June 8th Cont'd Cape May for 2 on to Mullica River and the VIKING YACHT CENTER

PICS: two kids that couldn't right their boat, swam with it - Albany Street bridge
Lee Wilburs "Helen J"- Great Bridge
Ian's feet and the windlass we need (to pull the anchor) - Oriental
last 2 pics France and Shadow (aka Daisy) she's such a dog person - Oriental


For those of you who follow our daily exploits, remember back to Great Bridge. The parade of boats that went past us while we were docked at that bulkhead are to numerous to mention. Some stand out more than others. One little boat that caught my eye resembled the Victoria (to me) so I took a couple of shots of her as she went by.

Later in Cape May I noticed the boat the "Helen J" tied up at UTSCH'S! I stopped to chat later in the evening and met Lee. A nice guy who(from our conversation) seemed to know alot about boats. He liked the lines of the VICTORIA and mentioned that he wouild like to chat with Gary and maybe see the boat up close. I said Gary always likes talking boats and for him to come by any time. Gary liked him right away and during the course of conversation we found out that Lee was no other than Lee Wilbur of Wilbur Yachts in Maine. Check out his website to see some of his work.

http://www.wilburyachts.com/

So in my last post I dedicated it to the Coast Guard and their early morning visit. That was this morning. All day we've had visitors. Gnats. First thing this morning when Magali's crew and us were getting ready to leave the sanctuary of UTSCH's they were annoying. Early afternoon they were ravenous. Now they are just too horrible to describe, but I'll try. For one thing we'd been following a low tide throughout the morning. All the mud and gook was exposed so we expected bugs. After all its spring and things are warming up etc. As we passed through Great Egg Harbor inlet Gary slowed the boat down and asked me to drive while he went downstairs while he figured something out. So there I am in long pants, T shirt with a red windbraker all zipped up, hood on, baseball cap on top of that and sunglasses . Well as the boat slowed and Gary descended the stairs the wind slowed and all the gnats that were looking for an opportunity for a meal found it. I was swarmed. If I haven't mentioned the "African Queen" before I'll mention it here. I'd wipe the pests from my face with my hand and on the opposite side of my hand my face was covered again. I started to freak out. I pushed the eccelerator forward and gave it some gas. All the while slapping at the bugs. Gary immediately lowers the gas from downstairs and comes up the stairs asking me what I'm doing. Again the bugs attacked and I started stood slapping and screaming (not very loud) down the stairs explaining that I just couldn't drive from upstairs any longer. Gary sped up the boat and continued driving from upstairs. Grrrrrrrrrr

We entered Mullica River and started heading toward our weekend refuge. Strong weather on Sat and the weekend boaters made stopping off in New Gretna NJ with our friends Bill n Diane D VERY appealing. After all we started our trip with New Gretna in it, its only right. We won't get to VIKING Yachting center till the am. No sense in paying 40. bucks to pull in and sleep. So we anchored out near the opening of Great Bay. Would you believe we had to drive around for 30 minutes trying to find shallow water to anchor in! Gary wasn't interested in dropping 50 feet of anchor chain + scope in 50 feet of water and having to pull it all up again in the morning. Can't say that I blame him.

Diane D called and suggested that I make up a grocery list of things we need for the weekend. It's cheaper in PA where they live. I thought that was a great idea and went about that task.
We look forward to seeing them.

PS Don't tell Diane that GARY dropped the electric fry pan in the drink.

Keep us in your prayers, your in ours
XXOO
Victoria's Perspective