Hey All, I am Artley's co-captain, also planning this trip. Some things I want to add, as well as respond to.
I appricate everyones input, as well as alternate solutions. We are looking to go to cape may as we have history going there while we were younger with one of our other friends, we want to go and bring him along for this journey.
We want to be prepared, and of course be safe. Though our time frame is limited as our other friend will deploy to the air force and this may be our only chance.
Worst case scenario, if this is deemed too bad of an idea, we can trailer it directly to Cape May and sail around there without going into the bay and travelling up. I still have to talk to artley about this though and get his opinions.
Your best bet would probably be to split the trip into two days, with Delaware City near the C&D Canal as a stopping point. Try to time the tide so you can ride with the current if that’s possible for the days you’re traveling. Current in the bay can reach about 2 knots so you’re best off not trying to fight that. Also try to avoid traveling on days when the wind is blowing against the current. The Delaware Bay can build up large short waves in those conditions. Once you get to Cape May you should have not problem using the Cape May Canal to get into town instead of going all the way around to the ocean side.
I think this is a great idea, however I'm thinking maybe we can just trailer to Delaware City and launch from there, and if we arrive early, we can wait out those currents. I do still worry about this and wonder if there is still a better way to avoid that.
Since you’re trailering to your start point anyway you may want to consider the Northern Chesapeake for the trip instead of the Delaware and Cape May.
We do have a separate trip that we want to go to the Chesapeake too, though we were planning on doing that sometime afterwards. But as I said, we do want to try to go to Cape May as well.
When I first read that I began to serious worry about your proposed trip. First, you don't determine how long a trip will be based on "from what I heard..." You MUST do a STD on the trip. Grade school math, but how fast do you go and how far is it will tell you how long, and only then you add the effect of the current. I live in BC now but grew up in NYC and know the general distances pretty well and know for damn sure your 3 to 6 hours either was mistyped 30-60 hours or you are so far off as to make your decision making seriously questionable and your voyage potentially manifestly unsafe - I worried about you.
I owned a C22 for 4 years, a C25 for 11 years and my C34 for 24 years now (and sailed it from SF to here in BC, and I KNOW average speeds of those boats for long range planning). You don't say what engine you have but for your planning purposes you'd be lucky to figure an average speed of 4 knots. For starters. Maybe less in reality, so please factor that in.
You might want to reconsider going to Cape May and do a practice jaunt to the C&D Canal from where you put in to get some experience in salt water. And please do a LOT more reading on the dangers of the river section from the C&D to Cape May. There are few, if any, places to bail out on that stretch of water. On my C22 with a 7.5 hp outboard motor, I found myself going backwards on a 5 knot current on SF Bay - please, think about it. Dave's right about the urrent changing every six hours - think about it, please.
I wish you the best of luck, but at this stage, you'd need it.
1) What does STD stand for in this context?
2) I am unsure where he got these numbers as well, I was under the impression of a much longer voyage.
3) We have a Honda Outboard Motor, cant remember the HP right now, I think it's like 9.9 or something, unfortunately I am out of town and can't check on the boat haha
4) I agree we need more practice 100%. We only just began and this is a big step for us. We do plan on going up to the Finger lakes, i forget exactly which one, but we are hoping that will get us a bit more prepared.
5) I hope we don't have to bail out! I definitely share your concerns though.
So from here, If you guys were us, and wanted to get to Cape May in a safe way. Starting from here what practice would you guys recommend we do in preparation? We have a few weeks to get some of this practice in. Also, what would be the smartest route here? Seems like starting in Delaware City might be a better course?
Thank you all again, your advice and information is invaluable.
Sorry in advance if anything I typed is unclear, I had to type this in a hurry since I am on a work trip, and a bit busy. I just wanted to add some clarification and say thanks.
