Thursday, May 29. 2008

Cape May, New Jersey (Thursday, May 29, 2008). Left Cohansey River with CGA at the wheel. Not only did she execute the anchor raising, but she managed to figure out which way to go in the river and made three S-curves without running aground. In her words “I was scared to death in the beginning, but then relaxed”. This is not steering for the faint of heart in the Cohansey! In the Delaware we passed a Navy ship with all hands dressed out for “posting their colors” at 0830. Delaware Bay was flat and calm, no wind, no chop and not the Delaware Bay we usually expect. Saw lots of large tankers and military ships heading to counter-attack at Aberdeen Proving Ground, or so we suppose.

Off Cape May (“in the Atlantic” as CGA notes) we were in the shoals filled with dolphins “playing in the water”. (Capt Tony is curious how they play on land, but he doesn’t understand the difference between working dolphins and dolphins at play). We motored all day, sadly, but the wind picked up pretty strong once Capt Tony cut into the narrowest marina inlet we’ve ever seen. He docked Endurance “like parking a school bus in a space for a VW bug” – calm as a cucumber and looking as if he’d gone in and out of that miniscule slip a thousand times. Impressed even XO! After tying up, crew abandoned Capt and ship to go to town for a walk. Town is full of old Victorian homes with beautiful gardens in bloom, big wrap around porches and idyllic yards with trees for big ol’ tire swings. A precious little spot. We shopped a little in the town square, quaint little town with a brick pedestrian-only walkway. We stopped for a little iced coffee, again later for a 2 for 1 ice cream cone special, and met up with Capt Tony at the Lobster House beside the marina for a delicious dinner. Johnnie Walker and New Jersey clams on the half shell! Though we may be paying again for the latter.

We staggered back to the boat like seasoned sailors on shore leave, played a few rounds of “golf” and retired to our respective berths for the night…(at which point CGA wrote most of today’s entry, XO went immediately to sleep, and Capt Tony read for about 4 minutes – it was probably 9:45 after all).