May 20th

According to the waterway guide the waters of Delaware Bay are  considered to by many  boaters to be rough, tedious and inhospitable. The bay is notorious for building up short, choppy seas quickly and creating rough weather than local reports indicate. 

Thankfully none of this happened on Friday.  As Tim from the marina had indicated we  would have the perfect day if we timed our trip to be in Cape May before 3:00.

We left Delaware City marina at 8:00,following Richard and Jo Ann on l’intemporel

and proceeded out of the channel and into the Delaware River.  It was a  about a 52 mile run to the Cape May canal.  Initially we were running against the tide, we  passed the  Salem Nuclear  Power plant at  9:15.

We reached the Ship John shoal light at 11:10.

We ran outside of the shipping channel for most of the trip and the  seas were calm, with few waves or swells.  There was some turbulence when  we met or were passed by one of these large ships.

At 12:45 we  reached the Miah Maull Shoal light, at this point we started  a course towards

the Cape May canal which was still about 15 miles away.  We reached the inlet at 2:30, the water was starting to   become a little wavy caused by the wind and change in tidal direction.   There was a dredge at the mouth of the canal and the ferry  boat was almost  ready to depart

  we contacted both of them for instructions and proceeded into the canal. We reached the Cape May harbour  around 3:00 and anchored off the Coast Guard station.

  Andy looked at the charts and tide tables and realized that low tide  in the harbour was at 1:30 and if we waited about 40 minutes  we would have a rising tide and could proceed farther into New Jersey   We weighed anchor at 3:45 and started the windy trip through creeks and bays.

 We reached Wildwood at  4:30  and the next inlet (Hereford)  from the Atlantic, which gave us a boost in speed for a short time.   We reached Stone Harbour at 5:06,

where we had originally thought we would anchor, we decided to continue on while we had the  rising tidal effects.   We requested the 11 foot  bridge to be opened, and got through it quickly, but the bridge tender seemed to have an issue putting it back down.

We passed through Avalon and a second inlet (Townsends) at 6:00, we went though Sea Island   Bridge at 6:24  and then on to  Strathmere and the Corson Inlet.  We passed under the Peck Beach Bridge at 7:30 and reached All Season’s Marina in Marmora NJ on the other side. Since  we were early and not expected until  the morning,   we tied up on the fuel dock for the night.  It was not dark yet nor raining– a great day, we pushed it traveling 96 miles for the day- but we were secured before the predicted bad weather moved in.

May 21st

The day didn’t start out well, my computer locked up and I wasn’t able to use it at all- not sure what the problem is.

After 8:00, we got our slip assignment and moved the boat to F16, where it will stay until June 4th.  I am flying home on May 26th for a week, for the Manitoba Eastern Star Grand Session, returning June 3rd.   We rented a car for the remainder of the weekend, and took my computer into a nearby computer shop an assessment hopefully will get it back on Monday.  We then did some shopping and found a Verizon store to buy more time for our Mi-Fi, as the marina doesn’t have Wi-fi.    We contacted Dawn  who was a Grand Representative to Manitoba a few years ago (Helen Lipsey’s counterpart) and will meet up with her tomorrow– she is going to be driving me to Philadelphia airport on Thursday.

We then drove to Cape  May to visit with Rafe, who was there waiting out the weather yes it is raining and the winds are blowing making water travel impossible.

 We went for ice cream, and then supper, watched the Belmont stakes horse race, and then had dessert.

We returned to the marina, the wind was still howling and the rain was still falling.

May 22nd

We will be off to find a laundry mat, as there is no laundry at this marina, and will meet Dawn later in the day.