Cape May to the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal



Utsch's Marina



Awaiting the weather window

We ended up staying in Cape May for 5 days, waiting for a good weather window. The Delaware Bay can be quite nasty. We were not alone. As the week went on, more & more boats came in, alot with some pretty interesting and scary stories of their passage. As I always say, "there's a reason for everything", and by staying in Cape May longer we were finally able to get the navigation system up and running properly. We bought another inverter (the third one is the charm!) which now works and powers and charges the laptop. We also bought a chip for the new handheld GPS with charts of the complete US coastlines, including Alaska & Hawaii, plus the Bahamas. It's just a little bit more than we need. What a joy it was to move up the Dalaware Bay and know exactly where we were and what was ahead!


Ship John Shoal

  The trip started with a transit of the Cape May Canal. This took us right out to the lower Delaware Bay. It was a bit lumpy and reminded us of our days on Oneida Lake. As we moved up the Bay, the wind slowed and the waves were smaller. It started to rain gently off and on for the rest of the trip. The commercial traffic that we were warned about was almost nonexistent. We saw two freighters as we came out of the Cape and then two more coming out of the C&D Canal as we made our approach. We arrived at the entrance to the C&D at 4pm.

C&D Canal Entrance

We pulled into Summit North Marina well ahead of tropical storm Nicole and again we will wait for a favorable weather window. We met up with Far Niente, the IP45 we met in Atlantic Highlands and have been sharing alot of useful information about the Chesapeake Bay and our future destinations. Many familiar boat are here and we will be meeting up with their crews all along the Intracoastal.

We are 53 miles northeast of Annapolis and plan to leave early tomorrow, Saturday, to find an anchorage near the boat show. Depending on the weather, we may spend the night in Rock Hall, MD, and then continue on to Annapolis Sunday morning.

Anyone going to the Boat show??? If so, please drop us a line so we can share a Dark and Stormy!!