Cape May - Lobster Roll!

Want to go around the cape?  Be ready for a little rough wind against tide waves

We haven't been to Maine for a number of years and Ann especially missed the lobster rolls along with the outstanding anchorages. We couldn't do much about the anchorages but we could try out the local answer to good lobster rolls. The local restaurant with the best reputation was Quincy's Original Lobster Rolls. We cruised in Maine for three years and Ann graduated from the University of Maine so we really enjoyed the Maine version of the lobster roll.

So we ordered our roll with extra lobster and it was not bad. Lots of lobster. However, it was not a Maine roll. In a Maine roll, you can see the lobsters being boiled from the window. The lobster is absolutely fresh and when served on a roll, you get the entire lobster although it's only 1 lb usually but it includes not only the claws but also the tail. It's served warm since it was just cooked but it's only lobster meat with very little dressing. The Cape May version is served cold, it was obviously cooked previously and refrigerated and there's no tail meat, it's all claw. Now that's not especially bad, it's just not a Maine lobster roll but we enjoyed it.

The summer houses are very well kept, typical of the one pictured above

We took a tour around the tip of Cape May to look at the intersection of the outgoing tide and the incoming wind. With wind against tide you get some strange waves with a lot of whitecaps. The wind was not very strong, around 10 kts but when it gets blowing, the waves get square and can provide some unexpected enjoyment for those going around the cape. We like our passages a little dull in that respect so we'll take the canal but not until Tuesday when the tides are right.

Cape May at Utsch's Marina

A lot of boats in the Coast Guard anchorage at Cape May

The tide just was not right for going up the Delaware Bay. We prefer to use the Cape May Canal to reach Delaware Bay and tides were just out of phase for that. Looking ahead it appears that Tuesday will be the first good day for going north. One is always free to go around the Cape and we've done that in the past but now we prefer a more moderate path so we'll be here awhile.

Cape May has a fleet and it shows in the local restaurants - fresh!

For the weekend entertainment we rented a car from Enterprise for $49 from Friday to Monday.It's their weekend special at $10/day with taxes and other fees. We went shopping today for groceries and Ann wants a lobster sandwich on Saturday. Meanwhile I've been following the postings from Cruisersnet.net on the latest shoaling problems encountered by the memb'ers. In reading through them the common thread is "I ran aground right in the middle of the channel" (Mason Inlet, Little River Buoy 22A, Shallotte Inlet, Minin Creek, McClellanville, Fernandina Beach, etc.)  I've been through these areas a dozen times and they don't vary that much but you do have to really watch what you're doing relative to the buoys and the charted channel. Most of the time the channel shows what was originally dredged but it is usually not centered in the buoys (off-set from the centerline of the channel). The chart makers just can't seem to get the ICW channel to be accurately shown on the charts. The locations of the buoys. on the other hand, are usually (not always) accurately shown. You can see the discrepancy by looking on the chart and seeing the depicted channel not centered between the buoys (which it should be).

The Lobster House has a great fish market

The above areas mentioned all have good paths through them to at least 6 MLW but you have to know the path (unless the latest storm did something exceptional which I doubt - but them I'll find out and let you know when I pass through). I'll be posting on Active Captain along the way and if I find good routes through some of the tough areas, I'll add them as a GPX Route on the blog site.  At least 90% of the paths are stable based upon my experience of the last six years, they don't change much which led me to publish the Guide with guidance on passages through the shallow spots. Given the cost of a grounding it would seem prudent to have all the information possible at your fingertips from all sources.  If there's a grounding I would want to know where relative to the nearest buoy (angle and distance, not just distance or a statement that "I was in the middle of the channel") I would also want to know the tide level and the depth of the captain's keel. I try to provide such data in my posting.

And a moonrise to end the day

From here we'll head to Chesapeake City anchorage which has silted in but then there is a 4.5 MLW path to the deeper anchorage if it's the same as in the spring. If it is, I'll publish a GPX Route on the blog on where to turn for the deeper water. I suspect the two ACOE boats keep the passage open to the depth of their keel (4.5 ft) but it's very narrow and you have to hit it head on at low tide.

On Saturday it's time for the bow repair with 5200 to prevent further leakage into the forward cabin followed by a repair of the VHF cable between the remote in the cockpit and the base station down below - then it time to have some fun by touring around Cape May and having lobster sandwiches!

Cape May - Leak Repair

Now that's a proper hatch

Today was the wind day. We even had whitecaps in the anchorage although we were safely tucked into Utsch's Marina. We counted seven boats in the Coast Guard anchorage by the entrance and one other boat anchored in front of Utsch's. Nobody moved today. The wind is predicted to abate somewhat over the next few days but the tides (current actually) is not right for going up Delaware Bay. We'll watch the weather but moving day may not be until Tuesday of next week. We made great time coming south but now we wait.

Cape May has a fishing fleet and there are marine stores to support it. Everything looks about 10 times too well built with prices to support the extra sturdiness. This photo was at a nearby store, Sea Gear.

I leaned out over the bow with a long arm to get a shot of the underside of the bow puplit

Meanwhile, a forward leak had to be addressed. So Ann was down in the forward berth and I was on top with the hose. No leaks were apparent until I sprayed the hose directly on the bow. The pulpit hangs over the bow supporting the anchor and when sprayed with water, it permitted seepage into the forward bunk. This finding meshed with our experience of only seeing water after waves crashed over the bow. The oncoming seas evidently forced their way through whatever opening existed, however small. Finding that, I got some 3M 5200 fast cure adhesive and I will attempt a repair Friday. By the way, having a small camera on board is extremely valuable. The bow pulpit hangs over the bow so far that I could not get a good look at the potential leak path. However, reaching over with my camera as if I was taking a selfie and snapping multiple photos provided all the evidence I needed to find the leak, much better than trying to hang over the bow with a mirror to see under the pulpit! I'll wait a day to let everything dry out and do the repair on Friday.

With the boat washing also done today and the inspection of the bow, I've crossed off two of my 15 boat todo's, such is cruising.

Cape May - at Utsch's Marina

The first of two "55 ft"  bridges on the Cape May canal

We had fully intended staying in Atlantic City until Saturday morning but we happened to look at the latest forecast around 9:00 am. The forecast went from 10 to 15 on the nose with 20 kt gusts to only 10 or less kts of wind. PocketGrib and SwellInfo were in agreement but the NOAA coastal forecast was still out to lunch.We put our faith in grib and were not disappointed. The wind was still on the nose but at 10 kts or less, it was no problem. The wind wasn't strong enough to build up the type of waves that cause pounding heading into them. In fact, the wind shifted eastward just enough to put wind in the sails for a little stability, we were quite comfortable. It pays to always look at the latest forecast.

So we made it to Cape May and now we'll sit for awhile to get good weather and current for a run up the bay. We would always rather go through the Cap May canal but that requires a low tide for us and the low tides are all in the afternoon for the next several days. You might consider going around the outside but then the current up the bay doesn't start until the afternoon anyway. With that we'll wait a few days for better weather and more favorable tides.

58 ft at low tide

Meanwhile I took a walk over to look at the first bridge on the canal. It's a short walk from Utsch's Marina.; You can see from the photo that there's no way the bridge has 55 ft of clearance at high tide. Today's tide was 5.5 ft so it is higher than normal. If you're familiar with the Cape Cod height formula in the 2016 ICW Cruising Guide then you know that the starting point for bridge clearance is 58 ft figured at low tide. With today's 5.5 ft of high tide, that works out pretty well (52.5 + 5.5 = 58). We will time our passage at near low tide for our 55 ft 3 in of mast.

Our home for the next few days

My list of boat projects has grown over the last few days to include fixing a leak at the bow into the forward cabin (when waves crash over the bow), head work (ugh...), fixing the VHF which decided to stop working today, replacing the handheld (doesn't  receive anymore, transmits fine), fix TV antenna which somehow loses the signal, clean boat of all the salt, and about a dozen other smaller items. Cruising is not a vacation, it's just living on a boat instead of a house but it is a lot more fun!

Atlantic City - at The Golden Nugget Marina

You can tell we're in Atlantic City by the size of the boats. This guy was right in front of us. 

We looked at the forecast for the trip to Atlantic City and although it was predicted to be calm in the morning, the afternoon may have stronger winds. With that we chose to leave Atlantic Highlands at 5:00 am to beat the increasing wind predicted for the afternoon. It was certainly dark at 5:00 am. I took Hoolie ashore at 4:30 am and he did his business. After spending most of his life aboard a boat with only short sojourns ashore in our house, he knows what to do and quickly.

One has to be careful leaving in the dark. Things look differently and it's easy to get confused. We didn't have a moon up so it was really dark. However, there was no fog and the windows had no dew so we could see reasonably well. Of course radar and AIS was on as well as a lookout outside the enclosure my yours truly. Most boats now have AIS which makes things easier.

Nice and calm, good dock with cable

For once the actual conditions matched the forecast within 1 mph! As we headed south the wind gradually increased but never more than the predicted 10 kts. The passage will go down in as a first for us in forecast accuracy. PocketGrib and SwellInfo nailed the forecast but the NOAA Coastal Forecast was way off on the high side (20 kt gusts later in the day).

We arrived at our dock in Atlantic City 10 hrs 55 min after leaving the Atlantic Highlands. It was a good trip and we're glad to have it behind us. With SW winds predicted on Wednesday and gusts to 25 for Thursday, we'll most likely be here until Friday morning when the weather moderates. Our next stop will be Cape May, just a short hop down the coast.

Atlantic Highlands - at anchor

Hard not to be amazed at the sight of southern Manhattan

As we've experienced in the past, the anchorage at Haverstraw Cove was dead calm during the night, wakes and wind just can't get into the cove. Once again we saw 6.4 MLW on the way out. Just follow the waypoints under "GPX Routes" in and out and you'll be fine.

I always do this, a photo of Lady Liberty

As luck would have it we caught the end of the flood tide and it turned to an ebb shortly thereafter which we rode all the way from Peekskill to the Atlantic Highlands. We cruise at 7.3 kts but today we were averaging 8.5 to 9.3 kts with the tide. The timing was purely by chance since we had to be at Atlantic Highlands on Monday night to catch the window for Atlantic City on Tuesday. Everything just worked out (that'll never happen again).

I'm the black triangle, everybody else is out to get me

The Tuesday weather window is interesting. It's predicted to be calm in the morning but then kick up in the afternoon with some variations between forecasts by different sites. It looks like it will be a timing thing. If the front speeds up, we'll have a bumpy ride in the afternoon. If it behaves as predicted by grib, then we'll be fine. Normally it takes us 11.5 hours to reach Atlantic City so in view of the forecast we decided to leave at 5:00 am to take full advantage of the morning prediction and an ebb tide out of New York Harbor. We've been fooled before but you've got to go with the forecasts.

Goodbye NYC until 2017!

Once at Atlantic City we'll take a dock at the Golden Nugget which is $2.25/ft if you have a Marina Life membership but it's not honored Friday or Saturday. The first chance we get we'll head for Utsch's Marina in Cape May and wait for weather going up the Delaware Bay.

We're off!

The Hudson River is surrounded by mountains on either side, beautiful

Well, we're off "as we're leaving and headed south" not a little off as many have suspected for years.The trip down the New Jersey coast is the most unpredictable of all the passages for us. We stay within three miles of the coast but the weather can still change abruptly and it's rarely predictable. We follow five weather sources: PocketGrib, SwellInfo, Huricane Tracker, NOAA Marine Forecasts and StormSurf predictions for surf height along the coast. We compare all the predictions and make a decision. We desire a smooth ride down the New Jersey coast with the wind at our backs and waves less than 2 ft. Generally, we've found that PocketGrib gives the most dependable predictons with StormSurf close behind. The NOAA Marine Forecasts tend to predict worse conditions than we encounter within three miles of the coast. Of course, we always look at the latest hurricane status.

So putting all of this together we had first thought of a Tuesday trip down the coast, then changed that to Wednesday and then changed that back to Tuesday - the weather is rather variable. By the time we decided on Tuesday we had to hurry up to get on the boat for the first leg of the trip to Haverstraw Cove where we're anchored tonight.

Why wouldn't you want a nice, peaceful anchorage at night?

For those traveling down the Hudson River, I'm amazed that this anchorage is not more popular. It's protected 360 from winds and waves. It doesn't show any depth soundings on the charts and there's a warning about an obstruction at the entrance and I suppose that scares a lot of people away. Regardless, all hazards can be avoided just by following my waypoints posted on the blog (see GPX Routes). Today we came in and found 6.4 MLW as the lowest point before the depths deepened farther into the anchorage. The typical depth is 20 to 30 ft throughout the anchoage although we generally anchor in the south cove where we find 10 to 15 ft.  Just follow the waypoints faithfully and you'll have no problem.

We're headed for Atlantic Highlands on Monday as a staging point for our trip down the coast on Tuesday if the weather holds.