Chesapeake Bay to Cape May, NJ

Today is Sunday, May 30 and Here and Now is in Cape May, NJ at Miss Chris Marina. Since leaving Irvington, VA which is up the Rappahonnick River about 10 miles we made stops on the Chesapeake at Solomons Island, MD, St Michaels, MD, Rock Hall, MD via the Kent Narrows (skinny bypass from St Michaels)  and the Bohemia River on the upper Chesapeake.

The Chesapeake is a great boating bay and by far the best so far on our trip. All of these places we stopped were unique. We have been traveling with Jerry and Carolyn (no. 2) on the boat Sassy II. They just started the loop in Portsmouth, VA. I cannot do these stops justice in the blog but St Michaels was probably the best stop as far as the harbor and town go. We stopped for a couple of days on the Bohemia River at a small marina near where our friends Tom and Lin Kilburn have a second home just a 5 minute walk from the marina and we spent two nights with them off the boat for a change. We met Tom and Lin through  work several years ago and they are now special friends and it was great visiting with them. On the second day Tom took us up to Chesapeake City in their Grady White for breakfast....great morning. The only problem we had was the spring tides were extreme and there was a full moon. We arrived at low tide and the depth gauge on the boat read 3.5 to 5.0 all the way in to the marina. Needless to say we decided to leave at high tide.

After visiting with Tom and Lin we departed on May 27 intending to go all the way to Cape May, NJ. (about 73 nautical miles). In order to reach Cape May you leave the Chesapeake via the C and D canal which connects the Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware Bay. We wound up stopping on the C and D after traveling only about 15  miles due to a change in the weather forcast for the Delaware Bay including high winds and thunderstorms. We spent the day relaxing at Summit North Marina in Bear, DE and Carolyn and Willi kayaked on the C and D. While there we got reaquainted with another looper boat, Adagio, and traveled with them the next day to Cape May. We waited until 11 am to depart to catch the outgoing tide on the Delaware River to get a 'push' to Cape May. As it turned out the winds were up and our trip across the Delaware Bay was the roughest full day we have had on the entire trip with seas of  'many feet' and water over the top of the boat about every 5th or 6th wave. We arrived in Cape May around 5:30 pm at Miss Chris Marina.

Cape May is a good place with lots of shops and resturants and lots to do including a famous light house which we climbed for a great view and sore knees!  I took Carolyn to Philly today to fly back to Tn for a few days. She will be returning with Tammy and Heather on Thursday for our trip up to New York. Willi and I are hanging out in Jersey for now.

Be Safe!