Southbound ’17 Travel day 5:  Cape May to Bear, DE

FROM: The Captain

Forecast: Overcast.  Winds NW 10-15kt gusting to 20. Seas 3 ft. Showers in the afternoon.

Distance traveled: 59 nautical miles

Time underway: 5 hours 25 minutes

Average Speed: 10.9kts

Max Speed: 18kts

Fuel used: 66 gallons

It was a mild 63 degrees and breezy on departure from South Jersey Marina in Cape May at 7:20am when we shoved off.  With daylight savings time having just ended there was no difficulty getting started a bit earlier than has been the case until now.  We wanted to ride the tide and beat the forecast afternoon rain.  We exited the Cape May Canal which empties directly into Delaware Bay and set our heading to 328 degrees – a course we would maintain for the first twenty miles of our first-ever trip up the bay.  Note to cruisers – there’s plenty of good (deep) water in the bay without having to stay in the shipping channels.  We never saw less than twelve feet under the boat with our straight-line course from the canal and those shallower spots are well-charted, few and far between.  While it was dead calm in the canal it was quite sporty, as expected, as we proceeded northwest in the Delaware.

The Delaware is an enormous body of water with lots of “fetch” and if you catch the wrong combination of wind and tide it can be quite uncomfortable, let alone dangerous.  We were comfortable enough but would not have wanted to have been on a smaller, non-stabilized boat for this first part of the trip.  We were also further off-shore than we’ve been so far – at least ten miles at one point.  

About two hours into the Delaware as it began to narrow the seas began to lay down, as expected, and the autopilot didn’t have to work as hard to keep us on course.  A bit of sun began to pop through the clouds just as the lovely Salem Nuclear Power Plant on the upper eastern shore came into view (for some reason that seemed strangely poignant).

It was also nice that we had a “fair tide” (the current was traveling with us) and with the wind at our backs we were able to pick up some speed running the engines at the same RPM’s as usual.  We entered the fourteen mile long Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (the C&D) only having passed a single pleasure boat during our ride so far today and for the several mile stretch through the canal we didn’t pass one single vessel.  Always a bit strange when that happens even if it is off-season (are we not supposed to be out here?).

At 12:45pm we were safely tied at Summit North Marina in Bear, Delaware.

This is what we call a “utility” stop.  We just need a decent dock for the night.  Summit North was the perfect, no frills marina with nice docks in the right place.  They were good with communication, super-friendly and a smiling dockhand (Jeremiah) was waiting for us at our slip when we arrived.  It is a loooong walk to shore from the dock we were on, a bit of a hassle with Jasper, but as we say, happy problem.

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