Cape May, NJ, what a delightful surprise. We knew nothing about this town, except that it is at the bottom of New Jersey, and we would stay there after our daylong trip down the Delaware Bay. We spent a few days provisioning the boat, and sightseeing. We were ready to head up the Atlantic coast to NYC along the Jersey shore. However, Hurrican Ernisto was playing havoc in the Southeast, so we holed up here for a few extra days.
The weather report was 30-40 mph gusts, so we tied everything down, buttoned up the boat, and decide to take a side trip to Atlantic City to pass the time while the wind was blowing. Las Vegas this is not. It is right on the beach, and probably pretty when the weather is nice, but a little seedy. We were not impressed. When we knew we had seen enough, we headed back to the marina to find out that the tail end of Ernesto had hit the area with 80 mph gust.
The bimini of the boat was in a shambles, Bob found some parts 100 yards away in the parking lot in front of the boat. Some of the boats in the marina had major damage, some had sunk.
We were lucky to find all of the parts to the bimini and in good enough shape to have it repaired. We spent the next two days getting the canvas resewn, and put the bimini back in place (this was like a jigsaw puzzle).
We did more sight
seeing and found the Cape May beach area, with some of the most beautiful turn ma-of-the-centruy mansions we have come across. This has been a summer resort area for New Jersey and New Yorkers for many years.
We left Cape May and headed up the Jersey Shore on the Atlantic Ocean. We were lucky now to have very calm waters because this is a stretch we had to do on the 'outside', our boat's draft is 5 feet, intracoastal here is too shallow for us. We anchored one night at Barnegate Bay NJ next to a great lighthouse. Tomorrow, up the coast to NYC.
