Loop Day 4 &5 Chesapeake City/ Summit North Marina (Bear, DE) to Cape May, NJ Betsy

We enjoyed the morning in Chesapeake City walking around the quaint town and then visiting the C&D Canal Museum.


Chesapeake Inn and Marina where we ate outside



Looking out at FRYEDAZE on anchor in Chesapeake City

Overlooking the C&D Canal

Although we had visited there three times, we had never gone into the museum. It was fascinating!

Yesterday we left our anchorage in Chesapeake City and moved 4.7 miles to Summit North Marina. The rationale behind such a short move was so that we wouldn't have to clean off the anchor chain at 0500! While I was grateful this morning for not having that chore to do- the stress of getting into the marina yesterday afternoon was certainly not worth that trade-off. We pulled off the C&D Canal with 17-20 knot winds directly from the west pushing into the marina. It was very congested when we were coming in the narrow fairway. The slip that we had been assigned was not along the t-head as we had hoped. When Dave approached the slip there was no way we would have been able to get into the slip or even down the D/C dock fairway. He had me call the marina again as they were not answering on the VHF radio. While the girl in the office is sweet and as Dave put it very not hard to look at- she did not have a lot of command and control or common sense to help us find another solution. Dave decided on his own to back up and turn around (yes in the 20 knot wind) and go into a slip at the other end of the marina. I prayed hard to land the loop the first time on the floating dock- but prayers were answered by a really nice lady who came out from inside her boat. After she and her husband wrestled our lines down safely- he said and I quote, "By the way, I don't think this slip will be deep enough for your size boat at low tide. I think there will only be 1' of water below your keel." In other words, we would end up in the mud at low tide. Dave took our hand held depth sounder all around and at 1435 (2 hours from low tide) we were already down to 3' of water. So Dave called the ever-so-smart girl in the office and told her that this slip would not work we needed something with more water- and all I could think was yes and many dock hands there to grab my lines in this wind! After careful consideration and checking new slip assignment, we once again threw off the lines and began to move. Again selfishly praying for strength to loop the line (as I would once again have no help) we cautiously moved to new slip. Praise the Lord because there standing on the dock was a friend we had met and traveled with last fall Captain Ed. He very calmly told me exactly what lines to throw to him and before we knew it we were tied up and safely in our slip. After getting reacquainted and hearing about their wintering in FL, I promptly got out the sangria and informed Dave that ring bologna and Chex Snack Mix was our  dinner (we had a nice lunch in Chesapeake City so I knew this would be great with him).

After a peaceful night tied to the dock we departed at 0530 and caught the tide going out of the C&D Canal. Our entourage including another Looper Boat (No Zip Code) as well as Ed on Serenity and Len on Destiny proceeded down the canal into the Delaware Bay.

 



Delaware Highway 13 Bridge to Wilmington at Sunrise

Boat traffic was quite heavy going down the Delaware Bay and we had some hold your breath moments when the two large ships passed in the narrow shipping channel.

 

As we sit here at the end of the day talking about our favorite moments from the beginning to now- Dave has 2 favorite pictures he wanted to share and I have a picture in progress...

 

Day 1- Very hot going up the Bay. I was the Bug Lady sucking up the thousands of flies!

Day 3- So cold going to Chesapeake City that I had on my winter coat, hat and gloves



No shave Day 5- Lunch at Lucky Bones, Cape May N.J.

Night All!

This is a TEST!! dlf

Ok, we will be running the Delaware Bay tomorrow on our way to Cape May. The bay has some healthy current that can either help you or slow you down. So here is the test team. Base on the tide and current charts below. When  should Fryedaze leave the C&D canal and head down the Delaware bay?
Good luck!

Loop Cruise Day 1 & 2 Solomons to Rock Hall, MD- Betsy

We woke up bright and early on Tuesday ready to begin our adventure to a light fog and decreased visibility. That didn't deter our leaving at 7:25! When the engines started right up we both breathed a heavy sigh of relief! We repositioned our lines and took off shore power as is our usual routine. What wasn't so routine was Dave asking me to go up to the bridge. He told me he would instruct me in backing out of the slip on my own. Even though we had talked about it- I just thought that my first attempt would come later in the trip in calmer (not weather related) conditions! It really was genius on his part because as the tears were welling up and wanting to flow- I had too much to do and concentrate on. I knew I would miss our beloved Zahneiser's and Solomons but we were starting our great adventure! We were headed for the Solomon's Public Pumpout Station. The approach would be different than we usually attempted when pumping out there- so Dave came up to the bridge and I threw the lines and secured the boat (felt much more normal!)

 

 

Once that wonderful task was completed, we were off into Solomon's Harbor- mentally taking in last pictures of the Lighthouse Restaurant (one of our favorites) and the Tiki Bar. We were both smiling ear-to-ear at this point so very happy to get this party started!



 

 

 

I was coming up to resume my normal position on the bridge with coffee pot and mugs ready to wave good-bye when the boat shuttered strongly and that sinking feeling of WE HAVE HIT SOMETHING AGAIN! Dave knew we were in a deep part of the channel so I thought it was a crab pot line. What a way to start again! Once we moved forward Dave established that there was no shudder or difficulty steering the boat so we thought we were in the clear. Dave again put the boat into auto-pilot and the same thing happened again. My first thought was to turn around and head back to Zahneiser's. Not Dave- he was going to solve this problem. We went into even deeper water and he tried auto-helm again with the same results. He then figured out that the wires for the pilot were reversed! The new pump was wired in a different manner than the old one was. Solution was to wait until we were further out in the Bay and I could take the helm and Dave would fix problem. IT WORKED! It was such a great feeling to finally be cruising our beloved Bay with no issues. Or so we thought...

 

Dave was surprised that he needed to change the time to Daylight Standard Time on chart display as this usually would update automatically. On close inspection he realized that the AIS (how you can track our location and we can track other boats locations) was not working. I thought shew!... the trouble in threes has all shown themselves. After manually piloting the boat passed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Dave determined that the problem had to be electrical as there was no signal therefore no electricity to the bridge GPS.

 



 



 



He went down below and changed out a bad fuse and voila- we had GPS! His skill-set just amazes me!

One of our "neighbors" cruising up the Bay

 

The rest of the trip into Swan Creek, Rock Hall was uneventful- thank heavens! We enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the hook and had a well-deserved cocktail at sunset!

 

 

 



Today we road our bikes all around Rock Hall picking up new fuses and a few extra groceries. Had lunch at another favorite restaurant- Waterman's Crab House. Dave has decided to go rogue on this cruise so this final picture shows his new no shave mentality! Thanks for reading and I promise next blogs won't be as long and have more pictures!

 

 



 

 

False start! dlf

Sooooo,  here is our tail of the trials of boating. We get up at six excited for the first day of the Great Loop. Port engine starts, Starboard doesn’t. It turns one quarter of a turn and the starter chatters. First thing I suspect is the batteries, even though they are at 12.8 vdc. I pull all connections to the Stb engine to ensure clean and good connections. Test start ‘NO JOY’. I put jumpers to the other engine NO JOY. I pull all cables and swap batteries for each engine. Port starts right up, Stb didn’t. Took hydrometer readings. All cells >1.825. IT’S NOT THE BATTERIES.

Phase two: I start snooping around the starter (its outboard and a bear to see). I find the lead from the starter positive to the alternator positive output melted. The cause will come later. I replace the positive lead from the alt to the starter and…NO JOY and its get hot quick. Looks like a starter problem.

Well we are starting the loop today and have no car. In come Robby, Joann and Donny to help out. Robbie and Donny provide all kinds of great advice from their previous experience with farm equipment and previous jobs.  They talk me into pulling the starter so I did. Robbie suggest we taking it over to the Wenger Amish motor shop and check it out, best idea of the day (you why see later). Mean while I want my truck because I figure we are going to be here for a few days. Joann takes me home and on the way back I order a new starter from Drum Point Marine and it will be here tomorrow between 1000-1300. I get back and Robbie calls Wenger to see if they could fit us in. They can so we hit the road for Saint Mary’s Amish country. The fella at Wenger tests the motor and its fine. We start asking questions and he gave us a wealth of ideas. Sooooo, back to the boat.

Phase three: I wire brush all the contact point for the starter to the block and all the terminals, even though they were pretty good. As I was putting the last positive lead though some piping I bumped the block, IT DIDN’T SPARK! It should have been a direct short. Robbie suggests taking some readings. They all come up empty, almost zero. As I am scratching my head I look forward and shazam!! the Main Engine battery cutoff switch is in off. It’s a big plastic key switch that looks like and oversized clock key. I must have bumped it while loading stores.

NOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE. The wire that fried to the alternator did so because that little 10 ga. wire was trying to back feed and start the engine.  Put the key in 'on' and the engine fires right up. NOTHIN BUT JOY!!!.

I am not sure what the moral of the story is. The ordeal took solid none stop work from 0800-1600. Oh well I know how to pull the starter now. Looks like the LOOP starts tomorrow.

I wonder what Betsy would do if I took a picture of her in a compromising position(_|_)

Throwing the Lines- Betsy

We are ready to throw the lines on MONDAY MORNING, May 18th. While we have been planning this trip first in our dreams and then in reality for years- it seems like the majority of my work has been in the past week! Dave worked tirelessly over the winter and this spring to get FRYEDAZE ready to be occupied full time. I know I WAS doing something productive this winter (besides having lunches and catching up with new and old friends!)- crunch time hit hard this week! From vacuum packing meats for 2 1/2 hours, cleaning our house for our friends who will be occupying and taking care of it, as well as packing and unpacking our clothes- I am exhausted and ready to just cruise! I also didn't realize how hard it would be to stay "see you later" to our wonderful friends and family we have met over the last 34 years! Our friends Denise and Bob Pace had a beautiful Bon Voyage party for us on May 2nd. We were so grateful to them and all those who came to say goodbye. We had a wonderful weekend over Mother's Day with Dave's family- reassuring his wonderful mom that we would be just fine and promised to stay in touch (daily if necessary)! This week I spent two wonderful evenings with some of my work family and other friends. Finally, had dinner last night with my very special cousins who were more like my sisters growing up. The week was emotionally exhausting- but I am so glad to have all these special people in my life!


Last week Dave and I went to Norfolk for the Spring American Great Loopers Association Rendezvous. It was a jammed packed week of sessions by veteran cruisers and experts on all aspects of cruising the Loop. By Thursday, my brain just could not take in any more information! I was at the point on Thursday that I knew I was not ready or capable of completing my jobs. In typical Dave fashion, he calmly told me that we have successfully cruised together for the past five years and nothing would change now except the scenery! I know he is right but my confidence level still isn't what I thought it was before. Once we throw the lines though- I know that love of the adventure and of cruising will return and I will be just fine.

It was a wonderful week that affirmed our past experiences that boaters are just a very unique and special group of kind and helpful people. We probably heard 10 times over the week that the best part of cruising the loop are the people- and I just can't wait! We were also able to reconnect with a great couple that we met last 4th of July at Zanheisers- Sharon and Bog on Sno Daz. Sharon is a former high school guidance counselor and Bob a principal so you can see why I instantly gravitated to them. We also were together at the MTOA Fall Rendezvous last year in Cambridge. Sno Daz has already cruised passed us in Solomons and are probably in the NYC area already! We hope to reconnect on the water again with them! This is our group photo from last week:

Today we will spend putting the rest of our stuff into their hiding places. This week, Dave even built a new storage platform in the forward bilge area so that I have an additional space for more stuff! Our address has been permanently changed to PA (thank you Ben) and all our bills have been paid or set-up for automatic withdrawal. I have the last of the provisioning to do today and then I think we are... I think we are... I know we are ready to leave!

Well- Dave said that most of you have stopped reading by now as this is so long, but I just wanted to fill you in on the work and feelings/emotions that I have been experiencing this final week in MD. Dave on the other hand just keeps getting more and more excited to go. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy sharing the adventure with us!

Ding, Ding Dinghy

Well another job is checked off. When we bought "Windless" now know as Fryedaze, she had the dinghy on the aft deck but was fitted with Weaver Davits that allow the tender to be hung off the swim platform. We never used this option, in fact Dave spent a great deal of effort extending the boom and putting an electric winch on the boom to make it easier to launch from the aft deck. Well with the impending loop trip the Weaver Davits looked like a more convenient way to launch and carry the dinghy, just not as pretty (PRETTY Counts in my book). The pads that are glued to the dinghy have come loose over the years and were in need of replacement. We purchased new pads and work through installing them. With this new system the boat name is obscured by the dinghy. The previous owner had the boat name on the bottom of the dinghy to address this. Soooo, we ordered a set of stickers to put the name on the bottom of the dinghy. As you can see from the pictures below my spacial relationships is a bit off and the name in enormous, OH WELL!

Purchase day 2010 and the location of the dinghy on the aft deck.

Old Weaver Davit pad location The black areas are where the pads were no longer attached.

Old pads, new replacements were purchased.

Pad area cleaned and prepared with MEK (nasty stuff)

Mockup with the old pads to ensure good contact with the weight on them. That weight is a section of a PRR railroad track compliments of Ray Fasick my father in law.

 Pads glued up and in place. We researched a lot on the glue up of these pads. Lots of horror stories on failure during installation. The manufacturer stresses the need to have low humidity and no direct sun light. We ran a dehumidifier for four days in the garage to get the humidity down to <45% before installing the pads. Fingers crossed, we think it worked.The glue has a 6 day complete cure time so we will wait a week before testing it out.

Here is an example of how it will hang on the swim platform.

Sooooo, the dinghy will cover the name on the boat transom. We are required to display the boat name by regulations. We ordered boat lettering to put on the bottom of the dinghy. Bets took my recommendation for letter size and made the order. It looks like it was a bit of over kill. HEY, but bigger is better ....right

Due to the four stroke engine requirements that do not allow the engine to be laid or tilted to the carb side, we had to add a rotating transom mount that will keep the engine upright with this new rig. It would not have been needed if we would have stuck with the old 3.3 HP 2 stroke Merc that came with the boat. But what the heck.... I didn't want to mix oil and gas and wanted more power with the 6 HP.


Preps for the trip are winding down. The biggest job for Dave is to buff and wax the topside of the boat. Bets is busy finalizing the provisioning of the boat and stowing the things we won't need until later in the trip. We cant wait to shove off!!!!!

'D' day (departure day) is only a month away.

Its been really busy lately around the Fryedaze house. Aside from a complete bathroom remodel at home the trip preparation is in high gear. Most of the planned winter jobs are complete along with a few new ones we created along the way. All the planned spare parts have been procured, inventoried and stowed. Provision list are created, menus scanned and planned. All canal permits, charts and various registrations are here or will be in the next few days. The dirty work in the boat is done so Bets and I gave the boat a thorough clean up this week. It was nice to see things looking semi-normal. Due to not signing up for a new one year lease on our old slip we have moved to a new slip on 'L' dock at ZYC for our last month in Solomons. The dinghy is in the garage awaiting the new attachments that will allow the tender to be carried on the swim platform. We normally carry the dinghy on the deck. Carrying it on the swim platform will provide easy deployment of the dinghy when we need it, and we will be using it a lot. The starboard salon door refinishing is complete and will go back on the boat this week with its new high density poly slide system. The lists are getting shorter and the remaining work items are not that daunting anymore. The biggie now it the spring buff out and wax of the topside.

Checking them off as we go. We just need to stop adding items :-)

The So, So plan.

Fryedaze Great Loop itinerary:                                 

Depart Solomon’s MD late May

Chesapeake to C&D Canal

Delaware Bay to Cape May NJ

Cape May NJ to NYC

                June 2015

Hudson to Erie Canal

Erie Canal to Oswego NY

Oswego NY to Trent-Severn waterway

                July 2015

North Chanel & Georgian Bay

August 2015

Lake Michigan to Chicago IL

                September 2015

Illinois River to Tenn-Tom Waterway

                October 2015

Tenn-Tom to Chattanooga TN

Chattanooga TN to Tenn-Tom

                November 2015

Tenn-Tom to Mobile AL

Mobile AL to Fort Meyers Fla

                December 2015

Fort Meyers Fla to Key West

                April 2016

Key West Fla to Charleston SC

                May 2016

Charleston to Norfolk VA

Norfolk VA to Solomon’s MD