Day 265: Monday, May 27, 2013
Port to Port: Delaware City to Sunset Lake, New Jersey
Underway: 4:40 am Motor Off: 4:15 pm Miles Traveled: 65/68 Stayed At: Anchor
First Things First: Happy Memorial Day Everyone
Mile 60 to Mile 0 (Delaware Bay) Mile 118 to Mile 110 (NJICW): Finally the wind and waves cooperated. We left very early with the stars and full moon to guide us out. Tim, the marina manager was there to help us get off the dock at 4:30 am. The bay was calm, the faint glow of the sunrise soon made it’s way over the horizon and we were traveling at an average of 8.0 mph (max of 9.1 for a while) for almost 4 hours before the tide switched and we gradually slowed to about 4.5 mph. A half dozen other boats heading north from the marina also left this morning and they all passed us before 8 am.
The Bay stayed calm all day. We just kept chugging along watching out for fishing boats and a few crab pots. A few ocean-going ship passed by going north and south but we were well outside the channel so they didn’t concern us. We saw more dolphin – it’s been a while since the last sighting.
The only nerve wracking part was getting into and through the Cape May channel to our anchorage. The current was flowing so fast past the channel entrance that I had to steer the boat at a 45˚ angle to barely get it to go where I wanted it to go. Plus, since it’s Memorial Day and the only really nice day of the weekend, there were boats everywhere. And everyone ignored the suggested 5 knot speed limit in the channel. Aurora takes the wakes very well but it is stressful. Just as we finally entered the channel, a huge car ferry backed out of it’s slip blocking almost the whole channel before turning to go out into the bay. Yikes!
We didn’t need anything so we passed by the marinas in Cape May and anchored in Sunset Bay. It’s lucky we only need 2.5 feet of water – the area marked as a good anchorage is supposed to have 10 feet at high tide but we saw less than 4 feet. A cruiser had come in before us and hit bottom and gotten stuck. This entire area of the Jersey coast was pounded by Hurricane Sandy and the charts are very outdated. We will have to go slow and pay attention to all the new channel markers.
We were really lucky we did our crossing of Delaware Bay today – originally the weather report looked like it was going to be really nice for several days – light winds and sunshine. Now it looks like the wind is going to roaring and more rain is expected especially overnight all week. Lots of boats are going to go crazy waiting for good weather again – a lot of them can’t (or won’t) go the inside route because of the shoaling. Offshore this week looks really tricky. We are counting down the days to when the girls come to visit.