Brigantine, NJ

We left Cape May at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 13 bound for Brigantine, which is next to Atlantic City. We left early to take advantage of calmer seas on the Atlantic Ocean as we made the 5 hour cruise. The winds and seas pick up in the afternoon so we’ll be traveling early as we make our way up the New Jersey coast.

It was a sunny day with calm seas and comfortable temperatures as we cruised about 1 - 2 miles off the coast.  Unfortunately, it was just far enough from land to make it difficult for me to do my Spanish class by Zoom so I rescheduled it for when we stopped for the day. The Atlantic City skyline showcases the many casinos still operating there.  Unfortunately the town has seen better days.

We arrived at the spot where we would be using a mooring belonging to a friend.  We planned to keep Zendo there while we rented a car to drive to Connecticut for the weekend. We arrived at Glenn’s mooring ball by 11:30 and tied up.  Jonny took Archie into shore in the dinghy while I had my Spanish lesson.  We packed for our weekend away and had a light dinner.

The next day we dinghied to a marina by the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City where we met Glenn who let us tie up our dinghy to his dock while we were away. We had rented a car from Turo (individuals rent their own cars) and the woman we rented from brought the car to us - so convenient!  We drove the four hours to Fairfield where we stayed with our good friends, Peter and Paula.  I’ve known Peter since 5th grade, growing up in Fairfield together. We both met our spouses at UConn and we’ve all been friends ever since.  It was great catching up with them as we hadn’t seen them since last year and this was the first time that we had seen their new home. They had moved to Fairfield from Longmeadow, MA about a year ago. We went for a great walk in the woods with our respective dogs who got along fine by basically ignoring each other!

The next morning we all took another nice walk and drove by my childhood home.  Later Jonny and I drove to Stratford to attend a Celebration of Life for his cousin Steven, who very sadly passed away from Legionnaire’s disease this winter.  He had to be airlifted from Barbados, where they were staying, to Miami where he was hospitalized.  The event which was held at Steven and Anne’s home was very special with no more than 30 people, all of whom were either family or very close friends.  Lots of stories were shared amidst tears and laughter. Steven was a unique personality and he made an impression on everyone who knew him.  He will be sorely missed.

That night we went out to dinner with Peter and Paula. The next morning, Billy, another friend I grew up with, came over to visit after  having just flown in from Israel the night before where he had attended a second wedding celebration for his son and new Israeli daughter-in-law.  It is always great catching up with my old buddies who have now become Jonny’s as well!

After a quick visit, we said our good-byes and by 11 we were driving back to Atlantic City and Zendo to continue our 2024 cruise.  It was a weekend  packed with family and friends and lots of love.

Cape May, NJ

This is the first entry for our 2024 cruise! We spent more than a week at the Delaware City Marina where we had put Zendo up for the winter. We stayed with Stephanie and Ryan over one weekend and took the rest of the time to get Zendo ready for our voyage.

Jonny did a number of repairs while I did the bulk of the cleaning and cooking. We made a couple of provisioning trips as well as stocking up on all the essentials! 

Our departure was delayed twice due to more needed repairs (engine ignition timing and the replacement of the alternator). Our saloon was torn up for a couple of days!

Sea trials (or shake-down cruises) are important safeguards!  But the third time was the charm and we finally left quaint Delaware City on Wednesday, June 12 at 7 a.m. headed for Cape May.  It was an ideal day - with a favorable current, calm seas and no wind to speak of. 

We had a pleasant 7 hour cruise although Archie wasn’t that excited. He spent the whole time snuggled up to one or the other of us. 

We arrived at our anchorage in Cape May and were looking forward to eating at one of the two nearby fish restaurants.  After relaxing for a couple of hours, we took Archie in the dinghy (which he prefers over the big boat) and planned for an early dinner. Alas, both restaurants were closed - apparently only open from Thursday through Sunday. So we headed back to Zendo and had our own salmon dinner from our recent provisioning. We always anchor near the Coast Guard Station where we can hear the “Coasties” practicing at all hours.

We had a quiet evening on board planning for the next several days. We’ll be heading for Atlantic City where we will stay on a mooring and rent a car to drive to Fairfield, CT to stay with friends Peter and Paula for the weekend. On Saturday, we will join Jonny’s family for a Celebration of Life in honor of his cousin Steven who tragically passed away this winter. 

We’ll return to Zendo on Sunday and continue our journey. Our ultimate goal this year is to cruise all the way to Down East Maine and cross the Canadian border to visit Campobello Island where FDR and his family used to vacation. 

Delaware City, DE (return trip)

Our last day of cruising for 2023 was Saturday, October 14. We had a short two hour run up the C&D Canal leaving our anchorage in Chesapeake City at 7:45 a.m. The day started off a bit overcast but it was warm enough with no rain which made for smooth sailing on the canal. 

We arrived at the Delaware City Marina by 9:42. Tim, the owner of the marina, met us at the dock and guided us as we did a 180 degree turn in the canal while the current nestled us along the dock. Tim always makes what could be a tricky docking quite seamless.  This is where we will be putting Zendo up for the winter as we did last year. We chose Delaware City Marina because it’s just a 45 minute drive to Philadelphia where Stephanie lives. We left our car here and we like Tim and this sleepy little hamlet so here we are again.

We’ll be spending the next several days getting Zendo winterized, packing up our things and loading our car for the trip back to Miami.  But before we leave, we have a very important responsibility and that is hosting Stephanie’s wedding to Ryan on October 28!  Stephanie has done a magnificent job of planning every detail of this wedding with Ryan and of course working with both sets of parents.  We are beyond excited because we think they are so well suited to each other  and we adore Ryan and love to see how they are with each other.  (This picture was taken at Stephanie’s bridal shower in April.)

Our 2024 cruise has been another rewarding adventure. We traveled 1,245 nautical miles cruising from Delaware City up the Hudson River to Burlington, VT on Lake Champlain. We enjoyed exploring many of the quaint towns and old cities along the Hudson River and had a wonderful time visiting new places as well as old favorites on Lake Champlain. We also cruised to various spots on the Chesapeake Bay.  We had a good balance of stays on anchor, on mooring balls, at free town docks and in marinas and we enjoyed every bit of the experience.

Every year at the end of our trip we ask each other if we would like to do it again next year. And this year, like the nine years prior, we have agreed that we want to do it again.  So until next year…

Chesapeake City, DE

We are definitely on the homeward stretch with this being the second to last day on Zendo for this year. We planned for a somewhat early start on Friday, October 13 so we left at 7:50.  Jonny wanted to catch a favorable current up the Chesapeake Bay as we head to an anchorage on the Bohemia River. Originally we were going to take an extra day and go up the Sassafras River to visit the little town of Georgetown.  But we decided to forego that plan due to a weather system that was arriving on Saturday. We wanted to get to Delaware City ahead of it. We can go to Georgetown next year. 

It was a beautiful day as we left our favorite Baltimore anchorage and cruised past some of the huge ships in the harbor.

The weather was sunny and close to 70 degrees and the bay was calm. It was so pleasant that we decided to cruise an extra hour and go all the way to Chesapeake City on the C&D Canal. This would make our last day (when the rain was predicted) much shorter.

Ken and Fred had warned us about their recent experience in Chesapeake City where they had run aground due to shoaling in the harbor. So Jonny called Tow Boat US to get their advice and they gave us guidance on how to proceed safely and avoid any problems. We arrived in Chesapeake City by 3:55 and set the anchor near a group of very nice sailboats that likely were heading south for the winter.

We brought Archie on shore in the dinghy and strolled through this cute historic town which we have visited in the past. 

Having decided to bypass the pubs, we headed back to Zendo for a quiet evening. We had escarole and beans for dinner (one of our favorite cozy meals) and watched a little TV before going to bed. 

Alas, our trip is ending the next day but we have lots of excitement ahead with Stephanie and Ryan’s upcoming wedding!

Baltimore, MD (return visit)

We left beautiful Chestertown on Monday, September 25 by 7:50 a.m. to get to Baltimore in time to avoid the rain predicted for the afternoon.  It was a chilly and overcast day and we spent some of our cruising time down below. We arrived in the big port of Baltimore six and a half hours later passing some of the huge ships docked there. 

We really like staying in Baltimore, particularly at Anchorage Marina which is a dockominium and where we usually rent dockage from private individuals at killer rates.  It’s a very well managed marina with great slips and docks, a large modern clubhouse where it’s easy to receive mail and packages. The marina sits on the beautiful red brick lined waterfront in Canton where we can walk to almost everything. Safeway, West Marine and a variety of pubs and restaurants are just a few blocks away. 

Every time we walk up towards the marina office, Archie has to stop by this machine for his treat (and for which we require him to do a trick)!

From the marina  we can easily walk to historic Fell’s Point where there is a great farmer’s market on Saturdays and lots of good restaurants. Our plan was to be here for almost three weeks before heading back to Delaware City where we will winter Zendo.

This day also happened to be my birthday so after making a Safeway run, Jonny made a delicious dinner of rib eye steak and even had a piece of birthday cheesecake with a candle in it for me to make a wish on! We had a week of celebratory events planned so this was just the start of the celebrations.

The next day was Tuesday and our friends, Addie and Lange, were due to  arrive that afternoon but their stand-by status (as airline employees) had them arriving late. So Jonny and I went to his favorite pub just two blocks from the marina called Lighthouse.  This is a actually a liquor store with the most amazing selection of liquor, wines and beer.  It also has some food including a great deal on Taco Tuesday - three delicious tacos and a pint of beer for $10! This is also one of Archie’s favorite places to go (as  you might remember from the last time we were in Baltimore)!

Addie and Lange arrived later that evening for their annual tradition of joining us, wherever Zendo happened to be, to celebrate my birthday.  We had lots of fun showing them around Baltimore which surprisingly to us they hadn’t visited previously (though they have been almost everywhere else in this big wide world)!  

We checked out a few pubs with them (all were old and somewhat historic - some good and others worth a pass).  

We visited the American Visionary Art Museum which we knew they would love. It’s full of quirky art from unknown artists. They wanted to take me to dinner but we kept ending up at funky pubs instead!  

Jonny and I were committed to managing a MTOA booth at Baltimore’s annual Trawler Fest so on its first day I skipped out on him and Addie and Lange took me to lunch at a classic southern standby in Fell’s Point called Miss Shirley’s Café.  They left on Thursday headed to Bethesda to visit their daughter for a few days and I volunteered with Jonny at Trawlerfest signing up new members for MTOA.

On Friday night, Jonny had arranged my birthday present which was a cooking class at a cooking school next to Lighthouse Canton Liquor Store.  We had a great time that evening with the chef and about 20 other participants (all of them much younger than us).  The theme was Alsacian cooking and since we had visited Alsace many years ago we were excited.  It was a very fun evening. We made some delicious food and got a couple of new recipes. One of them, apple strudel, Jonny tried his hand at the following week.

On Saturday, I got my next birthday present with Stephanie who arrived for a quick two day visit.  She had asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told her the only thing I wanted was to see her, so she made my wish come true.  But in addition she arranged for the two of us to have massages which were just wonderful!  Afterwards she and I went out to lunch together while Jonny kept working away at Trawlerfest! That evening the three of us went to dinner at a terrific Basque restaurant on the other side of town called La Cuchara.  We had lots of delicious tapas and enjoyed our dinner immensely!

Stephanie left on Sunday and we took the day to recover from a whirlwind week.  The following week was more mundane with Jonny concentrating on fixing one of our air conditioners that we feared needed replacing,  Fortunately, Woody, our ace AC mechanic lives on his boat just a few slips down from us on the dock. He guided Jonny through removing the AC (an arduous process) and troubleshooting the situation only to discover that we just needed to replace a wire that had a bad connection.  What a big relief!  This small fix saved us a few thousand dollars! 

Jonny had fun with the (somewhat delayed) Father’s Day gift that Stephanie brought for him - a sous vide machine. He bought pork chops and made a fabulous dinner for us of sous vide pork chops with mushroom sauce and cabbage. We’re looking forward to more such meals in the future. He loves all his cooking tools!

We have also been waiting to hear back from a Cummins mechanic because Jonny is still having a problem with the timing on the engine. Finally, on our second to last day and after several delayed appointments the Cummins mechanic came and spent several hours onboard troubleshooting the issue. It turns out that we will need to have the injection pump re-timed which we can’t do until the start of next year’s cruising season.

In the meantime, we had a nice surprise in that our friends, Ken and Fred, who are on their way back to Miami after completing the Down East Circle Loop were going to be at Anchorage Marina for a few days.  They took the slip right next to us. We bought Zendo from them ten years ago and we have been friends with them ever since.  It was great to hear about their trip and to compare notes since the Down East Loop was our first big trip on Zendo.

We went with them to a local pub called Mahaffey’s where we had really good burgers. The following night they invited us for dinner aboard Freestyle.  Fred made pork chops and sauerkraut and Jonny made the apple strudel from our cooking class. A fun evening was had by all.

That day we had gone for our flu shots along with the Covid booster and the new RSV shot.  By the next day I had come down with a bad cold and within two days, Jonny had one too. So although we wanted to invite them for a bite onboard Zendo, that wasn’t going to happen. We’re just glad we got  sick this week and not the week of Stephanie’s wedding! 

Our dock was particularly busy one day and it turned out that the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race was taking place and a number of boats were docked at the end of our long pier.  Jonny went to check them out but I was still under the weather and missed it.

As we started to feel better it was time to start a little advance prepping to get the boat ready for the winter.  We took down all the Stratoglass on the aft deck, washed it and put it away while Archie napped on the foredeck.

Later on we rewarded ourselves by having dinner at Thames Oyster House.  We had an elegant and delicious dinner including many of our favorite seafood dishes and some interesting new ones as well. We had a lovely walk home along the waterfront.

On our last day in Baltimore we took Archie for a long walk along the waterfront and stopped for croissants at our favorite bakery in Fell’s Point called Pitango.  Jonny had been spoiling me this visit by bringing croissants back for me in the mornings I chose to linger in bed with my coffee!  But this morning I was more energetic and snapped some pictures on our walk including this imposing statue of Frederick Douglas, a Maryland native.

Later that day we did more boat chores and Jonny picked up some more groceries, though we are trying to finish the food we have on board. On the last evening we ate leftovers of the internet sensation Marry Me Chicken that I had made for dinner earlier in the week. Jonny had an MTOA board meeting on Zoom and afterwards we had a quiet night. We planned to leave early the next morning to start making our way to Delaware City.