Delaware Bay, Aug 13, 2012

Piece of Cake! We had a perfect transit of the bay.

Nuke silo, 8 miles out from Delaware City Marina, + .5 knots

Delaware Bay can be another nasty stretch of water. We were so fortunate to have wind and tide with us. The trick is to leave Reedy Point, a mile from Delaware City Marina, about 1 hour before high tide. Then the tide will catch up with you on the way out the bay and you can ride with it for awhile before it turns. It can add 1 to 2 knots to your speed.

Ship John Shoal Light, +1.5 knots at high tide

For awhile our speed was up as high as 10 knots; however it was mid 8 knots for a lot of the way. The 8.5 hour trip, we travelled in 6.5 hours. 56 miles. Not bad at all. We carried the current until we made our turn at Maihen (SP) Maul Shoal to make our way to the Cape May Channel.

The wind was soft at 5 to 10 knots from behind us so very little wave activity.  This is a very busy port. We met a couple of boats, ships on our way out. After we turned to make for Cape May, there was at least 5 to 6 big boats coming in. A good time to not be in the shipping channel. We arrived Cape May about 3:00 pm and got settled.

This is the ferry terminal just as you enter the Cape May channel. There  must be 25 pilings in each post area. We only need one post when we dock. One of the ferries were blowing their warning horn just as we passed.

We joined Bob and Linda on their boat for dinner. Tomato Basil Spaghetti. Very, very good.

Tomorrow we will do the tourist thing and visit Cape May. The plan is to meet about 9:00 am and get a taxi and go to town and see the sights.

We are still trying to decide how to travel the New Jersey ICW. You are recommended to use local knowledge when travelling. All the locals we have talked to say not to use the NJICW in this area, they tell us to go outside to Atlantic City, a 35 mile run on the ocean. I was reading Active Captain, and there is a spot about 8 miles into the ICW that says the section is unsailable even at high tide. Hmmm, what to do, what to do? Our intention was to travel the NJICW from half high tide to half tide, using the tidal waters to give us the clearance we needed for the shallow areas. Now, the local knowledge has us a little spooked.

Some Loopers have said to go outside and not to do the inside here, while our good Looper friends, say they have done the inside no problem. Just watch your aids to navigation, don't skip any of the numbers, and use the half tides rising.

We will have to choose our travel outside day wisely, if that is what we decide to do. As far as that goes, we have to choose our inside travel times wisely also.

We met another gentleman, "Doug"  who just bought a trawler and is moving it back to New York state. He is single handing the boat. I think he may stay over the day here and join us. His boat is a Choi Lee trawler, 34 feet, named "Slow Roll".