Bubblegum Test
June 12, 2013

Having never reached maturity, I still enjoy bubblegum. I have my preferences but all bubblegum may be used for a water quality test I have developed after countless hours staring at the water. The test came about after sailing into some, if not the clearest water we have ever seen, the Sea of Abaco. Our home water was the standard by which we judged water prior to that. I am speaking of water clarity. The test is simple. Take a medium sized wad of already- been-chewed bubblegum and drop it into the water. Watch it descend and the deeper it goes still visible determines the BT test number. If you can see it two feet down, it is a two on the scale. A foot down qualifies it as a one and so on. So, here are some of the results:
Sea of Abaco- fifteen but since the highest is ten, it gets a ten. One could see the gum on the bottom so I quit testing.
Port Aransas, Texas -2.5
Canyon Lake, Texas- 3
Gulf of Mexico, at least 50 miles out-8
Tampa, St. Pete-2.5
Keys-7
St. Augustine, Fl-4
Charleston on the Ashley River-0.6
Lower Chesapeake-3
Mid Chesapeake-2
Upper Chesapeake-1
Delaware River-1
New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain post Katrina—0
We return our rent cart today here in Cape May and become cruisers again. Weather permitting, we leave here early in the morning and sail to Atlantic City, NJ for two nights thence to Sandy Hook, NJ for a night. After that, we will spend a few days in the New York City area for some sightseeing.
Cape May has been a good stop to see the light house, the Victorian homes and the maritime history of this early settlement. There are such things here as a WWI expimental concrete ship that sunk just off Sunset Beach and a WWII naval gun-spotting tower used to protect the Delaware River and industry from here to Philadelphia.
The crew is well and ready to move on. Now if we can just avoid the rocks and bad weather, we continue the dream.

The picture is of Cape May Light