update 9/27/2011 - Sandy Hook to Chesapeake City

The last week has been a whirlwind. We stayed a day at Atlantic Highlands, walking around town a bit. It wasn’t as interesting as we had remembered.

The next day we left at 0635. This is way early for us but we had a long (80 mile) day and unsettled weather ahead of us. We headed to Atlantic City where we arrived at 1600.  We were going to anchor but the weather was threatening so we went into the marina. The marina had changed hands in late May and it seemed like everything we wanted to do there was under construction/renovation.

Leaving Atlantic Highlands at dawn

The next morning we were off again slightly later at 0640. The fog was thick (like traveling in Maine) and it was still dark so we made our way out following the track of the previous day on the GPS and the radar. Of course we me two fishing boats coming in. The inlet was rough but I decided it was because the current was running out against the swells and that did in fact be the case as it smoothed out fairly well once we were clear of the inlet. The sky cleared a bit, then we had a rain shower and then it cleared for most of the day. We reached Cape May before 11AM and took a walk in the afternoon, admiring the old Victorian Houses on the way.

A late departure at 1030 the following morning put us out on Delaware Bay trying to catch the rising tide. As it turned out we were a bit early but the wind was light so we still had a good trip up the bay. However, we arrived at the Delaware City marina after it closed and it was raining with the current running. Jean did a great job playing cowboy and lassoing one of the cleats and we were able to get the boat secure. We got soaked finishing the job and plugging in the power in the rain.

With more rain predicted, we decided to take a lay day the following morning and attend to some boat maintenance projects and do the laundry. We also took several walks but there was little going on.

Sun Cat at dock in Chesapeake City

Today we took a leisurely trip down the
 C and D canal with the current and pulled into the free dock at Chesapeake City.  This is a neat little town with many of the houses built in the 1840’s and 1850’s.  We found the ice cream, watched a little football at the tiki hut and toured the town a bit. Tomorrow its on to the Chesapeake.

1840's houses

Having a good trip south.

Steve and Jean