38.9515° N, 74.9067° W

July 31 – Utch’s Marina Cape May, NJ

We arrived at Cape May at 4:30 yesterday afternoon. We made great time on this passage as the water was calm & we had lucky timing with the tide cycles.

We met several barges & freighters during our passage down the Delaware River & across the bay. Once we reached the Cape May Canal we met a car/passenger ferry that was headed across the bay to Maryland.

Cape May has several large marinas & is a hotspot for sport fishing on the ocean. We couldn’t believe how many boats there were – and this is only one of several marinas!

Last night Ed & I discussed our route north to NYC. We are now only 125 nm from Sandy Hook, NJ which is at the mouth of the Hudson River and New York City.

The route along the New Jersey ICW looked interesting but there are several places where shallow water could be a problem for even this boat with only a 3 1/2 foot draft.

The weather forecast for the rest of the week looks very promising with light winds & calm waters predicted for the New Jersey coastline so we decided that our next passage would be a few miles offshore on the ocean & then we would head inland to Atlantic City NJ which is about 40 nm north of Cape May.

We have also noted several spots along the way where we could head inland if the weather & water conditions turn bad on us.

As you can see in the photo above, things are looking pretty good at the moment (8:30am August 1).

Shortly after we got out of Cape May Harbor this morning & started heading north we passed by an area called Wildwood that had lots of high rise hotels & apartments on the shoreline. There even was a large amusement park with a roller coaster which I’m sure Emily would have liked to spend a few hours on.

Cheers!