Chesapeake City to Cape May, NJ

Date             May 31-June 2, 2012                            
Day              338-340
Departure     Chesapeake City Free Dock, Chesapeake City, MD 6:00 am
Arrival          Canyon Club Resort, Cape May, NJ 1:25 pm
Miles                70.3            
Cumulative   5493.1

Rise and shine at 5:00 am!!  We have a long travel day, but the bonus to getting up so early can be seen below!

Early morning sunrise

Today we go through the remainder of the C and D Canal and then down the Delaware River.  Because the Delaware is somewhat shallow, traveling it can be difficult if the wind, tide and currents don't cooperate.  We got lucky and had a great ride.  The wind was from the north, northwest at about 5 mph and the waves were about 1 foot.  Below are the sights along the way.

Tall Ship Gazella Primeiro heading to Baltimore for a Tall Ship celebration

A large cargo ship, traveling at 19 mph

The bow wake was very noticeable!

We heard the cargo ship hail a boat that was a few miles ahead of us, advising them that they (the cargo ship) was throwing a large stern wake, about a four foot wake!   We took precautions and made sure we were well away from him as he passed us.  Good thing, look at the wake that was coming toward us!!  Yikes!!!

We turned into the wake and with a large KERPLAT the boat nearly came to a stop.  No  problem, we were ready!

On the left is Kismet (Dean and Beth) and the right is Brown Eyed Girl (Craig and Ginny) entering the Cape May Canal

Back at Green Turtle Bay in Kentucky, we met loopers Carol and Rich on Salt N Sand.  They are currently in South Carolina and generously offered us their slip in Cape May, NJ since they were away.  This is the pool and condos at the marina where they keep their boat.  Thanks Rich and Carol, we enjoyed our time here. 

June 1st- Last night,  a storm front came through.  The wind gusted to around 25 mph and the rain came down in sheets.  In the picture below you can tell the wind was really blowing; everything in the picture is clear except the flag, it was really waving back and forth!

June 2nd - Today was a grocery provisioning day.

A small lighthouse kiosk on the bridge that spans a small river that feeds into the end of the C and D Canal

We walked about 1 3/4 miles to the grocery store and while shopping bumped into Laura and Ross from "The Zone".  After we both finished shopping we all decided that we would take a taxi ride back to the boat with the groceries!  Around docktail time, we were invited to docktails and a potluck dinner across the river at Utsch's Marina, hosted by loopers  Marc's Ark, Jim's Joy, Native Son and Kismet that were staying there.  Also attending was Sea Smoke; they call themselves "interloopers" as they are not doing the loop but only travel the east coast every year from Westerly, Rhode Island to Florida.  Interestingly enough, I believe we have seen them in our home cruising grounds as they are only about 20 miles from us back home.  We contacted the water taxi...

and they picked us up along with Ross and Laura (The Zone) and we arrived at Utsch's in about 5 minutes, rather than the 20-30 minutes it would have taken walking across the bridge.  We had a great docktail get together and an even better pot luck dinner!

One half of the party,









     



                    and here is the other half!




When the party was over, we called the water taxi and they whisked us away to the other side of the river, back to our boats.  Tomorrow looks like it may be a good day to head out to Atlantic City or even Sandy Hook.  Wish us luck.  If we don't go tomorrow, we may be here until mid next week!!