Tues June 1: Delaware City to Cape May, New Jersey

 In which a much-anticipated long-worried-over super-long day becomes a cake-walk ...

The earlier the better, as far as weather - so rumbling diesel motors woke us up at 5 am as our fellow boaters began heading out. This ONE time I was all-in for an early morning, since it would be safer.  I even said....hold on to your hats, those of you who know how I feel about any hour before 10am .... 'I'd like to see the sun come up'.   Yes!  For reals!!!

 

Rick - checking his beloved motor before the sun comes up.

 The plan for the day!

 We (meaning Rick, in countless hours of preparation) had calculated travel time to be 7 - 8 hours to get to Cape May.  With Tim’s help he timed the currents to give us a push (even having us leave a bit later than the group, at 6:20am - hoping the current would really push us), but inevitably currents change about 3 hours into a trip, and he had anticipated our speed would drop dramatically part way through our jump.   However... Some of you may remember we posted a picture a few days ago with a blazing speed of 11 mph on the C&D canal.  Well - check this out!  

Delaware Bay is a BIG body of water!  As we traveled down the bay there was no land in site.  We were passed by a number of very large freighters and tankers traveling back and forth from the Atlantic to the Philadelphia area.   

Tankers are like stealth ships.  One minute there is no sign of them, and the next they are blocking out the sun.  They don't put out much wake, but they are moving fast, upwards  of 20+ mph.

I hope this is the closest we ever get to one! We stay out of the main channel just to be sure. 

 

This is my favorite one - can you see the Dole lettering on the side?  It's a banana-yellow boat full of bananas.  It's like a scratch and sniff boat!

I feel like this lighthouse is unnecessarily GOTHIC.  Like all the ship wrecked boats aren't spooky enough.

There are all kinds of things to think about, out here on the water. Unfortunately, we just watched the mini-series, Chernobyl.

Thanks to Rick's worrying and calculations the 7-8 hour trip was completed in about 6 hours!

 

Due to the large number of boats traveling, we were never alone or far from help if needed.  At one point we counted 12 other boats in the distance around us. 

I think it is a good omen that we saw something we have never seen before - just as we entered the Cape May Harbor. Rainbow, or iridescent, clouds are relatively rare!!

We dropped our anchor in the well-charted anchorage just off the coast guard station,  and were joined by about 10 other boats gently bobbing (or rocking vigorously depending on how you look at it) with the wakes from passing boats.  The nice thing about arriving so early (remember we left at 6:30 am and got here in less than 6 hours??) was that we had time to explore. 

Post card perfect!

Cape May is known as “the nation’s first seaside resort”.  There are many well preserved homes from the 1860’s.  We put down the dinghy and after picking up our friend, Carolyn, motored across the small Cape May bay to have lunch at the Lobster House.   Once nourished we trekked across the small town to the Atlantic Coast through charming neighborhoods with large old trees and beautifully preserved old Victorian style homes. Luckily, Carolyn was an architect and has a lot of interesting observations.

Then back to the boat for a well-deserved rest (and some stressing, on Rick's part, about the big open ocean jump to Atlantic City.  La la la - I slept fine!)

Goodbye anything Chesapeake-related - that means you, Old Bay seasoning.  These are terrible, by the way...

 

 

 

 Featured Boat Name - this is what our lives on the water feel like: