A few more shots of Cape May, before we leave.
A look at the Cape May beach...looking out at the Atlantic.
A little cloudy on this day, but the beaches were full
This is the black top promanade (that goes a long ways) that seperated the beach from the town.
I may not catch fish...but I look like a fisherman, and I have all the "stuff"
As we leave Cape May, we travel on the Cape May canal, and meet this fishing boat heading out to the Delware Bay to try his luck.
Below is our view out the stern of the boat, early in the morning out in the bay. A view I never take for granted...or never get tired of.
The Delaware has some cool light houses
That come in all shapes and sizes
This is a little had to see in this picture...but you can see the white caps, and then sort of a "line" in the water, and then it's calm
The reason for this is current...and the wind over a faster (verses slower) current. We lost 1.2 mph in speed when we crossed this line, which means the current was that much faster, and much choppier. Amazing...right out in the middle of the bay. And it happened twice.
This is the first freighter that passed us...he was moving almost 19 mph.
See the orange thing...on the left side of the ship, that looks like a sled on a roll-a-coaster? It's really a life boat. In an emergency...you get in the boat...they release it...and it goes plunging in the water. It's completely contained, and will "right" itself in rough seas
At the northern part of the bay...as you enter the Delaware River there is this power plant, on a man made island.
We got out of the channel, when this second ship over took us...doing almost 25 mph.
Shortly after the ship passed us, we entered the C&D canal
And then 6 miles later, we entered a small cove where Summit North Marina is. This is their bar and restaurant sitting on the hill
The bar looked too good...so we had to check it out.
Hard to pick out HQ in this picture of the marina...but it's there
Back at the boat
A great end...to a great day
Log 170Day 473
Sunday, September 06, 2009
7:30 AM EDT
Location: Summit North Marina, Bear, DE.
Weather: 65 with calm winds...forecasted to be 78 and sunny today
It’s one of the most beautiful mornings you can imagine. A little cool, but not cold. Warm enough to open the doors and windows, but not hot. No humidity; no wind; not a cloud in the sky. The coffee is hot; country tunes playing on the radio; and we live on a boat. Does it get better than this?
The pictures on the blog tell the story of the last few days. Just a few more shots of Cape May. Deb and I really enjoyed our time there. It has a little bit of everything. Water; lots of boats; good marina’s; fishing; history; upscale homes; boardwalk; beaches; and bars. Something for everyone. We rode into town again, just to stretch our legs, and try a few more places. We ended up going to lunch, at an open air restaurant, just off the beach. It seemed like a great spot, and the bartender told us from about 3 pm to closing it’s 2 to 3 deep in the place. Cape May was a great stop.
Fishing...is a big deal in Cape May. Every morning, the boats would flood out of the marina’s going in all directions. Some heading east...out into the Atlantic; others heading west...into the Delaware Bay; still others heading north...up the ICW to fish the rivers. I went out a couple of times fishing for flounder. I found out you did not need a license, and the marina owner told me how to fish for them, so I tried my luck. You have to catch something over 18 inches, in order to keep them, and I never did that, but had fun none the less. As I have said several times, I love salt water fishing, because you never know what you’ll catch.
We left Cape May on Saturday morning...just after first light...heading a little over 60 miles up the Delaware Bay to the C&D canal (the canal that takes you to the Chesapeake). I had been monitoring the weather for a few days, and based on the information I had, Saturday was the best day...wind wise. (Wind against the tides in the Delaware Bay are notorious for causing a short choppy wave...not fun to be in) It looked like there would be light winds out of the north, and then switching to the NE. When we got out in the bay, it was great, but the further NW we went the rougher it got. It was never really bad, but I had to keep slowing it down, in order for the spray not to come over the windshield, and into the boat. The good news was we had timed the tides just right (no luck involved here) and we were getting a nice 1 to 2 mph push up the bay. This may not seem like much, but trust me, it really makes a difference. In calm water, I have to run almost 1250 rpm in order to get 10 mph...but I was barely over 900 rpm and going 10.1 mph. Besides not fighting the current, we get a lot better fuel mileage. Along the way, we saw two very large freighters, that were moving very fast up the bay, toward Philadelphia. One was moving a little over 18 mph, and the other 24 mph (I can tell exactly how fast they are moving because I can track them on my AIS system). It was fun to see these large ships way behind us, and see them gaining on us, and finally passing us...going about twice as fast as we were. By 1 pm we had made the 55 miles up the bay to the C&D canal, and 6 miles further, we were in our marina. Because of all the salt spray, we completely washed HQ, and completely dried it off. Then, after checking in, walked up to the marina’s bar for a margarita...one of the better ones we’ve had. For dinner, Deb made a great stir-fry, and the movie was the Bourne Ultimatum. Great day.
Maintenance issues...all of a sudden the aft shower sump pump is acting up again. I fixed it, but I’m sure it will happen again. I hate issues that happen, and you fix them, but you know it’s not permanent. Similar to a couple other issues I have had with these sump pumps...the pump runs...but no water pumps out. This shower sump has a check valve in the discharge line, which I think is either creating a vacuum, or is causing too much back pressure for the sump pump to pump water through it. Whatever the case, we are not using the aft shower, because we can not count on it. When we get to Baltimore, I think I’ll get a new pump, and take the check valve out, and re-do the whole system.
From here...we have only 8 miles to go, and we are back on the Chesapeake Bay. As I write this we know we are leaving here tomorrow (Monday...Labor Day) but do not have any plans on where we are heading. We are thinking about heading only 6 miles to Chesapeake City...or a little further to a place called Still Pond...and anchoring for the night. We are still planning on being at Anchorage Marina, in Baltimore, by Wednesday. And then, be there for a month.
I’ll keep you posted.
Bob
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