Cape May NJ

We left Atlantic City and travelled 39 nautical miles today as per the captains log (591 nautical miles to date on our trip!! woohoo) to South Jersey Marina in Cape May, NJ. Some of you are thinking .... yes but you left 3 weeks ago, however we have had a few delays along the way. This ranks as one of the great stops on the trip from Toronto to the Bahamas. All we could say is this is soooooooooo pretty. Backtracking....

We left New York at 7:30 am and the harbour was quiet on a sleepy Saturday morning with no busy commuter traffic. A few fast boats in the harbour and a few freighters at anchor. Of course took time to take pictures of "the Lady".

 We settled in for a nice cruise south (33 hours to Norfolk). Getting out of New York Harbour is ALWAYS rough but exciting at the same time. We settled in to the flow after a few hours and started to remove some of the layers of clothes that we had donned at 6:00 AM. The winds and waves were as predicted for most of the day until late afternoon when the winds and waves picked up. The wave period was very short so the waves started getting steeper. Erring on the side of caution we decide to forgo our over night crossing from the NJ coast to Delaware and down the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) coast to Norfolk. We would have been crossing to Fenwick Island, DE at 1:00 am and the seas are always confused in that area where the North Atlantic meets Delaware Bay. We opted to go to our only resort - Atlantic City. As time would have it we were arriving at dark. At the entrance to Atlantic City, we spot something on radar but visually can't see a boat or a marker and it is only a mile away. A few minutes later the boat lights up (the second one in a few minutes). Whats with these fishing boat out after dark with no lights? The channel coming in was well lit but it stopped once we were inside. No lights, no lit markers and very confusing chart that showed very little water to go to Trump Marina and no dock staff.  After much contemplation we managed to flag a small fishing boat who lead us into dock. At dock I managed to get the attention of a research boat called Sea Wolf to help us with dock lines. Thank God. What a mistake this was. The dock was covered with bird shit, fish parts and unknown crunchy objects. Welcome to Trump Marina and for this we are paying $180 a night (a big discount from the $325 a night it is suppose to be!) Half the docks are empty and full of birds (thus the name BSDM). I gave the hotel attendant a dirty look when she said " enjoy your stay at Trump Marina", she had obvious not seen our dock.

We discovered a problem with the Genny when we were docking. We had white smoke and no water coming out but I had bigger issues to deal with so I turned off the genny and dealt with docking. By this time we were both tired (exhausted) we just wanted to go to bed.

I woke up thinking..."where are we". After the morning fog lifted, I remember that we were at Trump Marina, - lets called it Bird Shit Dock Marina (BSDM) and our genny maybe fried after running so long with no water.  We had breakfast on the sundeck in full sunshine and opened the windows to the smell of the sea air. The salt air mixed with the stuff on the dock was a distinctive smell that reminds us that we are now headed south. I switch to shorts, tank top and sandals to wash off yesterdays salt spray. Amazing Captain Ted has the genny fixed and we are underway at noon.

 We were the only boat headed out of the cut at noon, everyone else is headed in. A bad sign? The seas are higher than predicted but we soon get into the grove of the waves and enjoy the cruise south to Cape May. Sunscreen, sunglasses and a good cruise. Ted spotted a Blue Shark fish coming out of the water ahead of the boat. No fishing boats out today compared to yesterday. Turning into the waves to Cape May Inlet isn't fun but Captain Ted handles it no problem. We miss a turn and run out of water so we are hard aground but the tides are coming in so no worries. Captain Ted gets us back enroute and in no time we are at dock. Wash down, fuel and Martinis. Life is good at dock in Cape May, NJ.

 Cape May NJ

The Lobster House at Cape May, NJ