Putting it all on red or black!
This cruise would be the crew of Next Chapter’s first time in the big blue ocean. Patience paid off waiting out the weather in Cape May, as our 40-mile cruise to Atlantic City was great. It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the low 70s. The seas were calm with just a little roll. Being Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, the marina at the Golden Nugget was wide open with dock parties and bands up at the dockside bar.
Sometimes you just have to let loose and join the party. The funny thing was the band members were so classic stereotypical Jersey boys. But could they play? We decided to take a quick bike ride down to the boardwalk on the ocean against the advice of those who had been. After an expedient ride through the projects, we arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Wow, what a complex. First off, it is huge. The casino is in the center with just about any kind of restaurant on the outside perimeter. It backed up right onto the boardwalk. Really cool setup. I wanted to put Next Chapter up on the block and put her on Red or Black, but the Admiral struck that down. I really had my eye on a 43’ Selene Trawler. Oh well. So we decided to venture out onto the boardwalk to experience the Jersey shore. We decided that locking up the bikes and walking would likely result in a cut lock and a long walk back to the marina, so we walked with our bikes.
That lasted about 10 minutes as we realized we were the only English-speaking people on the boardwalk. So on our bikes and back to the Marina with a check-in the box next to Boardwalk Atlantic City. Even better news: we didn’t need to find a hotel to sleep in from losing Next Chapter at the roulette table. Sometimes things just work out.
We got back to the docks and hooked up with a bunch of loopers and enjoyed the music and a few docktails. A group of us went into the Golden Nugget and had sushi for dinner. It was actually pretty good. We were treated to a fireworks show just before we hit the rack as we had a planned 6 a.m. departure for our next run on the ocean.
So meet Theresa in the hat and sunglasses. She is holding a stuffed animal that is a mechanical cat. Apparently, Theresa had problems with birds pooping on her deck furniture. She tried putting a plastic owl on the back of her boat to “scare” off birds, but no luck. She tried a large plastic snake placed on the deck, but still poop…every day birds would poop on her furniture. Then she heard about this mechanical cat that wags its tail and moves its head side to side, and voila!! She hasn’t had a bird on her boat in two years. The cat is all faded and creepy looking, and it would scare even a person from coming on her boat.
Jersey Coast Outside
Monday started with an early muster allowing just enough time to splash water on our face, quick engine inspection and tossing the lines. It was going to be another great day on the ocean so we were going to take full advantage of it. Normally the next stop would be a 60 mile run to Manasquan, NJ but we decided to push another 30 miles to Sandy Hook and spend the night at anchor. Well the winds were not going to cooperate so we pushed another 6 miles to Great Kills Harbor where we found a great anchorage to spend the night. It was a 10.5 hour cruise but a great day on the water. Sue made a classic Memorial Day dinner followed by an early bedtime.
No comments:
Post a Comment