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| Slo Poke at the Parkertown Ramp before the aborted launch attempt. |
Our third cruise with the Nomad starts today, and it promises to be a good one. Mr. "Nimble Nomad," the newsletter publisher, and his spouse, Kathy, are meeting us with Slo Poke in tow. The plan is to launch in Parkertown and be underway by 0900.
I've been looking forward to meeting Bill and Kathy and to cruising with other Nomads. Today's fun was delayed a bit because the ramp was too steep at high tide. Bill was down the ramp as far as he dared without sinking the truck and Slo Poke didn't even have her tail feathers wet.
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| SUNSHINE and Slo Poke at Gardner's Basin. |
Short of waiting three hours for mid tide and another try, there was nothing we could do. Bill had a back up plan. He knew of a ramp of the Great Egg Harbor River that was suitable. He and Kathy set out for that ramp which he estimated to be about forty-five minutes away.
Meanwhile, Anna Marie and I finished provisioning SUNSHINE. We were underway by 0915. Our goal is to travel at 3000 rpm to check the speed and fuel burn rate. Our speed topped out at 9.0 mph with a tail wind and current pushing us along. In the flat calm river that runs through the salt marshes, our speed was in the mid to high 6's (6.5 to 6.9 mph). After four hours of motoring, the needle didn't move off of "full." We'll calculate the burn rate after the next fill up.
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| Slp Poke - lookin' good! |
We made it to Atlantic City at 1315 hours. Kathy and Bill called to say they were underway at 1130 hours and that they was passing through Margate. They were tied up at 1540 hours. They certainly had a long day!
We thought that we'd " Do AC" tomorrow. Today we'd get to know each other and check out the boats. SUNSHINE looks shabby next to Slo Poke. Her topsides and hull sparkle and shine. SUNSHINE's hull by comparison, is blotchy and faded. The topsides are fade too. It's as though the hours I spent bringing up the hull back to a nice shine, seems to have been for naught.
I'm going to see what else I can do the bring a sparkle back do the boat.
Saturday, August 23, 2014 - DO A/C!
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| Marina District Skyline! |
After breakfast, we took the Jitney to New York Avenue for our first bit of business for the day. We purchased a sheet of ten enior tickets for the Jitney. We then walked the boards. we went north to Pier 1 then south past the Trump Plazza then north to the Revel for the $6.00 shrimp basket. Everyone enjoyed the shrimp and afterward, it was time to do more walking. We walked south all the way to Trump Plazza unwittingly passing our exit. We had to back track one block, left the boardwalk, then turned west and walked two more blocks to the Walk. We continued to do just that (walk) looking at the sights and gabbing the whole time. After skipping all but the Bass store, we walked two blocks to the east where we caught the Jitney for the quick ride back to the marina. We dined at the Back Bay Ale House after which we sat down on the sea wall for another gam before heading to the boats for the evening.
Sunday, August 24, 2014 - Twenty-two Minutes in a Washing Machine!
After breakfast at Gilchrist's, we returned to our boats, said our good byes, and prepped for departure. Bill and Kathy beat us out of the marina by about about twenty minutes. Bon Voyage, friends!
We had to attend to a low oil alarm. That’s funny because I filled the reservoir only five motoring hours ago and it still looked full!
A quick check of the manual and we had our answer. When the oil runs dry (we won’t let that happen again) the motor will run for five hours after which, the alarm will sound. The solution is to prime it. We followed the procedure (it was very easy) and in less than five minutes, the Evinrude e-Tec was purring like a kitten and all systems were go.
We pulled out of the slip and as we rounded the corner from the marina into the inlet area near the Coast Guard Station, we were greeted by a one foot chop with the wind, 15 knots of wind, on the nose, and one - 2 foot chop.
I am happy to note that the boat handled the chop very well. It was very stable and although I expected some pounding of the flat hull, there was none. We easily made it into the part of the NJICW that goes through the marshes of Brigantine Wildlife Preserve. Even though 15 - 18 knots of wind was on the nose, we were traveling at 7.3 mph @ 3000 rpm, obviously getting a boost from the current which was opposite the wind.
The next challenge was Great Bay. We would power into the wind that whipped up some serious white caps created by the longest fetch of the trip. It took us twenty-two minutes to make it to the salt marshes off Osbourne and Mystic Islands. We encountered some boat and wave runner traffic in the marshes. It was a delightful ride and a nice respite from the chop in the bay.
As we entered Little Egg Harbor Bay, the chop returned. It was short and on the nose again. The boat handled it very well. Even with the fetch of Little Egg Harbor Bay, we were very comfortable, stable and there was none of the expected pounding.
As we neared West Creek, we had to motor through a Hobie Regatta out of Spray Beach Yacht Club. There were about fifty boats. Back in the early 1980’s there were over one hundred Hobies participating in the Spray Beach Regatta. Witnessing the regatta brought back a lot of fond memories.
We tied up in our slip at 1245 hours after another nice trip to Atlantic City. We enjoyed Kathy's and Bill's company. He really knows his Nomads and many of the Nomad owners and we enjoyed hearing his stories. I've read all the news letters and he helped me connect names of people with their boats. Regarding M/V SUNSHINE, we were very impressed with how she handled the wind and wave conditions.
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| Hobie racing on Little Egg Harbor Bay. |
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| Hobie racing on Little Egg Harbor Bay. |
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| Hobie racing on Little Egg Harbor Bay. |
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| Hobie racing on Little Egg Harbor Bay. |
