Baltimore to Atlantic City

Sunday 6/30 we untied our lines for the first time in a month.  We were excited to get back out on the water again, but it has been in the upper 90's for about 2 weeks now and were just a little worried about anchoring out. 

We passed the Francis Scott Key Bridge on our way out and the cranes, barges and the Dali were no longer there.  Just a large section of missing bridge.  News is saying that it will cost $4 billion to replace and it will take until Fall of 2028.  

Passed the Carnival Pride as we were leaving Baltimore.  They were coming back in from a week in Bahamas. 

We made our way to the north end of the Chesapeake into the C&D Canal into Delaware Bay where we anchored behind Reedy Island.  We knew we had a strong storm headed our way and we needed to get Roxie to land and back before it hit.  We got back on the boat in plenty of time!  Little bit of wind and ALOT of rain. 

Monday morning 7/1 we were up at 6:30.....back on our normal early morning travel schedule.  We crossed Delaware Bay and came into Cape May, NJ where we stayed 2 nights and had a delicious dinner at the Lobster House.    

Cape May-Lewes car ferry.   

We anchored just off of the Coast Guard academy and could watch some of the morning drills! 

Lots of fish and shrimp boats in Cape May.

As we pulled anchor on the 3rd we had fog and smooth waters.  Check out this fog rainbow!

Coming into Atlantic City!

We stayed at the Farley State Marina right in front of the Golden Nugget.  We had planned on staying only 2 or 3 nights but due to wind and waves we ended up staying 4.  Not that we were complaining!  We hit all the casinos....best hands we had at video poker were 4 of a kinds and Bill had a straight flush.  That darn Royal Flush has eluded us!  Oh well, we had a great time!

The Tropicana was setting off fireworks down by the pier but we decided to watch from the boat and listen to the band on the deck at the Golden Nugget.  Turned out that there were bands every night out on the deck!     

View of the fireworks was not the best but it was a great night!

Bill had heard about the Gilchrist as being a great place to have breakfast so we got the dingy down and road over to the free dock to give it a try.  We ended up eating here twice!  Very good!

This is the Coast Guard station with Golden Nugget and Harrah's in the background. 

The beaches in the Absecon inlet were busy with holiday celebrations!

We took the Jitney to the boardwalk and walked from one end to the other, stopping to try our luck and cool off in the casinos.  The beach was very wavy and crowed.  

 

Looking forward to our next stop.....New York!

Baltimore

Saturday 6/1 we arrived in Baltimore Anchorage Marina where we will be staying for a month.  

As we approached the Baltimore Harbor we passed under the destroyed Francis Scott Key Bridge.  The bridge was hit by the container ship Dali on March 26th causing the center portion of the bridge to collapse.  The waterway was closed to all ship and boat traffic for about a month while they cleaned debris from the channel.  There was limited access in April and May and it wasn't until June that the channel was clear for normal ship and boat traffic. 

Clean-up was still underway as we passed through. 

The picture below is of the container ship Dali, which hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge.  You can see the damage she suffered, the entire front of the ship, including the cargo bins were smashed.    

Ships in the harbor. 

We stayed in Baltimore Anchorage Marina.  It is in a great location with a long boardwalk at the end of the docks in the harbor.  Floating pool out on that dock.  Continental breakfast every Saturday and live music every Saturday evening!  All included with your dock.  Shopping access is great with a Safeway grocery store right across the street.  Not to mention there is a West Marine and liquor store a short walk down the street.  Just short bike ride a way, there is a Sketchers outlet store, Nordstrom Rack, Target, Chick-fla-la and much more! 

Local knowledge gave us a head's up on a great neighborhood bar with daily specials just across the street called The Stackhouse.  You'd never know it was there if you were just driving by.   Great burgers, homemade fries! 

We are in the Canton area and it is known for being the location of the historic American Can Company.  The Stackhouse is full of memorabilia from that time.   

 

We went to a Baltimore Orioles home baseball game in Camden Yards.  

It wouldn't be us if we didn't get the chance to visit the Horseshoe Casino Baltimore!  Just so happens on Wednesdays they offer a special drawling for seniors, which yes.....we qualify.  They pick three lucky seniors who each win $555 of free play.  We were eligible and made sure we were there (except for when I was in Ohio), but after 4 tries, no winner.  

We also came the closest we have ever been to a tornado while in Baltimore.  One evening we got an alarm on our phone warning us of a tornado being spotted in the Baltimore City area.  Shortly after that the rain stopped and there was this eerie silence....it was too quite!  Then out of nowhere this big gust of wind hit us and of course I ran outside to see....yep, it looked like a waterspout or tornado moving right through the marina about 3 piers down.  

The next day I took Roxie for a walk to survey the damage.  Luckily, it didn't look like anyone in the marina had sustained any damage, but as we walked down the waterfront I found a lamppost took a direct hit, also saw a couple of sun canopies shredded on the condo balconies, and a couple table umbrellas thrown around.  On the parking lot side of the condos, there were shingles and tree branches on the ground.  

The 2nd week of our stay happened to be Fleet Week in Baltimore.  I had flown home for a meeting at work and Bill stayed with Roxie at the boat to replace our vacu-flush heads with new electric toilets and replace all the black water hoses.  He said there were all kinds of ships and aircraft moving in the harbor and in the sky.  

Replacing the heads!

Bill took a break from the potty work and went into the harbor to see the ships.  The jets were hard to catch on camera.

The last two weeks in Baltimore were busy with projects.  I've been wanting to give Cheers a little face lift in the salon and master cabins.  It's not as easy as just going to the store and picking something out although we could have shopped at Target...but we ended up ordering from Amazon and Kohls.  We got new table lamps for the main salon and comforter for the master cabin.  I finally sent some pictures from our trip to the Bahamas off to have them made into canvas prints to hang in the cabin.  Bill worked on polishing the boat sides and I polished the stainless.  So many projects and so little time!

We had gotten spoiled with having a grocery across the street and now that it was time to get back out on the water we had to reprovision.  A couple of trips with our cart back and forth and we should be good for a couple of weeks!

On to the next adventure!