Running Toward Another Birthday

Atlantic City was nice, but the anchorage was not too protected, and there was some stormy weather approaching, so we had to get a move on. We lifted anchor early one morning, and headed south, toward Cape May, New Jersey. I figured we would have a couple of days there, resting and seeing the sights. In anticipation, I had asked if anyone had ideas of things to do in Cape May. I got a lot of responses, apparently a lot of people from Albany like to visit Cape May. Unfortunately, we did exactly none of them. We didn’t go to the zoo, or the great beaches around. We didn’t even get to the grocery store in town.

We arrived to find an already crowded anchorage. It is well protected, and it was apparent we were not the only ones thinking this would be a good place to wait out the approaching high winds and small craft advisory. We found a spot, near a boat from Montreal that had left Atlantic City the day before we did. After getting the anchor down and set, it looked like it was holding, but we were cautious, so didn’t leave the boat that evening. If we needed to reset it, FORTUITOUS requires both of us.

The winds started picking up. Our anchor held, mostly, all of the boats swinging in unison with the tide shifts and increasing winds. The next day, we seemed to be a bit too close to one of our neighbors. Being extra cautious, we lifted the anchor, I drove us in a big circle, and reset it. Everyone was out on their bow to watch, it was a bit unnerving. The winds were pretty high, so I didn’t feel comfortable taking the dinghy in to provision, we had enough food for a few more days.

That night was awful, when the tide went slack, and the winds were high, every boat in the anchorage swung in a different direction. We were so closely packed in, that there was danger of boats swinging into each other. We spent quite a while in the cockpit, watching, with a long pole, ready to push another boat away when needed, which was more than once. So we checked the tide times, and set our alarms, two more times that night the tide would change, going slack and leaving us to swing wherever the wind caught us. Fowler and I each took a turn, and we made it through the night. By morning, the wind had subsided, but we knew we did not want to spend another night there, so close to all those other boats. Also, it was cold!

We headed into the South Jersey Marina there to fuel up, fill the water tanks, and get whatever food we could at the WaWa convenience mart (which was not much, think gas station with food, but this was just a mart, no gas). We wanted to head out as soon as we could, because it was a full day to get to the next stop, Augustine Beach, Delaware, just south of the C&D Canal. A trip to the grocery was not in our cards though, so we made due.

Heading south from Cape May, the plan was to go around the tip of the Cape, into the Delaware Bay, and north, toward the Canal. We had a bit of trouble there at the end of the Cape, nothing we couldn’t handle, but the nerves were up, and we made a decision that rushing to the Canal maybe wasn’t the best idea. Fowler found an anchorage at Cape Henlopen, on the south side of the entrance to the Delaware Bay, so we headed that direction. We got there around 3 PM, and after getting settled, and sure that the anchor was good, the girls and I dinghied into shore, looking to get to a grocery store.

We had no luck finding a way to a grocery, but we did stop at a Dairy Queen on the way back to the dinghy on the beach, where we played in the sand, watching the sun go down as the tide came up to meet the dinghy, so we could shove off back toward the boat. Not a bad evening, and the next day was Thia’s birthday, for which she asked a key lime pie, and a day at the beach. Beach, check! Key lime pie…not so much. It is nice she is flexible.

The next morning, we lifted anchor again (do you see a pattern here?), there was a storm predicted, and though this anchorage was nice, it was not someplace we wanted to be in heavy winds and rain, if we could help it. So north we headed, to Augustine Beach, Delaware. It was an uneventful day of motoring (we haven’t had opportunity to sail much, and that is a pain), the anchorage was a bit tricky to get into because of a low rock wall that is sometimes submerged, depending on the tides. It was nerve wracking going in, but we had no trouble, and set our anchor. This place was in the middle of nowhere! There were two other boats in the anchorage that night, but when you looked to land, there were a few houses, and that was all. Looking at the Google Maps on my phone confirmed, groceries were unlikely here. This was becoming a problem, because we were getting really low, and it was Thia’s birthday. The key lime pie would have to wait.

Instead of the pie, or even cake, we made bread, with the last of the flour we had. In fact, we didn’t have quite enough, so we improvised, by adding crushed graham crackers. Yum! The bread didn’t rise much, but it cooked wonderfully, and was delicious. Thia wanted her candles, so we put them in the loaf of graham cracker bread, and the wax promptly melted off the wicks, immediately! Oops, should have let it cool first.

So we all sang Happy Birthday as Thia turned 13, and had rainbow colored, waxy, graham cracker bread with melting butter and cinnamon sugar. It was a fun and delicious, even without the pie.

 

No groceries, but Dairy Queen in hand is not a bad way to wait for the tide to come in.



Janele wanted to be buried in the sand at Cape Henlopen. Thia obliged, making her a mermaid.

Pre-birthday beach fun with the girls, at Cape Henlopen.



Happy Birthday, on the run. What better way to celebrate than throwing a line out the back, waiting for the fish to catch it? They didn't, but we did see some dolphin.

Birthday evening family fun. Janele, Thia and Fowler, with what was a great moon in the background. All week we were treated to amazing views of the harvest moon rising each evening.

I didn't even get to light the candles in the bread, they melted so fast! Happy thirteenth birthday, Thia!