Day 380
On Saturday morning, 09/25/21, we departed South Jersey Marina in Cape May, NJ, at 8:00 am. Our cruising conditions were fabulous, with calm, clear weather. Thanks once again to Captain Steve’s impeccable weather forecast monitoring abilities, the waters were mirror-smooth as we cruised the Cape May Canal, underneath the NJ I-365 bridge, and out into Delaware Bay. Our skies were perfectly clear, without one single cloud, and our waters in the Bay were close to perfect, with waves of only 1-2 feet. PERFECTO!
As we progressed out into the Delaware Bay (which can be quite treacherous, if encountered in less than perfect weather), we realized many other pleasure-boaters were taking full advantage of today’s conditions. Sail boats, power boats, and even other trawlers shared the Bay with its standard, commercial barge traffic. Radio chatter on Channel 16 was constant, and we heard one tugboat captain calling down a sailboat up ahead of us that was tacked on a collision course with that tugboat’s oncoming barge! 😐 The sailboat heeded the captain’s request, but instead of simply changing his tack to the opposite direction, he came to a full stop, dropped all of his sails, and continued slowly away from the barge’s path, now moving slowly, under engine-power only. Being former sail-boaters, we thought that reaction was a bit extreme, but then decided maybe that potential collision had frightened the sailboat captain into completely ending his sailing for the day!
Not long after this same tugboat captain had admonished the sailboat, we realized he was calling us down, (he was being a bit of a drama queen), as well, when we heard our boat name being hailed on Channel 16. We were at least two miles ahead of the barge, traveling at a faster speed, and were paying special attention in respect to the barge’s path, so Legacy’s autopilot was set to pass well ahead of and out of the barge’s way, but apparently the tugboat captain did not share our view, as he called for us to veer our boat in another direction asap. Steve and I both felt the tugboat captain was being far overly-cautious. We decided that what he was seeing was our AIS bearing line crossing his bearing line. What he didn’t realize was that our auto pilot was slowly moving us out of his path, and we were correcting this perceived issue slowly but surely. We decided that captain had probably experienced a close-call with a pleasure boat in the past, and so now was hyper-vigilant, but we certainly understood (and appreciated) his concern! As we continued getting farther and farther from this barge, we could hear him continuously calling out to other boaters, but he was no longer any concern of ours.
We reached Delaware City Marina that afternoon at 1:30 pm, after encountering little to no current entering the sometimes dicey Delaware City Branch. Score! Having previously stayed at this kitschy little marina on our way up, we remembered that the marina staff prefers for boats to enter the branch bow-first, switch engines to idle, and then allow the dock-hands to manhandle Legacy all the way round in the opposite direction, using only her lines, rather than risking a possible collision between the boat and the marina’s docks. Even though there was no current, we were fine with their preference, as it made things much easier for Captain Steve!
Once secured, settled, and showered, we jumped off the boat and walked almost a full mile up to Crabby Dick’s for an early dinner. We elected to eat outside, even though the late afternoon air was a bit on the chilly side. The food at Crabby Dick’s was still as good as we remembered it, so we relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves after a smooth, but exciting day crossing the Delaware Bay.
Position: N 39° 56.34.299, W 75° 35.411
Distance traveled: 61 SM
Total distance traveled: 4758 SM
Total marina nights: 356
Total nights at anchor: 23
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 28