Cape May by daylight

We woke up early to a beautiful sunrise over the harbor at Cape May Thusday morning.  We motored over to Utsch's Marina and registered for a two day layover.  The marina is run by a Pennsylvania Dutch family that has been at this location for three generations.  Grandpa Utsch served with Patton in the 2nd Armored Division during WWII.  The whole family could not be more welcoming to transient boaters.  Any place that gives you a free bottle of wine with your complimentary gift bag on check-in is OK with us.

Downtown Cape May is a registered historic district with a two block walking mall of outdoor cafes and gift shops.  There were couples riding in horse drawn carriages being given guided tours of the beautifully restored and gardened houses in the district.  I really like the antique fire engine that is on display in its own separate fire house.  The Physick "cottage" is a huge Victorian estate that was built by a town doctor.  Niki liked the Victorian octagonal house painted bright purple.  It's up for sale too!  After walking the length of the town, we were really hungry for lunch.  All expat exhippie types yearn for an occasional vegan fix, so we landed at the Higher Grounds Coffee House.  They had a quirky outdoor garden on the street for diners.

Just as we sat down to be served, a group of musicians appeared from behind the wooden gate at the back of the garden, and started to set up gear.  Raliegh learned to play as a young man in Tobago.  He is still going strong in his sixties.  The guys played everything from reggae to blues to a couple of Bago style country covers.  Check it out.

We were having such a good time with this private concert, that we spent a lazy afternoon reading the cosmic messages posted in the garden, and sipping ice cold chai teas.  During breaks between sets, Raliegh sat down with us at our table and related a good portion of his life story to us.  He told us how hard it had been for him to get together the $60 to buy his first guitar.  He says anyone with a passion for something can make it happen.  He has always loved music and loves to sing to anyone, especially for tips.  His life now is in the States, but he still makes it back to the island for his father's birthday most Decembers.  There were lots of affirming messages to absorb.

 

And of course no cosmic garden would be complete without an homage to the midwifery goddess.

 

 

 

 If you ever get to Cape May, this was a real fun place.  You should see for yourself and grab a mango smoothie to go.

 

 

 

 

 

The plan for Friday is to get the boat prepped for our first offshore leg to Atlantic City.  May have time to do a little kayaking on the saltmarsh before setting out on Saturday morning.

 

Chesapeake City, MD to Cape May, NJ

The little historic town of Chesapeake City sits directly under a new bridge that connects the Eastern Shore with Delaware.  We weren't able to dock at the free city dock, as it was a full house when we arrived.  We adpoted plan B and tied up just across the cove at the Chesapeake Inn.  Something about being exactly 37 steps up the dock from the bar decided the issue for us.

 

The live band in the bar kept playing until well into the night.  We needed a quick morning fix to get the day started on Wednesday.  Niki walked up around the corner onto Main Street to the Bohemia Cafe in search of breakfast fixins.  Nothing starts a day full of sailing capers as well as a fat bagel with lox, cream cheese, and the other caper.  She brought us hot coffee to wash it down and then out the C & D to the Delaware Bay.

 

 

We were chased down in the canal by a huge undersea cable laying ship.  She threw a huge bow wave and Broad Reach went a little broad side as she passed.  There was a steady line of south bound sailboats heading for the Chesapeake Bay as we continued to motor out to the Delaware.

 

 As we left the confines of the canal, the wind began to fill in directly on our nose.  We motored south down the river into an increasing chop.  We motored down the Baker Range due south with the winds pushing against us and the the force of the exiting tide.  Just beyond the Salem Nuclear Power Plant the river widens and heads southeast.  We were able to set the mainsail under power and motorsailed the boat close hauled almost all the way to Cape May.

  

 



We saw very little traffic on the river. What we did see was all bound north to Philadelphia.  From the looks of this half filled container ship, we all better start our Christmas shopping now.  The economy needs a boost, so go somewhere cool and spend some money on whatever the Marfret Line can lug your way.

 

 



 

Or if consumer goods are not your thing, you can at least throw one hell of a feast with the quantity of food on this Crowley Foods barge.  Niki had never seen a pushme-pullyou in person.  I pledged to make a one man effort to lift the economy by eating more yogurt.

 

What we were not aware of from reading the charts, is that a lot of the marks on the Delaware are old lighthouses that have been converted over to modern racons.  Here is the structure we passed when we got to Ship John Shoal.

 

 As we approached the dog leg called Elbow at Cross Ledge, we could see a very large tanker approaching from the south.  We stayed mostly in the channel on the way down river, but this big boy deserved considerable respect.  Rather than pass port sides, we decided to cut the corner of the elbow and gave him the whole width of the channel to make his impressive sweeping turn.

 

There is a actually an abandoned lighthouse marked on the chart just on the southeast corner of  Cross Ledge.  Just after it was abandoned, it got misplaced, because all that marks the very shoal water there now is this.

  Our final departure from the shipping channel was at the weirdly named Miah Maull Shoal.  Something about a short defenseless Italian and a poorly trained kept bear down in the hold of Spanish galleon?  I don't really know, but there must be a story there.  The lighthouse was pretty wonderful.

  Niki took the helm for the last mile close hauled before our turn to the SSE.  I took a short and intense few moments to closely inspect the leeward shrouds.

 

 OK, I was actually napping, but is was a long hard slog upwind for most of the day.  We passed some beautiful new and traditional boats that appeared to be Annapolis Boat show bound.

 

Niki had never seen an ocean going super tug pushing a barge before, but we got a close look at this one.

The final leg into Cape May was only 14 miles.  We had been making good 7 to 9 knots with the receding tide.  We mistimed the tidal change at the mouth of the river.  When the Delaware switched to flood stage, our speed over ground went all to hell in a handbasket.  The last leg was long, long, long.  As we patiently worked our way to the Cape May channel, we had time to enjoy this beautiful sunset.

 

As the sun was going down, the moon was rising.  We did the final 5 miles to the canal in the gathering dark, with moonshine reflecting off the water directly ahead of us.  It was very calming.  That turned out to be a very good thing.  There is a swing railway bridge halfway down the canal to Cape May harbor.  With Steve at the bow shouting directions back to Niki at the helm, I think we discovered a brand new method of couples therapy.  She likes to call it the No No No No No No method.  When we finally tied up around 10 PM we were ready for sleep, and just a little better prepared to cope with whatever life throws at us.





We slipped the lines around 8:30AM and headed out into the Magothy River for the last time.  The wind was up as promised.  The sun was rising just above our old slip.

But from the expression on his face, someone forgot his Wheaties.  Mixed feelings about leaving our home on the Bay.  Ferry Point was very good to us and is very well managed.  If you ever pull in, say hey to Kim, John, and the crew.  Stop in for some great food at The Point if you can.

We made good headway out of the Magothy.  Niki sailed the boat straight through the very narrow channel entrance and out onto the greater Bay.  As we crossed the busy shipping lanes leading to Baltimore Harbor, we said goodbye to the Bay Bridge, and headed into a little game of tanker tag.

 

 

There was a little commercial traffic heading north up the Bay with us, but most of the sailboats were headed due south.  With the wind directly on their nose, they were all beating into a decent chop under auxiliary power, while we surfed serenely down the small rollers that were building north .  Do those guys know something we don't?

The Tolchester Range angles towards the eastern shore of the Bay.  Just as the channel comes within a few hundred yards of the eastern shore, the channel makes a sudden dog leg to the west.  It is a narrow passage without any company, but we had a barge passing us to port right at the dogleg.  A south bound sailboat crossed directly in front of the tug and barge without looking.  We heard several large horn blasts from the tug before the captain of the sailboat looked up, and veered away from the barges path.  Good news too, because the barge captains only other alternative to avoid collision with them would have been to but the barge over towards us.  We fell in behind the barge after she passed us safely to port.

About and hour later we were passed by another longer flat barge being pushed by a big commercial tug.  The ranks of evenly spaced gulls along the length of the boat looked like a feathered cordon of hitchhikers.

 

 

 

 

We eventually made it to the C & D Canal.  The trip up the Elk River could not have been better.  The wind was steady out of the south and we sailed up the channel on a broad reach at hull speed.  We were able to leave the sails up all the way into the narrowing channel until we made the final turn into the Canal.

 

We were treated to an airshow as we motored up the Canal to our destination for the night.  A crop duster was working a field directly north of the water.  He made repeated low passes over out position on the water, as he climbed up off the field and circled back on another approach.

 

We passed the shipyard where Delaware maintains the dredges and workboats that keep the C & D deep enough to handle all the commercial traffic.  We passed under the big auto bridge at Chesapeake City, and as we turned the corner into the anchorage, we saw our last sunset over the Chesapeake Bay.

 





Last Night at Ferry Point Marina

Dinner at The Point Crab House and then back down the dock to Broad Reach for the night.

All packed up with nowhere to go....just yet

So the boat is ready, the condo in MD is all closed up, all the keys are turned in to our respective employers, and we are off in the morning.  Should be a good day to sail up the Bay.  Winds are projected as SSW at 17 knots.  At the very north end of the Chesapeake Bay is the C&D Canal.  It connects the Bay with the Delaware River, and eventually the Atlantic.  We cast off from Ferry Point and head out the Magothy River past Baltimore Light, and then follow the channel markers north up the bay to the canal.  Just a short distance inside the C & D Canal entrance is Chesapeake City.  It is a quaint old waterfront town with lots of antique shopping and great restaurants.