Thursday, June 1 - My Birthday!

Thursday, June 1 - My Birthday!

We had planned an 8:00 departure, so I had to get up earlier than normal.  As I'm moving around the cabin pretty slowly, Danny says, "You're really not a morning person, are you?"  No kidding!  It's taken him 45 years to figure that out?  And we pulled out of Cape May at 7:57. 

The sun was shining, thank goodness!  Cruising is so much more fun in the sun, and the last six days have been cloudy and misty and sometimes rainy.

We pulled out from Delaware City into the Delaware Bay and headed south, actually southeast.  We followed Deb and Gill, who have autopilot on their boat.  The last leg of this trip is on  a straight line from a mid-channel marker to shore, and it's less stressful to follow a boat than to follow a compass bearing.

About an hour out, Gil stopped to pull up his dinghy.  It had fallen down enough to take on water.    He and Alex tugged and struggled for a while trying to get it back in place.

Half way down the bay, we were hailed by Rachel on Salty Gal II.  We met them at The Wharf in Orange Beach, AL and had not seen them since Carrabelle, FL.  They were headed for Cape May, too.

This is pretty country, but the bay is so wide you can barely see the shore.   It was such a beautiful day and such smooth cruising, we are not complaining.  We had heard stories about rough crossings here.  Several large ships passed us in the bay, and we passed a lighthouse of sorts.

The entrance to the Cape May Canal was a happening place! Lots of people playing on the beach. 

Just past the entrance was the Cape May Ferry terminal.  It runs to Lewis, Delaware and Henlopen Beach.

The houses along the canal were very pretty. 

We had reservations at Utsch's Marina in Cape May Harbor.  There were several other Looper boats, so Danny invited everybody for docktails at the picnic table on the dock.  We met some new people and caught up with our "old" friends, Rachel and Nick. 

I had called the Harbor Hosts in Cape May to invite them to Docktails.  They had posted a few days ago asking people to get in touch with them, and I took them up on the offer.  Bruce came by bringing hot doughnuts from their restaurant, Fish Cakes, right across the bridge.  After chatting a few minutes, he asked if anybody needed transportation, then offered to leave his extra truck with us.  Nice!