August 22nd 2016
Atlantic City, NJ
I was so lucky to have gotten stuck where I did yesterday. Staying in the Rutgers University Marine Research facility was an amazing experience. First, the place has a Three Hundreds and Sixty degree Million Dollar view. A perfect place to storm watch, catch sunsets and sun rises. Second, the place had giant maps of the area I was paddling and it was nice to see where I’d been and what was ahead and Third, after seeing what I made for my dinner last night, Kim asked me if I was still hungry. Kim offered to make me a real dinner and she whipped up a nice hearty meal of Steak Salad, Chicken with an Almond Paste and Broccoli. We watched the storm blow through as we ate dinner and I was very thankful for being inside during it.
When I woke up, Low tide was beginning to peak and the water outside looked like a river it was running so fast. This is what I had run straight into yesterday. I’d be waiting for Slack tide before pushing off this morning and that would start around 8:30am. I made breakfast in a real kitchen for a change and enjoyed sunrise as I took in the views.
After saying good bye to Kim C. I hit the water. A strong Easterly wind was blowing around 15 knots and I was paddling straight into it, but I was making good progress. I was a bit nervous about today’s paddle as I was going to need to do some real navigation. The landmasses on my map were simply salt-water marsh areas and barely visible from my low vantage point. I’d have to follow channel markers, which are also difficult to spot from my position, but because of my shallow draft, I could and would be cutting corners. The most difficult part would be the constant zig zagging as I went around the marshes so picking targets in the distance to aim for was difficult. The largest landmark was Atlantic City and while it looked like I could have paddled straight to it, I couldn’t. At some points I was passing it off my Port side and other times I was heading right for it and then I’d be seeing it off my Starboard side. This went on all day and I had to stay focused on little channel markers far off in the distance rather than large landmarks.
By 10am the tide was on my side, but due to my course, that would soon change and as I made my way into a narrow channel, the tide was running about 5 knots against me as was the wind. To make matters worse, while I had not seen another boat all morning, the large recreational boaters were active here and throwing huge wakes as they passed by me. While I can handle them, it’s just not right to pass any boat like this. Boat wakes hit other boaters off the side, which cause the boats to rock violently and can throw both people and their gear around or worse, overboard. The other aspect to large wakes in narrow channels is the environmental damage they cause to the shoreline. The wakes erode the shoreline and that erosion ends up in the channel causing it to become shallow and need dredging. That said, I was impressed when not just one, but two boaters throttled down as they passed me today.
I stopped for an early lunch on a marsh as I was waiting for the tide to turn and had been fighting the wind. I knew that within the hour I’d have it on my side so I took a break. From a distance, it would look like I was just standing on water as I stood in the foot deep water covering the land below with the grasses just breaking the surface. I’d be making one more sharp turn before my approach into Atlantic City was dead ahead. After lunch I pushed off and battled the tide and wind knowing that it was going to change soon. At first, I was going backwards, but soon, I was making a small but noticeable progress forward and that would grow with each stroke. Finally I was moving against the strong current at 2 knots. Leaving the narrow channel, I entered a large open bay and the wind and waves were hitting me off my starboard side. The channel weaved to the right and left and I picked a course straight through the area. It was here that another challenge appeared.
We can fight physical challenges and often, humans do very well with the physical, but the emotional challenges are much harder to overcome. Often, failure is not due to physical limitations, but emotional ones. After lunch I began to battle my mind. While I now had a few great nights meeting wonderful people, the loneliness on the water is getting to me. This is the battle I set out to conquer as the loneliness was also affecting me in Vermont too. My mind was full of a strong desire to quit.
Two days ago I lost my SPOT, which was my number one safety net. Today my VHF radio was not working right and now all I had was my phone and flares, which I would ever rely on in an emergency. I thought of every reason to call this done once I reached Atlantic City.
I though about renting a truck and packing it up in the morning and then heading back to Yorktown to help Arlene move. I thought of all the people in Vermont wishing I’d come back. I thought of the Slate Quarry Park we were building in town and my last report on their progress was not good. To quote them: Without your energy, it doesn’t seem to be moving forward. I thought about my parents who, while supportive, would love to see me back home and of course I thought about leaving Arlene to the enormous physical and emotional task of moving without my help. On the other hand, I thought about all the people anxious to see me. People who have supported this journey, people who are ready to open their homes up to me and people whom I’ve yet to meet. People just like Kim C., Dave Fox and of course Mary and Tom and Martha and Steve who’ve become very good friends. I feel torn between a desire to move forward and the desire to go back. I thought about tomorrow. It would have been Lexie’s 13th birthday.
I arrived in Atlantic City way ahead of schedule. It was just 1:30 pm where I hadn’t expected to be here till close to 5pm. My first problem was to discover that the marina I was headed for was gone. I paddled on further under the bridge into the Back Waters and began scoping out places to leave the kayak for the night. Most of the marinas were unsecured facilities and the area around them didn’t look too safe. I checked with a couple of boaters and they confirmed that while the boat would be fine on the dock, they would not leave any gear within easy reach. Everything I own is on here and I’d be leaving it unattended. I began looking for a house to leave it at. Finally, I paddled over the most secure location and unlikely place to find a dock; The Golden Nugget Casino. The boats here were well secured from unauthorized visitors, but would they let me stay. I paddled up and down the slips looking for someone to talk to as I was hoping one of the boats in the slips would just let me tie up with them.
After paddling around for a while, I finally found a fishing trawler with the tallest tower I’ve ever seen. Onboard were two families and some children. As soon as they spoke, I recognized the accents. They were definitely Jersey Shore folk and the women reminded me of the song “I’m form Jersey” by John Gorka. They were definitely Jersey Girls. I talked to them and the two women immediately offered to let me put my kayak behind their giant boat, but then the captain insisted I talk to the dock master first. He pointed out where I could find them so I paddled down, tied up and as I went to get out I was offered help from two people. Once on the dock, I met two more who briefly chatted with me. I then went into the hotel portion of the Casino in my full gear. I asked the woman at the Marine Office and thus began them asking each other what to do with a kayaker? One said I could pull it up on the dock. I explained that this wasn’t possible and they kept fielding the question off each other and finally someone who was out of site said to put me on H Dock and don’t bother registering him. Yes, they were letting me dock overnight for free.
I contacted my old high school friend Al that I’ve found a spot and told him where I was. I was looking forward to seeing him again and I’d be spending the night at his house nearby. As I went back to the kayak, I met the people that I met on the dock earlier. We chatted for a few minutes and they were so excited to hear about the trip. I was so depressed, I didn’t even tell them about the blog as I tried to remain energetic talking to them. I went back to the other folks in their boat and thanked them and told them the good news and then headed over to H Dock. I secured the kayak and met the folks in the large sailboat next to me. They were from NY and are headed north. One of the gentlemen on board was a dermatologist and immediately praised me for my sun protection choices. I grabbed my overnight bag and headed up to meet Al.
Except for the grey hair, Al looked just like he did in school and I spotted him right away walking toward me. We threw my bag in the SUV and took off. He asked if I needed anything and for some reason I decided to see if there was someplace I could replace my SPOT. I wouldn’t have needed to replace it if I was quitting, but I had no talked about that with him. I found a West Marine on our way to his house so he brought me there. I had taken my VHF radio with me to see if I could get it working again and since that came from West Marine, I figured I could get the SPOT and radio taken care of in one shot.
We arrived at West Marine and the girl at the counter immediately fixed the radio. I had somehow hit a lock button on it and that caused it to remain stuck on one channel. With the radio fixed, I set my sites on the SPOT. I had emailed them the day before and still had not received a reply so I gave them a call. It took a while, but we came up with a solution. I’d buy a replacement SPOT here and they would issue me a credit to the monitoring and tracking I pay for direct to SPOT. Not having my SPOT was a huge issue for me, I’d been traveling with SPOT since 2010 and it was my safety net. Loosing that net was overwhelming. I was happy to have it replaced. We activated the new SPOT right there in the store even before I bought it and I left with renewed energy.
Once at Al’s house, I met his wife, Tray (I’m guessing short for Tracy) and their Rottweiler. Al set me up in the guest room and I took a well earned shower while Al whipped up some Chicken Parmesan and Pasts with homemade pasta sauce, his Mom’s secret recipe. I had renewed energy here and decided that I was going to push onto Cape May, NJ and then take a break to help Arlene move and re-evaluate things. I’ll be looking for a place to store the kayak in Cape May so if you can help me with that. I’d appreciate it.
Day 52 done
Just conducted our annual Open House at the Rutgers University Marine Field Station on Sept. 17th, 2016. The story of your travels becomes part of those who cross paths whether it be in spirit or across the boundaries of time. May you traverse the universe in a way that pleases you.
Thank You Roland. Finding shelter there was a blessing and a highlight of my journey. If there is ever anything I could do in return for you, please ask.
Hi Larry! We’ve stayed at Utsch’s Marina in Cape May, with Blue Jay, and they are really nice people. They might let you keep the kayak there. Or maybe they’ll have a suggestion. Good luck!