Cape May, New Jersey

We arrived at Cape May, New Jersey, on 7 June, after a great and uneventful cruise down Delaware Bay, a body of water with a less than peaceful reputation. We turned north into the Cape May Canal, headed for Utsch’s Marina. Once again it was high adventure keeping IRISH AYES off the sand bars and other shallow water in the canal. Cape May Harbor wasn’t much better. In fact, the water in the Harbor is at best three feet deep under our keel, with two feet or less quite common. Once again though, the Captain steered a safe course right into our slip at the marina.

On the way in on the Canal, we took a picture of a boat full of crab traps. If you haven’t seen one, here’s a boatload of them. These are the traps that have made us crazy for about 2,000 miles. Each of these little traps are connected to a float on top of the water by a long length of very tough ¼ inch line that can become wrapped around your prop or prop shaft, as happened to us in Florida back in early February.

Two Looper boats—FOXY and SANDPIPER—were at Utsch’s Marina at Cape May when we arrived on Thursday, 7 June, 1:30 p.m . SONATA and BUBBLES, also Loopers, arrived sometime later.

SANDPIPER is owned by a delightful couple, Bob and Ann, from Nashville. Bob, sadly, is a rabid Vandy Commodore fan, and delights in giving Mike grief about the relative lack of academic excellence, and the police record, of some Tennessee Volunteer football and basketball players. Mike thoroughly enjoys giving it right back to Bob regarding the abysmal athletic achievements of the Commodores. They have fun with it, and their wives just shake their heads.

Shortly after we arrived in the slip, we welcomed the crew of SONATA, and later that evening we enjoyed cocktails on SONATA with Charlie and Bonnie, as well as Roger and Dixie from BUBBLES. This boating community is very open, welcoming and friendly, but plays havoc with one’s BA level.

On Friday, we decided to walk from the marina to downtown Cape May and the beach. It was a very warm day, but the much needed walk/exercise was welcomed, if not desperately needed. We walked on the beach for a couple of hours, and then stopped at a corner bar for refreshments.

Cape May is known as “the nation’s oldest seashore resort,” and the entire town has been proclaimed a national historic landmark. The streets are lined with Victorian homes and small gingerbread cottages, many of which are now commercially owned.




On Saturday, we got out our bicycles and rode around town. There was an arts and crafts show at one of the big historic homes, so we stopped and walked around for a while. The tallest man of Cape May was strolling through the crowd and was the highlight of the show for the young ones.

From there, we took off for the Cape May Lighthouse. The surrounding grounds of the Lighthouse are a work in progress with walking trails, nature trails, bird sanctuaries, etc., being developed. The Cape May Lighthouse is located at Cape May Point State Park. The lighthouse was built in 1859, and is the third known lighthouse to be built at Cape May Point. The exact locations of the first two lighthouses built there are now under water due to erosion. The Cape May Lighthouse is an active lighthouse operated by the U. S. Coast Guard, and provides aid to navigation for mariners.

On Saturday evening we had dinner with Charlie and Bonnie, the crew of SONATA, at The Lighthouse Restaurant. Once again, the crab cakes were delicious.

We departed Utsch’s Marina on Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m., our destination an anchorage near Atlantic City. We decided to take the inside route, New Jersey’s ill-reputed Intacoastal route, because the alternative was to go out into the Atlantic Ocean, and the weather and seas were too rough for that on this day. We would live to regret that decision, but that’s another story. Stay tuned.