Getting Tacky In New Jersey

The Burnetts are rocketing up the East Coast. In the last week, they have redecorated their view at least 5 times. Such is the chaos that ensues when cruisers attempt to balance exploring new worlds, showing guests a good time, fickle summer winds, boat projects, hurricane season, and the worst thing of all: the impending collapse of the wave function they ride.  That is nerd-speak for the bane of cruisers: having to be somewhere at a particular time — i.e. The Schedule. Alas, the Burnetts have to be in Connecticut soon.  Apparently Allie and Isaak eventually have to go back to college. Let’s not think about that…

As Mel writes this post, the Burnetts are in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after we were reminded why they call it “beating” upwind. With a reef in we tacked along the coast, dancing with another sailboat also heading north, which was exactly where the wind was coming from. Fittingly, our GPS track looks a bit…menacing.

Mel had to medicate her guests to get them through it.  Jerry himself got a thorough saltwater shower before we decided to ditch our plans to make it up to Sandy Hook. Oh Yeah…The Schedule is the source of many dramatic sea stories. 

Since in part this blog serves as a travel memoir to be reviewed on one’s death bed as a testament to the wide array of experiences one has had in a life, Mel will attempt to summarize the crew’s activities over the last week, which has included a stunning diversity of atmospheres extracted at each new setting.

We began in Annapolis, the town with immaculate homes with excellent groundskeeping in colorful, immensely satisfying rows. Annapolis is so packed with sailing enthusiasts that we were able to skip the West Marine mega-store experience and go to shops specializing in just one or two boat-specific gadgets, such as the historically precise barometers at Weems & Plath.  One of the best parts of Annapolis is that, everywhere you turn, you meet someone with a good story about their own relationship with the sea.  To start, we were given a wonderful tour by the spectacular “Leopard Shepherd” David Klain, Naval Academy alum and current owner of Marvin, who serves as a wonderful resource of good advice in our online Leopard 48 owners group.  When buying kayaks, we met Lindsey, who spent some time as a National Park ranger and enjoys being on the water. When commissioning helm cushions, we met Holly, who is currently restoring a sailboat herself and got her Captain’s License back in the day.  Even so, she had to spend a few years as ship’s cook before she was deemed worthy enough to run her own charter.  We also had dinner with a school teacher who is enjoying sailing her monohull in her retirement. All of this is fascinating to people who, just one month ago, were land-locked in the Central Time Zone, only discussing wind speed during tornado season.

After our son Isaak joined us for a visit, reuniting Marvin’s crew, we visited Washington DC and then motored up to an anchorage outside of the D&C canal.  This canal is an impressively long construction that allows one to skip over Delaware on the way to more interesting things.  Perhaps karma regarding this sentiment is why we were attacked by a horde of flying insects overnight, which were discovered only the next morning to be midges and not mosquitoes.

We then transited the canal, a relaxing experience, and then sailed a bit upwind through Delaware Bay, rounding Cape May overnight, giving its shoals a wide berth.  “Shoals” is a vocabulary word we have used ever since the Carolinas, and essentially means: menacing pile of sand. With the “local guidance” recommended by the chartbooks, we braved the shoals of Townsends Inlet to reach the lovely Commodore Bay Marina and take possession of our pretty new Brig console dinghy. (We prioritize being free of back pain over carrying capacity.)  Our slip overlooked a lovely saltwater wetland, and we explored the quaint Jersey Shore resort town of Avalon.

Unfortunately The Schedule loomed, and we had to tear ourselves away from the incredible cuteness of Avalon, coming to rest in Atlantic City, clearly the most urban spot Jerry has visited thus far.  Let’s just say that “Cute” is not a word anyone has recently used for Atlantic City, which appears to be a worthy candidate for the filming of a sequel to Bladerunner.  However, it can be charming in a garish way as the sun sets, when the nearby Golden Nugget Casino warms up its dinging noises, shouts, and live music, and the carnival lights come aglow on the Boardwalk, illuminating the teenagers braving the slingshot bungee on the Steel Pier, which included Isaak.  Advice for the Boardwalk: stick to the middle and avoid the outskirts.

If casinos and carnivals are not appealing, here’s a fun thing cruisers can do in Atlantic City: you can look for streets that made it into the Monopoly game during your Uber to Cedar Food Store VII and reflect if they would be assigned the same value today.  

So here’s the question: is the crew willing to endure a few hours of headwinds to leave for New York City tonight? I think even the people in the cigarette boat that just threw us a big wake on their way to the Poker run heard the reply: “Hell Yes!”