5/22/22
We left Havre De Grace around 9:30 for the short 40 mile run to Delaware City, at the north end of the Delaware Bay. It was a perfect Day for motoring, calm water and wind. Adverse current in the first hour gave way to a very favorable current and we shot the C & D (Chesapeake and Delaware) canal at 11 knots.
Delaware City is a unique port. It is located in a branch canal, just north of the C&D and is essentially a half-mile long face dock. The canal has strong currents and the marina’s staff skillfully handles the tie up, using just dock lines and current to spin boats around so they can depart in an orderly manner. An impressive show of boat handling.
Most boats (at this time of year) are headed north, which means heading south on the Delaware to Cape May NJ. This 60 mile trek can be treacherous because there are very few places to put in if the conditions turn nasty. However, the well known marina manager (an older gent named Tim) knows these waters well and conducts a 4 pm weather briefing every day and an early morning (5 am) dock walk to make sure everyone has updated weather information. Tim has an interesting set of rules and will not untie your boat if he thinks its unsafe for you to leave. Also, he will only permit leaving the dock his way, using spring lies and current (no bow thrusters). To his credit; everyone exited the dock without incident and made it to Cape May safely. After the weather briefing, we joined the crowd for docktails and then went to dinner with 2 other couples who are looping. One couple are only 3 weeks into their journey, the other a few months. We aren’t the newbies any more!! We are happy to share our knowledge and experience.
The Saturday night game plan was to leave the dock at 5:30 am for the most favorable weather conditions. The procedure is to turn on your running lights, to let the dockhands know you are ready to go. True to form, Tim was on the dock at 5. However, an early morning weather update showed some building wind in the southern part of the bay so Tim delayed the departure to 6:30 and we all left in order, like good little girls and boys.
The weather was calm for the first few hours and the waves picked up a little when the tide turned against us at 11, but overall, today was an easy ride down the bay and we arrived at Utch’s Marina (in Cape May) around 12:30. Several boats made the same trip and we reconnected with our previous nights dinner partners (Chris & Kim Prowse aboard Pura Vida and Mike & Sue Pankow aboard Next Chapter) and went out to dinner at Lucky Bones.
After much weather discussion, we decided to leave Cape May the next morning at 7:30 for the 40 mile “outside” passage along the New Jersey coast to Atlantic City; early enough to be in port before the 1:00pm wind shift. We will be traveling in company with Pura Vida as Mike & Sue are going to enjoy Cape May for a few days.
When I read “After the weather briefing, we joined the crowd for docktails”, I thought you were talking about the MORNING briefing, and was a little worried… Glad Delaware Bay was reasonably pleasant — it CAN be ugly!
I would also be worried if we started docktails at 5 am. Thanks for following and we should be back in Rhode Island next week