Cambridge/Cape May update

[Marc Bergmueller]

I thought I'd update everybody that helped on the trip From Cambridge MD to Cape May NJ.
We made fairly good time even with a late start. We left @ 10am into 20 kt winds and same chop. Stopped for a rockfish sandwich at Tilghman Island. Back on the bay, the chop calmed and were able to sail up past the Chesepeake Bay bridge and near Balltimore until the winds died. We did our best to stay out of the shipping channels and got to the C&D Canal to find the boat doing 8 kts pulling us on. I crack the Skipper Bobs ancorages book and found the spot in the upper Deleware Bay across from the church steeple at about 3 am and slept til 7:30am. we left to catch the ebb tide and got dragged again and motored a 7.5 kts.
Around 10am things got bad. Real bad. The bay chop and 25kt winds beat us relentlessly. Up, then down one wave only to have the second wave crash on deck. Time reversed it's self. We had 4 hrs to go. Checked in another hour and still had 4 hrs to go. Our speed was slipping and rain was coming on the horizon. Worse waves I've been on, EVER. I don't know how the ocean guys do it. I think I was the only one not green. Scared, but not sick. I kept thinking what if we snap the rigging. Did they secure the anchor that morning, surley we would die. 3 hrs to go. and hour later still 3 hrs to go. Luckly straight into the waves is Cape May Canal. It finally calmed and we picked up to 5kts motoring. We were down to 3.
We made it under the bridge with inchs to spare and docked at the little lighthouse marina at around 3 pm on Thursday.
I never, NEVER want to see the Deleware Bay again. I'll stick with my little Nanicoke.

 

[Joe Mullee]

Hey Marc,

Glad you're safe. Sounds like you got the hell beat out of you. Chalk it up though, it's all part of the ride. My bet is you'll be back. Like many others I've been there, done that. Felt the same as you at first, "never again". But soon all I wanted was another try and I did many more times with better results due to simple experiance. My first ocean passage was a nine day nightmare including a two day gale with two knockdowns. Never again I said. Six months later I helped bring the boat back with much better weather and a lot less stress. Like i said, I think you'll be back.

Joe Mullee

 

[captainpat]

Ditto to Joe's response. I could probably fill a small book with all of the nasty experiences I have had on Delaware Bay. I have made the trip up and down that body of water many many times on boats from 33' to 45'. In all of those excursions I can recall only one time that it was uneventful. The "Bay" can be a really nasty body of water when wind and current are opposed. Because it is relatively shallow the waves are steep and very close together. I have been in the Atlantic (coastal) in 35kt + winds and, although it was quite interesting with the boat surfing at 13 knots and I would prefer not to repeat the experience of entering Barnegat inlet in such conditions, it was not as bad as the time I was southbound in Del Bay about 5 miles off the Cape May Canal in a 25+ southwest wind against the current with double reefed main. All the water and wave action was heaping up on the Jersey side. The closer we got to the canal the worse the sea state got. The conditions gave new meaning to the term "confused sea". At the mouth of the canal, when I went forward to lower the main, I experienced the only time I was nearly thrown off my 35.5. That's when I decided, if at all possible, I would never take the main down in such conditions until I got inside the inlet. I swore that trip would be the last - it wasn't. But it was the worst - so far.

 

[Ross]

I have had enough experiences with the wind opposing the tidal current that I have decided to simply wait it out for the 3 or 4 hours it takes. I just isn't worth the fight.

 

[sailingdog]

Good to hear...

 

[Ed Schenck]

Guess we were lucky. On our trip from Lake Erie we left Cape May and had a pleasant sail up to the Cohansey River. We, my future wife and I, motored up the river and had an interesting evening at a little marina. Got a late start the next day and had another nice sail up to the canal. Motored over to Chesapeake City for another nice evening. We had heard the stories about the Delaware Bay. Now from this thread we know what we missed. . .fortunately.

 

[RichH]

Sounds like just a normal day on the Delaware Bay.

Next time use www.passageweather.com to help pick the correct 'wind-weather window' for traveling on the Del Bay .... that and the tide tables.

NEVER EVER travel on the Delaware Bay when there is a prediction of a moderate to strong NW or SE wind.

 

[MrBee]

That should be NEVER EVER travel AGAINST the current in those winds.
We came up the bay with a Small craft warning, SE winds 20 + and road the incoming tide for a 7-9 knot ride. It was great. Of course if we had been trying to go the other way it would have been the other extreme.

Glad you made it safely. And the important thing...Did you learn anything ???

Bee.

 

[alanwir]

Cape May Canal and you clearing by inches

Hi Marc:

I was just wondering, how tall is that mast that you have on your boat? I would have thought getting under the bridge in the Cape May canal would be no problem.
If I recall, you should be able to get thru with 56 feet or less?

I have done that trip during the summer months and know well, that when the current is against you, with a 20HP engine, it takes a day and a year to get there.
:dance:

 

[Marc Bergmueller]

alanwir, as best as we could measure at the dock( mast to cabin, cabin top over to a piling and then down to the water) we came up with 50' plus a few feet for the antenna and wind vane. It was high tide and the bridge marker showed 55'. It looked closer than I'd like.

 

[Marc Bergmueller]

Mr. Bee, I learned the weather can't be ignored. The morning was so calm and by 20 some miles down with the current it had changed. Against that current I don't think we would have made it back to our hole any easier. We got too tied up in the riding the ebb at the correct time. I also learned not to be in such a hurry to get anywhere, and plan more time to wait things out. I would have loved to have done less night travel to sightsee. I learned about radar. I had never used it before. I will also make improvements to my boat(auto helm was a lifesaver, ask the new owner, he thought he could steer better in the waves, we just smiled, he shortly turned it back on) and secure things better. The inside of the boat was a mess. And double check things like the anchor.
I'm hoping to do some shorter cruises in my Oday to Solomons MD and maybe the fourth o july in Crisfield MD. I'm sure I will plan those better. You can be sure I'll ask here again!

 

[MrBee]

I have plenty of room for improvement, a whole lot to learn. We just have to try our best to be as safe as we can when we leave the dock....but not so safe that we don't leave except in such benign conditions that we motor every where. I don't have near the experience that many on this forum have but I learn something new every time I go out.

Bee

 

[captainpat]

Weather reports are essential to safe cruising, as everyone knows. Having said that, those reports can often be in error or misleading. I have had too many such experiences along the Jersey Coast and Delaware Bay which I will not go into here. One of the problems facing the sailboater is the long distances between safe ports. The best Jersey ocean inlets are Manasquan, Atlantic City, and Cape May, and they can all be very bad at times. In the Del Bay, Jersey side, it's Cape May! In a pinch you can use Cohansey but it isn't easy by any means. The distance between, say, Manasquan and AC is such that the weather is subject to quick changes that are not forecast. Also, a lot of thermal action takes place along the Jersey coast and in it's protected bays creating local weather patterns that are often at odds with the forcast as well as being quite unpredictable. In short, get a forecast and hope for the best. Of course the boat has to be set up and rigged for the "worst" because when conditions do deteriorate it happens fast.
Pat

 

[Ross]

Not just the Delaware bay! the upper Chesapeake bay has the Susquehanna river the Northeast river ,the Elk river and the Bohemia river all with their ebb and flood tides at about the same time. They are very large areas and the confluence is rather narrow. When the wind is contrary to the tide most especially from the south a short steep chop is driven against the cliffs at turkey point and reflected back into the maelstrom steering is a constant battle for several miles.