Arrive: Anchorage near Cape May, NJ Coast Guard Station 7:30
Distance: 64 nm
Yesterday, the temperature outside when we woke was 58 degrees. Today, it was 59 in our master stateroom. We had two blankets and a quilt on the bed, and neither of us wanted to come out from under. Last night, Clark said we could sleep in, so we did not get out of bed until 9:00. By the time we had eaten breakfast, it felt like half the day was gone.
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| Very patriotic house near the marina |
Clark checked out the fuel prices at this marina and called Utsch's in Cape May. Being less expensive per gallon here, we decided to fill up. Unfortunately, it was a slow fill and we did not complete the fueling until 11:10. So, now, we really had lost half the day before starting out.
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| Leaving Schaefer's Marina |
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| Free dock in Chesapeake City - now a little room here |
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| Chesapeake Inn |
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| Little lighthouse on the Canal |
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| Very blue, newly painted bridge on canal |
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| Canal Traffic |
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| Nuclear Plant at end of Canal in NJ |
It is always interesting when neither one of us know where we will end up at the end of the day. Clark had Plan A and Plan B for tonight. We arrived at the Plan A anchorage at 12:30. This anchorage was located at the end of the canal on the Jersey side of the canal. Looking at the waters of the Delaware, Clark decided it looked calm enough to continue, so we abandoned Plan A and continued on.
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| Traffic on the Delaware River |
By 2:00, we had south winds at 18 to 22 knots on our nose. Stabilizers only prevent rocking side-to-side. They do nothing to prevent up-and-down rocking from bow waves. On the bright side, we had current with us and were flying along at 10 knots speed over ground!
It turned out to be a wild ride on the Delaware when we found ourselves with wind against current. We reduced our RPM but still traveled at an amazing 10 knots of speed.
Clark diverged from the marked channel and headed towards land to reduce the fetch. Our speed dropped to 8.8 knots but we reduced the number of waves breaking over the bow. As we traveled, we saw a few "traps" ahead. In reality they turned out to be seagulls and flew away just about the time we planned to navigate around them.
Ultimately, we were "agitating in the wash cycle" for almost 3 hours. By the time we got to the Cape May canal, I had had quite enough rocking and rolling. Although we got rid of the waves breaking over the bow, we still had high winds at the spot we chose to drop anchor. Even though I had on four layers of clothes - 2 shirts, a fleece, and a jacket, I was still freezing as I stood on the bow helping with the anchor. I checked later, and the phone said it was 50 degrees out. With the wind, it felt more like 30 to me.
Unfortunately, Clark was not satisfied with our spot as it put us too close to the rock wall along the shoreline. So, up came the anchor for a reset. Happily the second attempt passed muster.
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| Anchored by the Coast Guard Station in Cape May, NJ |
Fortunately, I had leftovers in the refrigerator, so I was able to put dinner on the table in a hurry.
For a day that was supposed to be "an easy day" per the captain, it felt awful long. After being tossed about on the water all afternoon, I was exhausted and headed to bed at 10 o'clock (early for me) and, shortly afterwards, conked out. Clark, on the other hand, watched the news and some Stephen Colbert and finally turned off the television at close to midnight.
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