Monday, June 2, 2008

A Calm Weather Day on the Delaware Bay

Sunday, June 1st, we untied our lines from the charming little town of Chesapeake City, and left for a long, possibly rough transit of the Delaware Bay. We were going to be cruising with the tide and could pick up a few knots in speed in the canal and the weather was clear. We had heard horror stories that the Delaware Bay could be a bad body of water--so I had put all our galley "things" down on the floor, turned our small dining table over as well. The wind was out of the west, and we were prepared.

We get out of the C & D Canal, into the mouth of the Delaware Bay, and see no wind at all!! What??! We called the boat about 2 miles behind us to tell them the great news--life was good, we were happy. Little did we know what would await us once we got out in the middle of the Bay--flies, flies, love bugs, lady bugs, and more flies. We were eaten up with them, and never in all the boating/hunting adventures we have done, have we ever experienced anything like that. Good, strong "Deet" didn't faze them a bit! We even had to start the generator, turn on the AC in the cabin, and put Buddy inside. Later, we were told that there used to be many horse farms on one side of the Bay, but they had to move them to the other side of the Bay, because of all the flies--no joke! We would have gladly taken some wind not to have experienced those awful 3 hours.

Anyway, we arrive here safely mid-afternoon in Cape May, NJ. Three states in one day--don't think we'll get the opportunity to do that again on this trip. We, and the boat, arrive nasty--covered in dead, flyswatted, flies--Louis even commented, "Get out the rake, let's clean this carnage up!" And I must add that when we did clean the fly bridge off, it was the first time in my life that I've ever washed flyswatters! Yuck.

Once we did get the boat and us cleaned up, we met other Loopers and went to dinner at The Lobster House--a huge, famous place that is open every day of the year--even Christmas. Louis and I each had all the lobster we could eat, and we even brought some leftovers back to the boat for a nice appetizer sometime later. As we may be here for a few days because Louis needs to have the starboard engine repaired (minor, we hope!), I suspect we'll go back to that wonderful restaurant again--it's right next door to our marina!

We like this marina--Utsch's Marina. A nice surprise too, we even received upon check-in our first "goodie" bag--filled with a bottle of red wine, several biscotties, a bar of speciality soap, lots of local information, and a floating key ring. Nice touch! It's huge--and all around us are large fishing boats, campers, and friendly people--surprising for New Jersey! We had heard that the "worst" part (if there ever could be) of this amazing journey we're on would be New Jersey--not so, so far, from our standpoint.

It looks like now we will be here through at least Wednesday, as Louis has just heard that's when a recommended mechanic can come to assess what needs to be done. So, I'll have time to do our wash, catch up on my e-mails, and get supplies, and read. Along with the Lovettes, we're going to rent a car today to do some errands--West Marine, Wal-Mart, Lowes, groceries, and liquor store! More from Cape May later!

3 comments:

Nancy said...

Hi! Really enjoying your comments about the marinas, towns, and villages.....Feel like I'm there.....Would love to be with the exception of all the "flies"! Eat some lobster for us! Our favorite!

Second Wind said...

Yucky, yucky bugs! I hadn't really thought about that downside of not having wind as you crossed potentially scary Delaware Bay. But what a treat to be in Cape May with LOBSTER feasts and all those picturesque houses! Hope the engine repair is minor.

Liz and Bob
P.S. We were at Utsch's at exactly this same time last year.

Anonymous said...

We would have GLADLY traded your Monday bugs for the Tuesday waves! They rivaled many that we have experienced on Lake Michigan. We crashed down once so hard it snapped two stainless steel bolts on our lift and we had to tow our dinghy the last 25 miles into Cape May! We hope to meet you along the way. We will complete the Loop Saturday in New York City but then will continue on to our home port in Wisconsin.