The second leg of the trip along the New Jersey Intercoastal was pleasant enough - just a constant watch on the depth meter even though we were traveling on a rising tide. We thought of Matt when we saw this guy on a paddleboard keeping up the the cruiser in front of him! The only thing stranger that this was the guy who was trying to surf by following a boat that putting out a large wave! Seemed kind of dangerous to me as the guy on the surfboard needed to be pretty close to the boat. Anyway, there are a zillion osprey around the marshes here - they are still fun to see.
Even though it was only just a bit over 50 miles to Cape May from Atlantic City, it was a very long day. Much of the NJ intercoastal has slow zones and there are numerous bridges (even though we were VERY fortunate to arrive at the first bridge 5 minutes before it HOURLY opening (meaning if we had missed it, we would have sat an hour to wait for the next one!). Who knew?? (Skipper Bob's info was incorrect - it's not like we didn't check the opening times!). Did I mention the intercoastal here is very shallow? And I thought we were going to make it all the way through without incident (on the trip up I ran us aground twice) - until I ran aground in the mud about 5 miles from Cape May - as the rain/thunderstorm was approaching and we are in a receding tide!!! Not what we needed. Fortunately, we were again able to spin sideways and get the aft end of the boat back into deeper water and could then back out and be on our way. This is just nerve racking travel ...... But we arrived safely at Cape May and were tied just before the rains arrived. We passed one of the main marinas in the area: packed full of sportfishing boats that go fast and put out giant waves. Cape May inlet is a favorite place to enter/leave the Atlantic because it is such a deep water port.
Today the tide and wind gods were with us as the plans were to run the 60 miles north up the Delaware Bay to Delaware City. The tides were such that we could leave at 9 am and catch the current all the way up the bay (so we averaged about 9.6 mph instead of 8.2 mph) and the winds were going the same was as the current - which is essential. As we entered the bay, it was a nice sunny day and the wind as forecast. In fact it was so calm after we were out about 2 hours that Steve decided to work on the teak!
Here are two pictures of the Ship John Shoal lighthouse: the first one is when we passed it yesterday and the second is when we passed it in June going down the Bay (that was a wild ride that day!).
We arrived at the marina here about 3:30 and has some time to relax a bit. Then went off to the music in the park (every Saturday night). A group of older guys (meaning our age :-)) were playing a wide variety of stuff. Fun to listen to until the ground got too hard! The bike ride was continued down by the waterfront as a freighter was being brought into the dock by a tugboat. All in all a great trip from New York!
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