Atlantic City Layover

Dave was up at 4:30 listening to the weather forecast; hoping we'd be able to leave Atlantic City. By the time I got up at 6:00, it was obvious that we weren't going anywhere. The weather was turning gnarly out on the Atlantic keeping us stuck at Farley State Marina in Atlantic City. It's expensive so Dave suggested we move over to Gardener's Basin, which is half the cost at $1.50/ft, but we decided to stay put. Little did we know, we'd end up stuck in Atlantic City for a total of four nights.

We take care of things like filling water tanks, cleaning and reprovisioning when we have an extended stay on shore. Of all the things that we could run out of, it was coffee. This is not a good thing; we need our fix each morning to jump start our day. We had to get to a store. In addition, Dave needed belt dressing for our engine. Public transportation was the answer. The Jitney bus would take us to the boardwalk near Ventnor City. Each ride on the Jitney costs 1.90, $8 round trip for the two of us. It's cheaper than an uber.

The Jitney ride enabled us to safely see more of Atlantic City. We rode to the border of Atlantic City and Ventnor, got off at Jackson Street, then walked down the boardwalk about a half mile. The boardwalk was wide and well kept. It was heavily used by walkers, joggers and bike riders. The beach had a fair share of tourists, even in the windy pre-storm haze. We left the boardwalk at Dorsey Street and headed west to the Dorsey bridge which crosses over the New Jersey ICW. We were surprised to see that Ventnor City is a lovely, quaint little town, much safer than Atlantic City and more of a beach community. We grabbed our supplies then retraced our steps back to the marina. The trip included two bus rides and a five mile walk which took us four hours total. It was quite the adventure!

Atlantic City Boardwalk Entrance

Atlantic CIty Boardwalk Garden

Atlantic City Beach

Atlantic City Beach

Atlantic City Beach

Ventnor City

Absecon Lighthouse View from the Jitney Bus

After our return from shopping, we made our way to the Golden Nugget rooftop pool to take photos of Mystic from above. The pool was crowded with families. We spent a couple hours poolside, enjoying the beautiful day while waiting for the storms to hit. The hotel flags we're whipping straight out in the wind, telling us we were right where we should be; off the Atlantic! I asked Dave about Peter and Trudi on Andromeda Sol; wondering if they would be in the midst of those storms offshore. Dave was pretty sure they would go through them but was confident that they'd handle anything they met with ease. We would soon find out that things went very badly for them.

Mystic at Farley's State Marina, Atlantic City

View from the Golden Nugget rooftop pool

Making the best of our layover

Looking up from the Golden Nugget pool

The Deck Bar at Golden Nugget is in front of the docks. Each night they have live music. We could hear the bands play from aboard Mystic but chose to sit at the bar and listen up close. We saw a couple of great bands at the Deck. We enjoyed Don't call me Francis, a South Jersey party band who boasted a huge variety of very talented musicians. They were voted the best band in New Jersey and the Delaware valley for 15 consecutive years. They often opened for big name concerts. As we sat at the bar waiting for the concert to begin, the skies opened up and dumped gallons of rain down on us. Everyone scurried under the bar's canopy. It was an impressive storm! I couldn't help thinking of the crew of Andromeda Sol out on the ocean.

Don't Call Me Francis

Heavy rainstorm didn't stop the show

The BStreetband, a Springsteen cover band, played at the Deck one evening while we were at Farley's. John and Melissa, friends of the band, sat next to us at the bar. The musicians joined us to chat before the show. John was so excited to tell them that we were from Minnesota, living aboard a boat, and cruising on the Great Loop. After the first set, the lead singer, who looked a lot like Springsteen, gave a shout out to the fans in the audience who came to see them from afar. First it was the folks from Jersey City. Then those from Philadelphia. Finally, he mentioned that guy from Minnesota, living and cruising on a sailboat. Dave and I cheered the loudest!

BStreetband Base Player reminded me of
my Uncle Fred

We are not huge casino fans. Our gambling is limited to two lottery tickets a week, (when we remember to buy them). We stopped in at the Golden Nugget Casino with $10 each, thinking how cool it would be to win enough to pay for our expensive layover. The machines gobbled our meager five cent bets in record time and we were finished with gambling much faster than we expected! We tried to tell ourselves we were paying for the entertainment but it felt like highway robbery.

We expected to be in Atlantic City one night but stayed four, due to weather. Once we accepted our fate, we were able to enjoy our stay. The delay made us late for meeting up with Andromeda Sol at Sandy Hook. We hadn't heard from Trudi and Peter but assumed they were already there. Finally, after waiting out the storm followed by two days of fog, we could head north again. We decided to make a very long 100 mile day. If we pulled it off, we'd catch up with Trudi and Peter only one day late. We were excited to see our new friends again! With the alarm set for oh-dark-thirty, we went to bed early, excited to know we'd be back on our adventure in the morning.