Very foggy this morning. Could only see a few feet, but we had the radar.
I had thought we were going directly to Delaware Bay and would only stop at Atlantic City if the weather turned bad, but Roy wanted to stop at Atlantic City anyway, so he groped his way in through the fog. Fortunately, the fog lifted as soon as we entered the harbor. Very calm in here and considerably warmer.
Stopped at the fuel dock and filled the tank. Then we tied up in the state marina by Trump's Castle. They only charged us $1 a foot, which was a pleasant change from Port Imperial.
We went over to the hotel and ate an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast for $4 apiece. It was really good, and doubled as lunch.
The decor of the hotel is awe-inspiring. The lobby is six storeys high, with a rounded glass ceiling. Zillions of sparkling lights hang down the walls, and there are a lot of suits of armor standing around.
Walked uptown looking for an ATM. It was depressing to see that away from the luxury casinos, Atlantic City is just as poverty stricken and slummy as most other East Coast cities. The millions that flow through the casinos fail to "trickle down" to the general population.
Incidentally, this is the city the Monopoly streets were named after. We were on Atlantic Avenue, Ventnor, Baltic, North Carolina, etc.
Donald Trump must own 80% of Atlantic City. His name is all over the place. There is Trump Plaza, Trump's Plaza Hotel, Trump's Castle, Trump's Taj Mahal, etc.
Finally found a bank. Roy liberated some money from his account, and I bought a roll of quarters to use in the washers and dryers. It irks me that laundromats at marinas don't have change machines, but I'm used to it by now.
We took a shuttle bus back to the boat. Roy began installing the new inverter, and I took the dirty clothes to the laundry room. This time, I remembered to take my clothes as well as Roy's.
Most marinas have a dozen or more dock carts for the use of their customers. We had to hunt around to find one here. I used it to take the clothes to the laundry room, and left it just outside while I washed and dried the clothes. The light clothes were finished, and the heavy clothes were going around for the second time, when a young man showed up and said he had to take the cart back and lock it up for the night. Since I needed the cart to take the clothes back to the boat, I protested. Even told him I'd return the cart myself to wherever he wanted me to, but he said it had to be locked up by five o'clock, when he got off work. It was quarter to five then. He finally agreed to let me take the clothes that were ready back to the boat and then turn the cart over to him. That way, I only had two bags of clothes to carry back in my arms. This is the first marina we've ever stopped at that wouldn't let boat-owners use the dock carts any hour of the day or night. And this is supposed to be a super luxurious, first-class marina!
Poor Roy spent hours wiring, soldering, and whatever to install the new inverter. Then as soon as he plugged it in, it went into overload and burned up. What a shame!
As consolation, we went back to the Castle for a $6 all-you-can-
eat prime-rib-chicken-turkey-vegetables-deserts-et cetera dinner. We were stuffed!
Roy had bought the inverter at West Marine in Oakland. West Marine guarantees everything it sells, so he phoned their 800 number to find out where the nearest West Marine store is out here. Found out it's in Annapolis, so he decided to go there on the bus tomorrow, instead of waiting until we arrive there by boat. We've gotten along just fine for years without the inverter, but all of a sudden, we need it immediately.
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