Cape May - At Utsch's Marina at a dock

20  boats were in the Coast Guard anchorage this afternoon

Early in the morning, we saw winds of 28 with gusts to 32 kts at the buoy in the southern part of Delaware Bay. We really didn't want to be out in that so we delayed our departure from Atlantic City until 10:30. The winds were supposed to die down in the afternoon but as with all predictions, the weatherman takes no responsibility when he's wrong! We were met with 4 to 5 ft seas that had us pitching like a rocking horse with water over the bow with regularity. Once again, there was no danger, it was just an uncomfortable ride with the 20 kt winds.

Noon came and passed with no relief even though the forecast said the winds would moderate. Every single app was wrong as was the Coast Guard forecast (Windy, SwellInfo, PocketGrib, PredictWind, Ventusky, WindfinderPro, and the Coast Guard forecast). As a rule of thumb, just take whatever is forecast and double the wind speed for safe measure.

Coming into Cape May, we saw 20 boats anchored by the Coast Guard station. There still seemed to be some room left but it did look crowded. We elected to take a dock at Utsch's Marina, a long time favorite of ours at $2/ft. It is not a fancy marina but it does have excellent washers and dryers and good protection with good fuel prices.

Nice and calm now

Saturday is predicted to have light winds (5 to 10 kts out of the NW) which would normally be good enough for a trip up the bay but with the luck we've had with forecasts, we will not chance that 5 to 10 turning into 10 to 15 which would be disastrous against a flood tide.  With that, we'll wait until Sunday when the winds turn to out of the northeast, a much better direction for going up the bay. They are still in the 5 to 10 range but even if they strengthened, they would not be against the tide. We will wait and see.