Still in Cape May, NJ

Tuesday, Oct 5

Boats anchored in Cape May Harbor at beginning of sunset

We woke early and by 7am we started motoring west through the Cape May Canal to bypass the shoals south of Cape May, but the winds were NW  mid to upper teens with gusts in the low 20's right on the nose, so we went back inside the canal and anchored.  Phil put the depth alarm on at  5.3 feet as we were nearing low tide and it went off.  We found that it was set too low as we had to motor forward plowing through the mud and just barely got the anchor raised by the skin of our teeth.  We then went further east into the canal  and anchored again behind and a little to the left of a trawler.  We had 11 ft of water when we dropped the anchor, but it seemed that the further behind the anchor we got, the shallower it became.  Phil set the depth alarm at 5.9Ft and when that went off  maybe 20-30 minutes later, we raised anchor and decided to see if the winds had slacked off in the Delaware Bay. They hadn't so we came back to Cape May Harbor and decided to anchor where we wouldn't have to worry about the depth so we ended up west of the Coast Guard Station.  By this time it was at low tide - 1215pm.  We didn't have any problem setting the anchor this last time and here we have stayed the rest of the day.

We saw a navy blue C&C 34plus (1990 - 36' long) called Cats Paws going towards the canal as we were coming out.  Their captain yelled across the water asking us how it was out in the Delaware Bay.  We told them bad. They turned the boat around and decided to tie up at their dock here.  They also radioed us and let us know that they were planning on leaving at 2am tonight with another boat to take advantage of the favorable currents to go to the C&D Canal and asked if we wanted to join them.  We said yes.  We exchanged names and phone numbers and later Phil talked to Fred.  Turns out he's a delivery captian and has transited the Delaware Bay many times.  He said it would take 8 hr with the current to get to the C&D Canal and 10+ hours against the current.  We both agree that leaving was conditional only if the winds calmed  and clocked  so they were coming from the West. The wind forecast is to change from the NW to the W 5-10 knots late evening.  We hope this happens.  Currently at the Brandywine Shoal Light the winds are NW 15.9 with gusts to 19, which is less than a little while ago.

In between the raising and lowering of the anchor, Phil and Vicki worked on tightening the bolts for the hull to deck joints with Phil on the outside and Vicki on the inside with the wrench.  Hopefully that will help the leaks!

We had the warmed up leftover beef stew for lunch.  While Vic and Phil took naps (I had mine this morning), I finished making my first pair of knitted socks.

Lorraine's 1st pair pair knitted socks (and the mess on the boat)

Wish that Deanna Hoops was here to help me with my Kitchener stitch because I am still having problems understanding how to get that right!  I am wearing the socks and they are keeping my feet warm.  I have started another pair of socks using some Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Sock weight yarn in aqua wide stripes with some purple and white accent stripes.

I'm going to make chicken and biscuits for supper tonight right after I'm done with this post.
Below are some photos that didn't get in the previous day's blog.  Enjoy!

Victoria reading  She's happy!

Tip of Manhattan 

 You can see above the Statue of Liberty as we were passing.  Blogger isn't working right for me to put the caption under the photo.