New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean again

Sunday morning we passed through the Annapolis area heading up the Chesapeake.  We ended up in the Sassafras River, just south of the start of the C & D Canal which connects the north end of Chesapeake Bay with the north end of Delaware Bay.  Delaware Bay has quite a tidal current, which can either give you quite an assist or slow you down  to a crawl.  We checked out our cruising guide and tried to time our transit of the canal and the bay to maximize our speed getting to Cape May.  That meant leaving our anchorage around 11:30 Monday morning - pretty late since we're used to getting up at 5:30 or 6:00 these days.  For once the cruising guide seemed to work and we made pretty good time across the canal and into Delaware Bay.  We got into Delaware Bay around 4:00 and then continued on down the bay another 20 miles to the Cohansey River.  We had never anchored there before but it was a decent anchorage, despite the hundreds of horseflies, and got us a lot closer to Cape May, NJ. 

This morning we were under way by 6:00 and arrived in Cape May around 12:30.  We talked with people on two other boats who tried quite a different strategy.  They stopped for the night at a marina in the middle of the C&D Canal, and then left this morning at 2:30 a.m.!!!  (And I thought getting up at 5:30 was early.)  They arrived in Cape May about the same time we did.  The winds were pretty light so we had to motor but we did manage to gain about a knot of speed from our headsail and a couple of knots of speed from the tide for most of our trip down the bay.  When we did this same section of the trip after we bought the boat and were bringing it back to the Great Lakes we ended up doing most of Delaware Bay after dark with a head wind and big waves.  At times we were making only 2 or 3 knots and found out exactly how bad the forward hatch leaked.  That trip we got into Cape May around 2:00 in the morning.

We tied up at a marina here and they welcomed us with a goodie bag that included handmade soap, biscoti, and a bottle of locally made blueberry wine.  We walked into town to find a grocery store.  There are lots and lots of really nice old houses in Cape May, many dating from the 1800s.  There is also a nice 3 block pedestrian mall with all kinds of touristy shops.  Lots and lots of boats, and a big Coast Guard station.

This afternoon after our sightseeing walk into town Sue scrubbed the boat.  She was able to get lots of the bug residue cleaned off.  Then we feasted on grilled chicken and corn-on-the-cob from the grocery store.  Tomorrow we plan to head up to Atlantic City.