Up the Coast of New Jersey

From Cape May, we made a stop in Atlantic City.  We didn't get off the boat as it was massively congested with day trip boaters and we didn't feel like paying the price to dock.  As mentioned earlier, free is good, over $130 for a night isn't and that was on the cheap end!  It takes a splurge to dock since we'd run out of money over the course of a year if we docked every night!  Anyway from there we went up the coast to Barnegat Inlet and the little town of Barnegat Light Township.  We are waiting out weather so it has given me a chance to catch up on the blog.  All my spare time can't be spent cleaning and repairing!

Atlantic City as we approach.

Atlantic City as we leave.

Not sure what this building is but I'm sure it involved gambling.

The beach in Barnegat Light.  New Jersey was much smarter than
Florida.  They allow no development on the ocean side of their beaches for many
miles.  This ensures access for all and maintains healthy coasts.

The town is small and obviously a tourist destination.  This is
the main drag.

One of the public access points with a walkway built over the dunes.
It require a city permit to go to the beach.

The pines are very small compared to what we're used to in Florida.
Shorter growing season, I suppose.

Cape May, New Jersey

We covered a lot of miles in an overnight passage and tucked into Cape May to ride out an approaching front.  We found deep enough water off the Coast Guard Station.  This is a major training facility for new recruits and we enjoyed the chanting of marching seamen and as always loved to hear our National Anthem played every day.  Besides the station, we spent a day ashore in historic Cape May once the weather cleared.  This has been a tourist destination for many, many years with lots of houses from the Victorian Era.  We stumbled across a beer festival that was a fund raiser for an historic house turned museum so seemed like a win/win for charitably inclined beer drinkers.   I could easily have spent more time there but once again, the weather set the agenda.

The town had no public dinghy dock but this restaurant provided one
in hopes you would spend some money with them.  We repaid the kindness
with our lunch dollars.

A view of Cape May harbor from our dinghy dock.  A bit pricey for
our pocketbooks but convenient to downtown.

The old hotels along the waterfront were amazing in their scope and
differences in architecture.

This hotel is said to have "drunken style" architecture since it includes
just about every style popular in the Victorian Era.  If you can't decide
pick them all!

I love this style of house, all the interesting features unique to each house.

Gingerbread and towers are a main feature of the era.

Beautiful gardens were all over town!

Hydrangeas of all shapes and varieties seem to be New  Jersey's thing.

This house is unusual since it has a reverse mansard roof.

Our Lady Queen of the Ocean church.  This is a common name
for Catholic churches long coast line along with a variation of
 Queen of the Sea.

Like a lot of tourist town, they have closed off several blocks to motorized
traffic to make a pedestrian friendly shopping and dining area.

This old hotel is also a major event center turning it's old carriage house
into a catering venue.  Being June, weddings were booked solid.

The cupola on the hotel.  Lots of surfaces to paint.  The finial on the
roof topped was matched by a finial on the original outhouse, boasting
2 seat!

In this section of Cape May, even new construction must comply with
Victorian Era architecture.  Why mess with a good tourist theme.

Near the shore was a Revolutionary War monument.

These were spec houses.  Just like now, owners were able to add
their own touches to a standard model or buy a house ready built.

There were about 10 of these houses built in a row.  It was interesting
to see the individual touches on a standard design.

Norfolk

From Portsmouth we made the short trip over to the Norfolk Navy marina.  We needed to take care of reprovisioning, laundry and see the sights on this side of the river.  Turns out we also had some maintenance to do as well.  When we first tried to plug in our old nemesis, GFCI pedestals made us address the issue since we really wanted power for the air conditioning.  David hunted for hours, climbing in an out of small spaces trying every trick he knew to hunt down the problem.  Finally, admitting defeat he asked for help.  The marina manager hooked us up with a great guy.  Although it was a Saturday and he was way overbooked on jobs, he spent the time on the phone to listen to all David had done then give him a possible solution since he was a few weeks out on making a boat call.  Turns out it was spot on and we were back in business.  He refused a payment but we did send a thank you card with a gift enclosed.  Made our stop so much nicer.  The staff at the marina was so helpful in other ways as well making it a wonderful stop overall.  From the base, we were able to walk and bike to the base shopping complex a few times.  We also went to the Navy welcome center and took the bus tour of the base, open to military or civilians.  For security reasons, pictures are not allowed on base.  Another day, we used the bus/train system to visit downtown Norfolk.  What we saw of mass transportation in the area, it is woefully underutilized and I'm sure the source of massive tax drainage.  Good for us but bad for local taxpayers.  Anyway, we were chased by rain around downtown but still had a great time. 

Navy Marina- no security issues so I was able to photograph.

The MacArthur Memorial.  Fascinating museum of not only General MacArthur
but WWII as well. We ended up spending longer than we had originally planned. 

The Nauticus was also a wonderful museum.  It is not only Naval history but
included displays on weather, tidal waves and the environment.  It would have
been well worth another day if we had had one.

Enlarged photograph of one ship's complement of sailors.  That is a lot
of mouths to feed and bodies to clothe!

This old schooner is part of the complex.  It is used for demonstrations
and sailing schools. 

The battleship Wisconsin is also part of the complex but we didn't have time
to take the included tour.  It was tough deciding where to spend the time.

One view of Norfolk from the Nauticus.

And looking another direction.

And another view of town

And across the river back to Portsmouth.

We decided to sail on the outside, bypassing the Chesapeake for now,
and get North to cooler temps since we rarely plug in to get AC.  There is a major road across
the opening into the Atlantic and we couldn't imagine a bridge big enough or
tall enough to efficiently handle all the ship traffic.  They handled it by building a massive tunnel.
This was one end of that tunnel.

The road leading away from the tunnel.

Old Fort Comfort on the Hampton Roads.

Closeup of the fort.

Along the coast we came across several fishing boats.  This one had
its crews out in smaller boats bringing in the nets full of  the day's catch.

A close up of the boats working the nets.

Looking back at the weather system we were running from. 

The Waterfront of the Elizabeth River

At the mouth of the Elizabeth River you have a huge shipping complex, both civilian and Navy.  On one side is Portsmouth, Norfolk on the other.  Across Hampton Roads (the way to the Atlantic) you have the major seaports of Hampton and Newport News.  The end of the Roads is the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay.  Tons, literally of ships.  Neither of us had ever seen such a massive accumulation of shipping and shipyards.  Every bend seemed to be even more stunning in scope.  I'm glad we were able to see it from the water.

Our entrance into the heavy industrial area was through this lift bridge.
It was synced with a train bridge.  We were there almost an hour as
one long train after another had to pass.  Train traffic always has priority over
shipping.  This massive bridge has 4 lanes of traffic.

I cannot imagine the energy required to lift the tons of road high
enough for large vessels to pass under.  One of the few rude bridge
tenders managed it.

The sign tells a lot.

We marveled at how close the boats would be tied up.  That's a lot of
metal relying on those fenders and ropes!

Not a sight you see everyday, at least not us, an aircraft carrier.

The Norfolk Navy Station is at the tip of the land at the mouth of the
river.  This is the famous Battleship Row although other boats are
now tied up there.  Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet departed from
these piers.

This ship was in dry dock for a thorough bottom job.  A museum we
visited in Norfolk had a large scale model of how it works.  Basically,
you drive the boat into a lock,  settle it in the blocks, close the gate and
then pump out the water.  Amazing technology made easier with modern
pumps and hydraulics but the concept has been around since ancient Rome.

Massive cranes wait for a cargo ship to arrive and unload.

Cranes in use to load up a container ship.  We passed this boat on it's
way out the channel to the ocean a few days later.

This massive coal loading plant sits idle.  Not many coal burners left.

These floating gates/catwalks provide a security cordon for the Navy ships.  As boats
enter and  leave, tugs pull the barrier out of the way.   An interesting radio call
we heard was from an increasingly irritated harbor controller trying to get a looky-lou
sailboat to move out of the way of an incoming submarine.   Common sense isn't
required to own and sail a boat!

Lots of shipping and repair facilities along the waterfront.

These tugs are taking a long  pipe between them to its new location.