18 October 2025
Depart: Barnegat NJ anchorage 8:15
Arrive: Cape May NJ anchorage 4:20
Distance: 67 nm
We woke to 58 degrees in our stateroom at 7:30 this morning, and it was difficult to get motivated to get out of bed. Brrrrr! During the night we had an electric blanket on low to keep the worst of the chill off. It is an old blanket. We have had two more recent ones fail on us as they did not like working on an inverter. For some reason the very old blanket is not so temperamental.
With the days already short in daylight and getting shorter every day, we are limited on how far we can travel. Although we would like to get further along, the lack of daylight determines our stopping points.
As we traveled down the Jersey coastline, we could see land to our starboard side that we have seen many times before. Suddenly, off Long Beach Island, Clark called out, "There's a whale!" He could see the whale's spout in the distance. We saw the whale come up out of the water briefly and then he disappeared. I stood ready with my camera in hand for 15 to 20 minutes looking, but we never saw him or his spout again.
Shortly thereafter, we passed Atlantic City. The buildings here are visible for miles, so we could see the city well before we got abreast of it.
 |
| Off shore at Atlantic City around noon |
As we approached Cape May later in the day, we saw a number of Whale Watch boats. I wondered if those paying had been as lucky as we were.
 |
| Whale Watch boat off Cape May, NJ |
I snapped some pictures as we approached the Cape May inlet.
As we approached the place where we wished to drop anchor, about 4:00 p.m., a number of whale watching boats were coming in from their tours.
 |
| Activity next to anchorage area |
The anchorage looked busy. A lot of sailboats got here ahead of us. We found a spot at the head of the line and dropped our anchor.
Later, a trawler came in to drop their anchor. To help them decide where to drop anchor such that they were far enough away that we would not interfere with each other during the night as the boats swung on their anchors, Clark contacted them and told them how much line we had out.
After that, we settled down to eat dinner and watch reruns of "Castle" on television.
Around 7:45, we felt a bump as the boat was knocked sideways a bit. We left "Castle" talking to an empty room as we ran out to see what had happened. The stern of the boat that came in after us had come in contact with the bow of our boat.
Clark was out before me and jumped into action pushing the trawler off our bow. That boat's captain was working with Clark. His wife and I ended up pushing the boats apart at the stern until we could grab some fenders to get between the boats. What a fun time we had! Seemed no matter how much we pushed the boats away from each other, they wanted to be in contact.
I got to meet Carol on that boat and their dog while Clark talked to Bob. He had actually talked with him earlier when he took his dinghy out to shore for their dog. Since the boats were cozied up next to each other, I joked to Carol that at this rate it would be easy to "raft up" for the night - not that we would do that with two very heavy boats.
It took almost an hour of "playing" with the boats and anchor lines to get us separated. Clark should have started our engines and used the winch, but he thought he could just temporarily pull in some of our anchor line to get the boats away from each other. We needed to disengage the boats so that they could pull in their anchor.
Unfortunately, the wind was fighting us. Clark pulled in line and used the thruster to shift our boat's position. The wind forced us right back next to their boat every time. Clark just kept pulling in more and more of our rode to get us out of harm's way. With Clark at the bow, we used headsets, so I could tell him what was happening in the stern. Since it was total darkness, Clark and I both had flashlights to check anchor lines.
Several times it looked really bad. Bob had started his engines and was at his helm bringing in his anchor, which happened to be all chain. As he brought the chain in, he would have to stop when it became obvious that his chain was directly underneath our boat! Their chain tangling in our props - no thank you!
Finally, Clark had pulled in enough anchor line (mostly line not chain) and used the thruster to get us well away from their anchor chain. Nothing happened! I knew we couldn't stay in that position very long with the wind, etc. After a couple of minutes I yelled over, "Why aren't you pulling in the anchor? It's clear!!" Finally, he started it going! We managed to stay off until he had the anchor onboard. They moved off to a slightly different position for the rest of the night with no further issues.
I was thankful that the action occurred at 8:00 at night. We were dressed and awake. Problems like this at 2:00 in the morning are a lot less "fun". During the course of the activity, Clark had asked when they planned to depart in the morning. The answer - "5:00 a.m.". Had we not parted ways in the evening, we might have had to do a "dance" at 5:00! Forget that!
At one point, with the behavior of the boats, Clark worried that maybe we had moved, so he went to check our anchor monitor. We were fine. He determined that they had dropped their anchor within our swing radius thus the "bump". Clark had tried to give the guy fair warning, and a big hint, when he dropped anchor that he was too close. All chain and mixed rode with chain behave differently. Clark told him our configuration. I was just happy we did not have to move!
When the excitement was over, we went back and continued watching "Castle" until it was time to call it a night.
19 October 2025
Depart: Cape May NJ anchorage 7:10
Arrive: North Summit Marina 2:45
Distance: 60 nm
Yesterday, Clark was in contact with a friend of ours who lives near the Chesapeake end of the C&D canal, and they made arrangements to meet up for dinner. Clark called and got a reservation at a marina for the night so that we could get together. Given those arrangements, we got going early this morning to catch currents in the right direction.
Since we were up before the sun this morning, I got some pictures of the anchorage before the sun came up.
 |
| Cape May Water Tower in the distance |
 |
| Anchorage full of sailboats |
 |
| House on Cape May Canal |
I saw a railroad bridge coming up and tried to get the "looking down the tracks" snapshot ... just a little too soon, but close.
 |
| Looking back at the RR bridge |
We had 15-knot winds in the anchorage as we left, but in the canal, we felt hardly a breeze. As we approached the ferry docks at the end of the canal, I wondered what kind of winds we would find on the Delaware Bay and River.
 |
| Cape May - Lewes Ferries ahead |
The Delaware Bay / River was pretty boring with nothing to look at except water for a few hours.
 |
| I guess boring is good. Right? |
As we approached the C&D Canal, we saw big boats!
Our last view of NJ when we take this route is the smokestack at the plant.
 |
| Goodbye NJ! |
Hello C&D Canal!
At 2:15 we arrived at the North Summit Marina where we planned to spend the night and have dinner with our friend.
As we entered the marina, I heard this cacophony of noise coming from our starboard side. It turned out the trees were filled with vultures all "cawing" at each other. What a racket!
 |
| Trees full of noisy birds |
As we entered the marina, Clark decided that he would pick up some fuel. At $4.90 a gallon, we decided to just a enough to get us to a place with hopefully better prices.
 |
| Coming into marina |
We got our fuel and docked for the night to prepare to meet our friend for dinner. Sadly, Clark got a text saying that it was not going to happen. Something had come up. Dang! Oh well. These things happen. I suggested Clark take advantage of the showers since he prefers land-based ones to ones on the boat.
I guess we can sleep in tomorrow morning. Clark says that the current is against us until around 10:00 a.m. That sounds nice!
No comments:
Post a Comment