we did get to borrow the Mercedes (with 225,000 miles on it) to do a quick reprovision.   Instead of the “free wall” at Rock Hall (see posts from last October, where we spent a LONG WEEK ONE NIGHT), we were able to get a slip behind a local restaurant.  Generally, at restaurant stops there is either no fee for the slip or a nominal fee or some discount off of dinner. Not at Waterman’s Crab House. When you call in ahead of time, they say “take any slip”, no mention of a fee.  Then they charge $1 per foot, plus $10 for power, and there is no discount or application of the slip fee towards the dinner.  I’ll update this on Active Captain.  We ate on the boat.

Artie was finally released this week, a bit earlier than expected, and we spent a day back at the boat clearing our heads and getting reacclimated.  He’ll still have to continue on meds for awhile, and he is still limping a bit,  but at least he can recover underway.  I will miss the folks here at Somer’s Cove, who have taken such good care of us.  Hope to get back here in the future.

We started getting restless, looking at the calendar and the charts, and still hoping to catch up with this year’s Class of Loopers heading north.  We are also still planning on a stop in NY for family visits and to take care of some business.  We were able to head out on Thursday morning.  Here we come!

Here is a link to the story:  http://www.wsj.com/articles/on-the-water-going-around-in-circles-sounds-like-a-plan-1464629037

Or at: On the water, going around in circles sounds like a plan
http://on.wsj.com/1O0dM1U

Came back from visiting Artie one day, and found out that we really are just a dinghy in the world of big boats.  This is Rushmore, who pulled in next to us on the T-head.  Believe it or not, they draw just FIVE feet (Leap of Faith draws four).  And, the folks on board were very nice, as well. We’ve seen a few Loopers come in and out from the transient docks.  And Artie was finally able to come over for a little while, see Skipper and check out the marina.

The boat is still at Somers Cove Marina in Crisfield, as we wait for Artie to rejoin us.  Hopefully, that will happen later this week.  In the meantime, we have been able to get him a few day passes, and he was able to come over to the boat and take a short walk over to the Soft Shell Crab Fest.

Hope to spend more time there in the future under better circumstances.  I was able to snap a few photos before moving the boat over.

Cool bird. Cardinal? Not sure, hope it wasn’t a message…

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At the risk of inadvertantly missing someone – and I apologize if I don’t thank you by name — I just wanted to thank a few folks who helped us through this bizarre happening.  First of all, Mr. Milton Parks, and his daughter, Inez Pruitt, PA, who did everything to help us get the quick medical attention and transport that we needed, and who have continued to follow up with us and check on our well being.  Mr. Jackie McCready, who helped me to bring the boat over from Tangier.  The terrific staff at Penninsula Hospital, particularly the excellent nursing staff.  The folks here at Somers Cove Marina in Crisfield, MD who continue to watch out for me, the boat and the dog, and who have been instrumental in helping me get over to see Artie daily.  The staff at McCready Rehab, for watching over Artie as he finishes his treatment.

In particular, I want to thank fellow Loopers — particulary Chica ( Sandy and Alan), Over Ice (Brenda and Robert), Changing Latitudes (Dale and Andy and John and Priscilla), Phase II ( Lori and Dave),  Lone Star (Kevin and Steve), Summertime (Wally and Darcy), and Midas Touch for tracking me/ us down and checking in on us, for offering to help move the boat, or check on the boat and dog, or do whaever else we might have needed. Thank you all.

Finally, thank you to all fellow Loopers who heard the story through the Coconut Telegraph and who reached out to us to offer assistance, kind words and / or prayers.

And a special thank you to our good friend Craig Marshall for offering to come down to help move the boat. May you soon start your own Loop, and in the meantime, come join us at any time on ours.

Well I guess after this post I’ll find out who all is following the blog.  SPOILER ALERT:  WE ARE OK, EVERYTHING IS FINE, DO NOT WORRY.

After the Rendezvous, the northbound Looper boats each head into the Chesapeake into various locations, and many then reunite after the C&D Canal / New Jersey and New York as we gather in the Erie Canal to head into Canada. We don’t usually travel in a pack or group, although we all watch for the AGLCA burgee (small flag) and often socialize with other Loopers along the way.  Artie and I decided to head to Tangier Island, a small island in the middle of the Chesapeake.  While it is geographically in the center of the Chesapeake, it is remote in the sense that there is little or no cell phone service or internet connection.  There is only one small marina, Parks Marina, run by its 85-year-old proprietor, Milton Parks.

As we were headed on our several hour cruise to Tangier, Artie started to complain of a pain in his heel and said that as soon as we got in, he wanted me to check for a splinter.  His sock was a bit bloody when we arrived, and I saw what might have been a small splinter.  I cleaned and bandaged it and off we went to see the Island by golf cart.  Artie quickly started feeling “not well”.  By that night, he was running a temperature and agreed that at our next stop, we would go to an Urgent Care and have the foot looked over.  Within a couple of hours, he spiked an extremely high temperature and I was able to have the local clinic opened that night to take his temperature ( I was sure that my home thermometer MUST have been wrong).  Long story short, the local PA took one look at his heel and temperature, and called in the State Police Air Rescue.  I left the dog and the boat with the marina and fellow boaters, and we were air lifted into the trauma center about a half hour away.  He was seen in the emergency room, and a CT scan of his foot showed that he somehow had a 1.5 centimeter long, thin piece of metal in his foot.  He never felt it go in, and yes, he always wears shoes.  He’s not a barefoot kind of guy.

Given the high temperature and the CT scan, it was finally determined that he had a very bad infection and that the piece of metal had to be removed.  Fast forward, he had surgery, was kept in the hospital for most of the week, , then transferred to a rehab facility in the town of Crisfield, MD.  I was able to take the mail boat back to Tangier and have a local captain assist me in bringing the boat over from Tangier to Crisfield, and here we remain as he completes his course of treatment.  We will likely cut the northern portion of the Chesapeake short and head home to NY as promptly as possible, before eventually continuing on the Loop.