Cohansey Island anchorage - at anchor with two other boats

We cleared easily - we had close to 57 ft for our 55.3 ft mast

We couldn't get under the bridges at Cape May until 11:30 am so we just motored to Cohansey Island and anchored behind it. We were the first ones there but three other boats came in later and two of them anchored on either side of us. The third boat disappeared into the river to either anchor farther away or take a dock. If you move too far behind the island you'll find it deepens rapidly to 25 to 40 ft! We anchored just off the river and found 20 ft which suits us fine. That spot would not be good in a north or northeast wind but the winds tonight are out of the southwest so we're fine.

However, there is NOT 55 ft at high tide

Along the way we found the Delaware Bay calm even though we were bucking a 2 ft tide all the way north. With little wind, there was no wave action. There were only a few crab pots so they were no problem.

Nice end to the day

As always with our anchorages, there's Hoolie relief nearby on the deserted island. It's a sandy beach even at low tide so we don't have to clean Hoolie off like we must at some places. On Thursday, we'll have the tide with us in the morning and we'll take advantage of that for a ride as far as we're able. We're not sure where we will wind up but the farther, the better. We need to make up for time lost to Jose.

For those wanting more details on figuring the clearance under the Cape May canal I have an explanation: the formula for determining the clearance under the Cape May canal bridges that I’ve worked out over the last 8 years is:

Clearance = 58 ft - tide - (water level above tide) 

The tide is read off the nearest tide station, in this case the Cape May harbor station which read 0.4 ft at yesterday’s dead low.
The water level above tide is obtained from the NOAA station at the entrance to the canal at the west end. At yesterday’s dead low, it measured the water level to be 0.6 feet above the predicted (per tide tables) tide height. A link to the water level website can be found under ICW Tips on my blog site.

Putting the numbers into the equation yields:
58 ft - 0.4 - 0.6 = 57 ft which was the clearance yesterday at low tide and read off the height boards. 

The details of all this figuring are on pages 66 - 68 in my book; 2017 ICW Cruising Guide.