Friday June 2: Somewhere in New Jersey!

Three days = three states: Chesapeake City, Maryland, Delaware City, Delaware and now New Jersey!

What a day! The trip down Delaware Bay (about 60 miles) was quite interesting but very long. Steve first had to go back to the seafood market in Delaware City and take a couple of pictures. The guy who owns it is quite interesting and started his business after being a crabber for years and years. Anyway, he has quite the unique collection of 'things' in his driveway :-) (This is the same place with the crab picture with Steve.)

The winds were predicted to be 10 to 15 knots, changing to 15 to 20 later in the day .... but they would be pushing us down the bay. It was kind of wild when we first entered the bay as the tide was still coming in and the winds trying to push it out. Makes for some interesting waves. My first thought was - this isn't very good - as Steve put up the steadying sail. But it helped us not rock so much and once we made the turn at the top of the bay and picked up the outgoing tide, it was a great ride!

There was a really neat lighthouse at one of the shoals about half-way down the bay. Saw a number of boats pass us and two very large tows going up the bay but otherwise it was pretty empty. Only the tows were going north as it would have been a very unpleasant ride going into the waves. Delaware Bay is the last really long trip of open water so it's nice to be across it. When we were getting close to the south end, there were thousands of small dead fish in the water - not sure what that was all about.

Finally - the entrance to the Cape May canal - and how pleasant it was to be off of the bay. There is a huge Coast Guard station here along with lots and lots of sport fish boats since there is very easy access to the Atlantic from here. (I'll put a map up tomorrow that might help explain where we are.)

Saw a weird boat on our way to our anchorage. Steve thinks the poles are pushed down into the river bottom and then the crane can work on the bridge, dock or whatever is being built. Sounded good to me!

So after this long day (we couldn't leave Delaware City until 11 am due to the timing of the tides), it's now about 7 pm and the anchorage we had picked out turned out to not be so good. Shallow and very bad holding for the anchor as the wind was still blowing at 10 - 12 knots. That means plan B goes into effect - except we didn't have a plan B!! New rule: always have a plan B :-) We ended up spotting a restaurant about a mile further down the canal with a dock. Steve checked with the manager and he ok'd us spending the night if we were eating dinner there. So a winner on both counts: dinner out and a dock for the night. Steve had a Voodoo something or other that came in a small bucket - did I say it was a long day???