Atlantic City Rendezvous 2010

We are back at the house. The Atlantic Ocean sucked from AC down into VA. Once I got about 50 miles from the house it flattened out. Got in just ahead of a pop-up thunderstorm. I'll get some photos and video up in the next day or so. We left at 9am and got in at 7pm, so I am done for the day.
 
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We are back at the house. The Atlantic Ocean sucked from AC down into VA. Once I got about 50 miles from the house it flattened out. Got in just ahead of a pop-up thunderstorm. I'll get some photos and video up in the next day or so. We left at 9am and got in at 7pm, so I am done for the day.

All hail the gas powered Sport Yacht God. Your amazing bud, good to see ya.
 
And I must admit, those hilbilly, possum balls in red sauce weren't half bad....
 
Mike:

Glad you guys made it through that storm. Dom's Marina had stuff blowing all over the place. The winds were fierce.
 
This was about 1pm out in the ocean. it was smooth cruising, especially after Barnegate inlet.

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As we rounded sandy hook, it wasn't looking so good

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Coming up the east river, looking worse.

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Here's where you can see the clouds taking a nose dive.

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Then the nice sunny ride in the sound.

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This was two kids on a jet ski, they looked like they were 12yrs old. they made it through the worst of the wind. I came up behind them and they were having a hard time of it. I blew my horn several times when they were right in front of me but didn't acknowledge it, So I came around them and turned on my hailer and called out to them to see if they needed any help. I think they flipped me off.

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The Coast guard intercepted them about a 1/4 mile further.
 
Well, we left on Thursday and hooked up with Mr. Dirty Boat
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Got into Rock Hall (look at those streaks, will you)
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He just couldn't stand it, so while we were waiting to fuel, he brought out the cleaning supplies--***Please notice the helpfulness of the crew members***
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Hooked up with Tim, Josh and the Chapmans (the Georgia folks who flew and drove just to meet all of us)
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Ate dinner
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Had some good conversation and some not so good conversation. This is Mrs. Gary after Mr. Gary made a comment about something or the other
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The Georgia Chapmans at dinner
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Something about- "If you take one more #$%@^& picture of me..."
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Out of Rock Hall at 6:00am Friday, chasing Speed Racer (aka Four Suns)


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A bit foggy arriving in AC
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Some socializing and pontificating began once the boats were moored
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Then it was time to eat-Dr. Ron leads the charge!
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Stan brought some f'n Ziti for everyone

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Mike offered Dom a mudslide-some sorta Bailey's concoction-and he was all for that. You should have seen him after 4 of those suckers
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Consuela acting as the mudslide bartender
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Someone showed up to dinner in their underwear. You would think that a guy who can afford a 480DB could afford to buy a pair of pants to wear to dinner. Sheesh.
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Geez, what did you guys say to this poor little guy? The little guy in the black shirt, in the folding chair on the deck doesn't look to happy. Did you steal his ziti? Other than that it looks like you guys had a great trip.
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Ron,

Man, you’re getting good at this. The video came out great!

Here’s our cruise director at “work”.
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I have to say that this was one awesome event. It was great to see our group getting together. We were happy to be around our local gang, made new friends and finally met some our long distance friends that we interact with on CSR almost daily, but didn’t have chance to meet yet.

We had very pleasant ride to AC in a convoy of two teams.

Here’s our fearless leader spearheading to the party town.
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I’m sure we’ve rocked the bay pretty well that day

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Here are few shots of some boats:

Carone Del Mar
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Ryker Bella
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Four Suns:
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Nansea:
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Danianna:
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Lady TAZ:
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H-dock:
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After spending wonderful weekend in AC it was time to head home. As usual, we had formed few teams that travelled together. Boat-A-Bing and Nansea departed in the late morning on Sunday. The Absecon inlet was getting a little hairy and the ocean had some nice rollers. The seas got smoother as we got out to the deeper water. As we were getting closer to the LEI area we caught up with Danianna. The ocean looked very inviting with pretty and salty water, so we couldn’t resist getting together and going for a quick and refreshing swim (swimming with the sharks session).
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Shortly after it was time to wave good bye to Danianna as we proceeded on our way to LEI (we wanted to fill up at BHYC at $2.89 for 89 octanes). The rest of the trip was uneventful as we were heading to High Bar Harbor (just inside of the Barnegat Inlet) to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to extent our long weekend. Since I was leading, I dropped my anchor first and then Nansea pulled along the side. The weather was perfect with 5-10mph wind, so we decided to keep one anchor out with intention to drop the second one, if needed. We saw the skies getting darker as a storm was approaching. We were wrapping up our late lunch and observed the storm passing by just north of us. I thought for a moment it’s good that we stayed south of it as we probably would have been hit at our marina. Oh well, I spoke too soon. About 10-15 minutes later I see the second wave of the storm coming towards us. After taking this shot we started to clean things up rapidly in prep for the storm.
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When I noticed Ryllie (Rod’s golden retriever) making a strange sound and going in to the cabin to seek shelter I said to myself “this storm is going to hit us”. We had dogs and cats for a long time, so I can read some of their signs and this one was one of the common ones.

In the next 5 minutes these happy faces lost their smiles and had the experience of a lifetime:
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The next thing you know it was literally like someone pressed the fri…ng RED button. From 10mph winds kicked up to 30-40mph within 30-60 seconds.

WE ARE GETTING HAMMERED WITH THIS BEAST:

AT 440 PM EDT...A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WAS REPORTED CAPABLE OF PRODUCING GOLF BALL SIZE HAIL...AND DESTRUCTIVE WINDS IN EXCESS OF 70 MPH.

Thank GOD we didn’t get the gulf ball size hail, but we’ve got everything else.

As I mentioned earlier, I had only my anchor out. Seen what’s approaching, Rod has dropped his anchor, but at that time it wasn’t doing much. I thought that we’ll be able to ride it out next to mine with the dinghy, but 1 min wasn’t enough time for this, so from this moment on we are in reaction mode rather than pro-active mode. The difference in HBH comparing to other places we usually raft-up is the depth. We were in about 8-10’ and I had about 60’ of scope out. My plan was, as with any approaching strong wind, to lay out more scope to prevent dragging. The problem was the space. There were too many boats seeking shelter and the place was getting packed. So, as expected with my full camper, which acts as a sail and total of ~30,000LBs (between two boats) on one anchor we started dragging at the speed of 3-4kts. I said to myself “no big deal, as we drag we can line up to Rod’s anchor and we’ll be able to lay out enough scope for two anchors”. That was my plan B, after dinghy anchor out plan A was blown away instantly. We drag and Rod lets more scope out, so far so good except for problem #1. We’re now getting shifted with the west wind away from anchorage area to deeper water ~15’+. I said no problem, Rod has 100’ of chain and then more line, I got 20’ of chain and I have confidence in my rig as it served me well in the past. So, here comes the problem #2. Rod’s windlass is jammed and it’s not going anywhere (forward or reverse, his breaker tripped and line is tangled in the anchor locker), but he was able to let out his 100’ of chain. Problem #3, Rod’s anchor doesn’t do much, thus we continue to drag. At this time I have no choice but rely only on my anchor. So, I lay out more and more scope as we’re in deeper water. Problem #4, my windless gets jammed as I laid out more scope than I ever did before. At this time we’re dragging in the channel with depths of ~25-30’. Did I mention that the place was packed with boats and mooring balls? At this time the engines are fired up to help with the dragging and keeping us under control. The first good news, I was able to free up my windlass and let more scope out. The 2nd good news, we had crossed the channel and entered a spot with shallower water. We finally stopped after I have about 200’ scope out. So, here we are 100’ from the channel and 100’ from the small marsh island. I was only hoping for wind to remain at the same direction and not to shift preventing us to hit that marsh island. If it did, we would be at risk of being grounded. We got lucky, the wind continued in our favor. We had shut the engines after making sure we’re secured and made sure that everyone was doing fine. Then, we proceeded to fix Rod’s windless.

I’ll stop here in regards to our situation and let Rod to tell his side of the story.

However, if you think that we had it bad, think again. Here’s why. If you recall, about 3 hrs prior to this moment we were swimming in the ocean with Danianna’s crew Paul and Olga. So, guess where they were when the storm hit? That’s right, in the fr….ng OCEAN. We’re keeping close contact, but there was a time when we lost communication and that was intense moment.

Here’s what they were experiencing at that time. Paul couldn’t even determine the size of the waves, all he said that almost every single wave was crashing on the deck and the windshield. He couldn’t see much and when he was trying to stick his head out to see where to go the rain drops where like bullets due to such a strong wind hitting his face. So, he stayed under the canvas trying to see his way through blazing splash of waves and used his chartplotter in combination with the radar to remain on the right course. The sad part was that they were only few miles away from Barnegat Inlet before this happened. As you can imagine, they’re travelling at very slow speed. Paul had his engine at WOT, but with storm blowing all it’s mass at them they were travelling at 4kts. Besides fighting the storm captain Paul had to make an executive decision in regards to the BI. As most of you know, this is the worst time going through an inlet, so it was a tough call. After making detailed observation, Paul makes the decision to proceed in to the inlet. He said they got lucky in couple of things: 1- they didn’t have the sails up right before the storm hit. With such fast storm they wouldn’t have time to put the sails away and would have been in great danger of capsizing. 2-The wind was coming from the West, thus they were approaching against the wind and the waves, which was the biggest help.

As we re-established communication during the pick of the storm I was ready to call the Coast Guard to rescue them, but Paul said we’re managing so far. Olga told us that she wasn’t sure if they were going to survive, but obviously she’s not as experienced as Paul and wasn’t sure what this boat can handle. She was keeping herself somewhat under control with the positive thought that we’re standing right inside the BI harbor. I, on the other hand was more worried, because I was in very difficult position thinking that in case if I had to rescue them what am I going to do with Nansea’s crew who’s using Boat-A-Bing as a mooring ball and praying for their dear life? I was really happy to hear those words from Paul that he’s managing ok. After about an hour of fighting with this beast storm we were happy to see Danianna entering the HBH safe and sound. My heat’s off to Captain Paul. You’re the man!

I really hope the rest of the gang had much safer voyage to the home port.

Despite the fact that we had to survive the nasty storm, it didn’t spoil our great weekend. In fact, it only made us learn new things and made us better boaters.

Hope to see everyone soon.

Cheers,
Alex.
 
Geez, what did you guys say to this poor little guy? The little guy in the black shirt, in the folding chair on the deck doesn't look to happy. Did you steal his ziti? Other than that it looks like you guys had a great trip.
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He's probably thinking to himself... it's 100 degrees out? Why can't we eat inside like the Bertram owners.
 
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I think this is Vince's son. I think he was upset because his cell phone battery went dead - right in the middle of getting phone numbers from some cute girls on the dock.
 
Hey, I don't remember Mutton Chops on the menu?!

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Alex and Rick, great photos. I knew I could rely on you guys (and Gary when he gets around to posting) to do a bang-up photo-doc of the events.

Look at this! For a few brief moments, I was hangin' with the 23 Knot Gang! I don't recall that morning being as sh!tty as it looks here...
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Alex and Rod. WOW! That's some story. All souls had safe passage - that's what's important. I've read that when inlets are too hairy you either pass them up or wait outside until conditions improve. I'm not sure what I'd have done in that situation. Silver Star to Captain Paul!

Way back in 2002, we were anchored in Curtis Point with my previous boat (26' Crownline cruiser) when a similar storm came in seemingly from out of nowhere. We saw it off to the west and thought it best weigh anchor and scurry back in...but it was too fast-approacing. We U-turned back into the anchorage, took the bimini down, donned the rain gear, nosed up to the land (in it's lee) and idled ahead trying to keep the boat pointed into the wind. Luckily the storm flew by in about 20 minutes and the calm followed. Sounds like you guys had to deal with the conditions for an hour. WOW!
 
Now I know why all of Ron's video has his little pinky in the shot.

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I'd have the damn lens cap on if the camera didn't keep blinking LENS CAP. DUH! I thought that finger was there b/c the video was made on a pee cee ;-)
 

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