Days Events:

Wx - cloudy, raining most of day; forecast 73/78; peaceful most of morning till rain started. Definitely cooler which makes traveling much more enjoyable.

Travel - left Atlantic City at 07:30, with recent buddy boat loopers in GarNac [short for Gary & Nancy - from Ottawa, ON !] following us; pleasant, peaceful, morning following a serpentine channel [see photos], until heavy rain began mid-morning and GarNac had to stay close behind us to keep in the channel [they had already been grounded early on - another boats wake pushed them out of the channel, but they were able to back off the mud ok], until several hours later when something wrapped around one prop and stalled the engine and they had to get the tow boat to take them into a marina, where they are overnight until it can be hauled out and looked at. Hopefully they will have it rectified and meet us here tomorrow.

There are several photos of the changing types of home construction; and of the 'streets' of boating water off the main channel. Also took one of a boat up on 3 pilings in the middle of the shallow lake - don't know what it is for or why it is there.

Arrived at Hoffman's Marina at 15:30/3:30 and docked in a bit of wind and tidal current. Took us 8 hours to go 66 miles. It was considerably more pleasurable than the off-shore trip yesterday. The only boat traffic was in the last hour as we approached Manasquan.

Marina - larger, with 160 slips, fairly new, but with only 'stubby' fingers between slips [a 50 ft slip has only 20ft 'finger' to walk on for access], and docks are 'fixed', which makes access more interesting with a 4 ft tide; most docks are on the west side of a RR drawbridge [see photo]; the transients like us, are on the east side, closer to the ocean inlet. Nice folks, great docking help; restaurants nearby for take out.

Photos - only a few are there; several would not upload, so will try again in a.m.

Sat. PS: added the photos finally.

Admirals Desk:

A good travel day even with the heavy rain that made visibility limited. Thank goodness for the pilothouse and windshield wipers. Our buddy boat only has a flybridge, so on top of getting wet they couldn't see. We were the lead boat. They still hope to get here tomorrow and buddy to NY. And after the awful ride yesterday, today was a joyride, even with the monsoon.

Cooking was interesting this evening with all the power interruptions. I had started orzo, feta, dill chicken on the stove top, but we were getting too much waking/rocking so I switched to the instant-pot (it's deeper and heavier and less likely to spill hot stuff on me), but then the receptacle power shut off. So I put the partly cooked stuff in the fridge and decided PB&J seemed a good option. But we needed power to run other stuff so we started the genset. Got everything back out of the fridge and restarted. We ate fashionably late. Tasty though.

A first time event - a family of swans paddled in front of us in one of the narrow canals. They appeared to not notice the big white boat about to run over them so Rob had to do a very quick stop. We've noticed some fishermen will do the same but we are less inclined to be so nice.

We are docked bow in with no easy on/off. Going to stock up on food again so getting off the boat is necessary and it could be interesting. Either under or over the pulpit railing or over the side railing and hopefully get onto the dock.

Good night and take care.

Maintenance:

Electrical short - Marg noted some wavering voltage when we hooked up at marina; everything seemed ok, then, an hour later, our ELCI tripped off [Equipment Leakage Circuit Interrupter] - basically a big GFCI to protect people from accidental shock. Tried several things to isolate cause: tried unplugging everything in every plug-in but didn't help; considered it could be the 25' 50A extension cord we had to use, so marina tried a pair of 30A cords with a cord splitter/joiner, but that didn't help; nor did connecting to 3 different pedestal outlets [thinking it was the marina source]. Changed to our generator, and power ok, until turned the CB [Circuit Breaker] for the Receptacles #2 [plug-ins group] and it immediately tripped the ELCI off and the generator off. The 'Receptacles #2' Line includes the staterooms/bunkroom + heads plug-ins. Did hear a 'loud snap' from the pilothouse portside GFCI plug - the test button on it no longer works, though there is still power to the plug, but I think I could smell something electrical 'hot' though nothing felt warm.

For now, we are running our genset with all AC power except for the Receptacle line #2 - we can get by overnight. I will buy replacement receptacles for at least two which do not hold plugs well, and replace at least 2 of the GFCI's since their test buttons don't work. Will have a look at all of the receptacles to make sure they are ok; any looking suspicious I'll replace also.

Travel Plans - decided to stay in Manasquan until Sunday; wx offshore not great tomorrow, and Sunday definitely better - assuming we don't have any surprises again.

That's all today.

Stay safe.

Comments:

Duane - 8 Aug 2020: Rob and Marg We checked out the Fleming yacht site and any model would be awesome.