5/8/16        Sunday              Barnegat, NJ             AT LAST.............

.........we're out of Brigantine!!! On our way north again. I was beginning to think I was in a "groundhog day" syndrome.

We and our buddy boaters were up at 4:00 AM and creeping carefully out of the anchorage in the mere half-light of pre-dawn. A bit tricky but we still had the "bread crumb" pathway from coming into the anchorage on our chart plotter. And I was on the foredeck with the flashlight looking for the buoys.

We lumped a bit getting out of the inlet but .... into the SUN! How beautiful!

Coming out fromAtlantic City/Brigantine - Abescon Inlet

sun magic

Even the large buildings of Atlantic City casinos are rendered in beauty with the magic of sun reflections.

We kept buddy boat in easy sight, traveling off shore 2-3 miles. We had to empty our holding tank so took ourselves out beyond the 3 mile marker. Mostly a gentle day of motoring with the mizzen up for steadying and a bit of jib to get a little pull from the wind.

We worried about going into Barnegat since that had been such a terror and bad news on the way down - washing machine inlet with wind against waves/tide, running aground and wrapping our prop and being towed. That was a full daylight nightmare...but in the past.

We lead the way into the inlet as our buddies had not been there before. Swift entry but easy enough. Hard turn to port, past the dredge (always a dredge which is a good thing, sort of...the results are good - deeper channel). Then a confusing marker and some other boat (maybe the dredge) called to give us instructions. Buddy boater, Gary, took the lead.

Lo and behold there were some other buddies in the anchorage. David called the yacht club that was reported to have mooring balls, "yes, they are free" so we picked up one and Gary took the other. Home for the evening.

Barnegat view this evening

Friends, Larry and Shannon, dinghied over to ask if we wanted fish. Yes. Salmon would be great. They went to the fish market (and walked their dog) and brought back a lovely pound of salmon and some ice for drinks.

To bed early. Another really early day tomorrow. We're trying to make lots of miles in this week of fair weather.

It really feels good to be moving along again as if there may be a future on land and an end to this particular aspect of this particular journey. It was really getting trying, being on the boat, seeing and doing the same/same, and being cold, bored, sense of "trapped." Lightning up not that the sun is out again.

5/7/16         Saturday           Brigantine, NJ               POOL!!! and SUNSHINE!!!!!!

It’s hard to not be grumpy after 4 days on the hook in a small boat on gray, windy, cold days. I didn’t get up until the invitation to go to town came at 1100 hours. Instead of being grumpy, as all yesterday, I just stayed in bed and slept. But the possibility of town with friends and visiting a sea mammal rescue center was great news. And it was supposed to become patchy sunny as the afternoon flowed.

Off to town which means a chilly dinghy ride w/friends, I get to pull the dinghy onto shore because I have my “wellies” (aka garden boots) on and the shore is sucky mud or slippery seaweed depending the level of the tide.

Saw the mammal rescue center with several exhibits and live streaming video of the rescued seals in various states of recovery. A small operation with some smart dedicated young people and a founder. On to the hardware store. Then to the Family Dollar store for a speaker so we can watch DVDs in stereo and loud enough for David to hear. Then….

POOL! In the bar/liquor store/pool hall. Well, pool hall? Only one pool table. I’ve never been a pool player. Not good at the geometry that allows one to be skilled. And haven’t held a pool cue since sometime after a Bates performance and big student/faculty party across from the Bates bookstore. But, hey, let’s do it.

Had a blast. Hit several balls solidly and got several in pockets. A couple times even two balls to pockets in a row. Great fun and no pressure.

Home to boat in the SUNSHINE!!! What is that weird color above us. Dinner at our boat. Store-bought quiche. Bed early for a really early LEAVING Brigantine tomorrow!

5/6/16        Friday        Brigantine, NJ             still.....

Wind, Wind, Wind and Gray, Gray, Gray. And Chilly, Cold, Cold, Snarky, Snarky

The sun DID come out today and we all couldn’t figure out what was happening it has been so long since we’d seen it. Thank goodness our buddy boat friends rescued us – again – from each other and another dreary day on the cold boat.

We dinghied to shore, walked and walked to the hardware store to drop off our propane tank then walked and walked some more to the liquor store. Went to the beach. Waves were small breakers but very frequent and really windy. We all congratulated ourselves on being in a good anchorage and not in the ocean.

We, mostly David and I, lugged our heavy collection of wine and alcohol back to the hardware store. There we bought a new propane tank and hitched a ride with one of the store staff back to the PO across from the dinghy.  Made it in time to buy stamps and mail our property tax check assuring that it will get there before due date. Phew! Back in the dinghy and home to Grace.

Friends came aboard for wine and dip that Jayne made and gave us. Warm, Cozy friends. They left and David and I had small dinner and a long conversation about our boating, aging future.

David learned that James Brown is thinking to sell his Nauticat. It is like ours with a much newer engine and some “improvements” like a shower and a composting toilet. It is in Boot Key. He asked that I just “go with” the fantasy of us buying it (a water home in ME and one in FL) for a few minutes. I tried. Couldn’t really do it. Not while being stuck for several days in grey, cold weather on a cold, small boat in a strange harbor - pond of water, really, not a harbor with facilities.

Really, a boat in FL, a boat and a house in ME and a lot in FL???!? And not any boatS but two live-aboard boatS. How are we to support such lavishness, financially or geographically? Especially after just dipping into investments to pay property taxes in Maine? Sell the ME house? Possibly. But I’m not ready to give up my land-based home. I doubt that I’ll ever be ready to give up a land-based home.  My sense of security is dramatically tied to land. David has been telling people I want to get back to gardening. That is partly true. But those are his words for why I want to get home to ME, the reason HE can think of. I want to get to my house – from which I expect to eliminate lots of stuff so that I feel more mobile and it is more rentable for future adventures away – to the land and plants and neighbors and friends and earth/dirt. I’m not interested in loosing that earth connection.

 We ended the conversation with neither of us pleased. Not sure of the future of these machinations. I appreciate David’s thinking about how to not live in Maine in the winters, and we both know living on Grace (without the travel) is way more affordable than any additional house, owned or rented. And we agree that the down and back travel is to be avoided somehow. We talked about buying a small powerboat for Maine and putting Grace on the hard in the south in the summer months.  Lots to consider and options to discover and play with. But the notion of purchasing another live-aboard boat and getting rid of land-based home in order to afford it?  Not a good time to bring that possibility up after 4 dreary cold days on the hook, dependent upon others to get to land.

5/5/16          Thursday        Brigantine, NJ


Keeping up w/blog via word document journal.

Cinco de Mayo!!! Feels and looks like November with a gale a blowin’.  David is more bored than I am. I didn’t even get out of my jammies today. Just put clothes on over them. Not expecting to go anywhere in the wind, deflated dinghy and cold.

Staying warm

Made soup. Did some computer work. Read a bit. Did some FACA volunteer work. Researched our collection of LED lights and decided they are not what we want on boat (too r&r light show type and require AC connection). David looked for lamp oil (for heat) without finding any and looked for lamp wick without finding large enough piece. We both wondered where the pipe insulation that we used as draft doggers was stored. David realized we had that on our first attempt at ICW way back there in fall 2014. So, probably didn’t bring it with us. Noodles are prettier colors anyway and can be color coded to specific places.

Meanwhile, we look for ways to conserve heat, keep it in rather than try to heat the entire outside of NJ.

Did some good work – David did, really – on FACA fundraising and drafting a Prospectus for the same. Trying to fund an option on a building that many of us have eyed for years as a theater/arts & cultural center for Freeport. We have a board meeting that we will phone into. Hoping to be productive and helpful even while feeling outside our funding element.

Blog update is that several Bates staff have had same problem so wondering if it is Bates system-wide distress OR Google-wide distress. Smarter people are researching it.

We’re trying not to get snippy in our boredom. I’m trying to not feel guilty for not working on the same things, in the same way, that David is working on.

rain, wind, cold

My hero over there to starboard!

5/4/16        Wednesday        Brigantine, NJ            STILL here!

Back in the blog again....to the tune of Back in the Saddle Again.

Our big adventure was a trip to town…a flotilla of 2 dinghies. I went in one with Larry and Shannon, David followed with Jayne and Gary. It was a long way to the end of this little lake/inlet we’re in but a comfortable enough ride w/friends even with the wind cooling all our body parts, especially exposed hands and noses. Pearl the dog was shivering. She’s lost her winter coat in FL and this feels like November weather.

Town was neat enough – food store, Dollar Store, hardware or automotive store for the men, drug store for the women. Checked into the liquor (package) store which was also a bar and pool hall. Whoa! To expensive for either family. Back to beer and coffee.

Back on the boat, tried to stay warm in the saloon with the propane heater. When that didn’t work, back to bed. I’m back to reading a book I’d put down for a while, Waiting for Snow in Cuba. Enjoying it more now that we’ve moved out of the author’s childhood under Batista. It's such a complicated history we have w/Cuba. The Bay of Pigs debacle was horrible as was much of relationship since.

I’ve made some inquiries regarding my lack of access to my blog. This is frustrating in that I don’t know where the problem lies – at Bates or at Google or with my luddite-ness. It is too frustrating. I don’t want to start emailing my ramblings to friends or followers, especially since I don’t know who the followers are.

Late dinner. Some work on FACA. Chilly and waiting for wind to abate….in 3 days.

5/3/16         Tuesday            Atlantic City, NJ....still

We’re here for a while. High winds from wrong direction. High seas…from any direction would be a no-go. Storm clouds.

Not sure if it is the closing in on the end of our journey or just the clouds and lack of travel movement but I’m very reflective today. Also, up early in the quiet with kitty but David still sleeping.

I’m wondering about closing doors…to opportunities, to hurts, to people, to risk. Which doors do I purposefully close and how tightly. I declined a MAC job for the summer, not realizing exactly what the job was but even so, not wanting to go that road just now. So a door closed but not slammed and not shut tightly, I hope.

What doors to allow to close? What doors to purposefully keep cracked a bit? What doors to fling open with wild abandon without knowing what is possible(y) on the other side?

I’m curious about the relationships I’ll end? Or let slide? Or nurture? How will I choose. Will there be a difference in the land-based friendships and the water-based friendships. On the water they have been short with some intensity due to the nature of travel and newness.

On the boat today we burped the heating system in hopes of having more heat when we are underway again…and a couple of games of “Take 2” after dinner.

Photos of the Atlantic City light show from last night:

Fog or not, advertisements go on

wonder how much ad costs

These are from the casinos in Atlantic City, across harbor from Brigantine.

From the true distance

5/2/16         Monday          Brigantine (Atlantic City), NJ


Into the fog! That was our rallying cry this morning as we left Cape May. Opodamus left. Kindred Spirit left. Grace left to get fuel. Dream Catcher left. Lots of other boats we don't know left, too. Seems we were among the last of friends to leave BUT when we got to Utschs Marine I heard someone calling my name "Hey Nancy" and there were Shannon and Larry (Emma Jean from  Castine) on the dock.

We finally got out into the big, mighty and very foggy Atlantic Ocean at 9:45-ish. Big rolly-polly seas, wind mostly a light 5-8 knots and on our nose (of course). But on our nose is fine as we plowed into the seas rather than taking them on our beam which would have been really uncomfortable. And the waves were sustained motion, no whitecaps. So we had to hold on all the time but weren't being pounded.

The stress was the fog. I'm really appreciating my childhood flying by instruments experiences during which I couldn't see ANYTHING outside the small plane window. Nothing. Only moisture drops on the airplane windows and the struts and tips of the wings. It was not quite that soupy today. We could see about 1/4 mile. Mostly waves. On our navigation screen we saw triangles representing boats w/AIS (automatic identification system) signals and orange blobs representing objects (mostly boats) seen by radar. Surprises were the occasional crab pot. But it was intense not being able to see clearly, and the holding on as the waves rolled us up and down and side to side. Sometimes I was reminded of standing in the water (I was looking out the cabin window in this case) but remembering standing in the water at the beach and waiting for a body surfing wave. Watching/waiting as those big rollers that weren't ready to break passed me by.

And we had hitchhikers -

migrating hitchhikers

We only had three who stayed from noon until we arrived in Atlantic City. They looked to be in the Sparrow family, one larger one all brown, and two smaller, fluffy ones with yellow eye bars. They looked young. A Gold Finch and a Blue Bird came for a brief visit but didn't hang around. And a bird totally unknown to me - tiny, 2" with some muddy green markings on grey with pointy beak and big, round eyes, pale yellow circles around eyes. I'd never had birds hitchhike so this was a treat. I crumbled corn chips and put on the aft deck where they were hanging and a coffee lid of water. They enjoyed the feast and pooped for us. They left the boat when we got close to our anchorage and the sun came out. Don't know if they thought we were slackers coming in before dark, and continued their journey or not. Glad to have them hitch a ride w/us though. We helped the migration.

As we got close to the Absecon Inlet the boats started talking to each other to see how conditions were. A trawler that had been in to this inlet frequently called back to say it was completely clear and sunny just inside the inlet. What a relief. Trying to enter an unfamiliar inlet and anchorage in the fog would have been a nail biter. As soon as we cleared the inlet the fog began to life.

floating building

We anchored beside Dream Catcher, took a short nap on the aft deck in the warm sun. That should help lower the shoulders, raised from holding on and squinting into the fog. Jayne and Gary came over for snacks and we plotted the next couple of days. Tomorrow is a no go-er. Maybe a dinghy trip to the store. Wednesday might be a long day to Sandy Hook. There will be a lot of weather checking before Wednesday. Isn't there a Bruce Springsteen song about packing up the band equipment to leave a gig and tomorrow "get up and do it again" or something like that? Feeling like that these days of boating, or boating/layover day after day.

Houses around the anchorage - Atlantic City buildings
in the fog in background

Sun is out in anchorage

A couple of photos from the last several days -

Densely packed shrimp boats just outside Cape May

Amelia questions where and WHY
we're going again