Up the river — Afloat

Brigantine was a fantastic stop while we waited for ideal weather to continue down to Cape May and then up the Delaware River. The timing of each leg was important, first because we wanted light winds from the west for the run down the coast, second because we needed to ride an incoming tide for the trip upriver. Mission accomplished.

Went for a long walk down the beach in Cape May to this observation platform. Ellen said it needed to be taller but it did provide beautiful views of the marshes. The New Jersey seashore is beautiful.

We aren’t sure why the city put this hat on the water tower. Maybe it’s an early Halloween costume – this part of the country seems to be getting very excited for the holiday.

Cape May is a surprisingly lovely town. It claims to be the oldest (first?) seaside resort in the US, yet it somehow manages to avoid being tacky and garish like just about every other seaside resort. (Looking at you Atlantic City/Ocean City, NJ/Ocean City, MD.) We went for a nice long walk through town but neglected to bring a camera so you will either have to take our word for it or book a trip and see for yourself.

The tide turned upriver early in the morning, so we raised the anchor at Cape May and headed down the channel and Cape May Canal in the dark. It was not so much scary as intense – lots of very close concentrating and double-checking our route. Went without a hitch, and we got this lovely sunrise to see us out of the canal and out into the mouth of the Delaware River.

We caught the tide in the river and had a boost of 2-3 knots the whole way. The journey was uneventful, although we really enjoy these long days underway. As I mentioned before, it is tons of fun seeing the country by tugboat.

Salem Nuclear Power Plant on the Delaware River.

A fellow mariner got on the VHF to advise everyone to take a look at the delightful sun dog.

We got to the C&D Canal by early afternoon and made our way to Chesapeake City. We expected a sleepy little basin where we could anchor and ride out the wet and windy remnants of Hurricane Isaias. What we got was a tiki-bar, Donzi-boat, jet-ski, muscle-shirt paradise. Fun to observe, and it will not sadden us too much to leave tomorrow morning and find ourselves a quiet anchorage up some little creek in the Chesapeake Bay.