Sept. 13....Atlantic City

We were up at 4am for a 5:00 departure but it was so dark that it took us forever to feel our way through the mooring field and channel to deep water. It was 10 miles to Sandy Hook and then 70 to Atlantic City where we find ourselves at this point in time....13 hours of the Atlantic Ocean. The sails were up but due to distance and the fact that there are no places to bail, the engine was on to maintain 6.5 knots. We're anchored in a marsh that is well lit by the casinos across the way. Tomorrow we will run down the coast again... 2 to 5 miles off shore, to Cape May. A front is if forecast for Friday night and Saturday, so our trip up the Delaware Bay will probably be on Sunday....sliding up on the tide and a broad reach. (we're sure about the tide anyway)

We are currently facing our biggest challenge of the trip. ... alternator problems.. The house alternator hasn't worked for a few days. We have run enough tests to realize that the cause is undoubtedly fried diodes. Anyway, we need a new one and the old one fixed to use as a spare.

We would like to get to the to the north end of the Chesapeake where we're a little closer and hopefully can rent a car for a day. The refrigerator has been off for a few days... ice works ok. We leave the instruments off unless we really need them which is rare. No autopilot is a pain, but we take turns steering. We have a little Honda generator so we have lights at night and run our anchor light. It has been an inconvenience but really not much of a problem yet...


Sorry we couldn't meet up with Bob and Karin here. . .