Sunday, September 15th

Getting back to Sunday morning….I motored us into the anchorage in Cape May Harbor in front of the Coast Guard Station.  Chuck dropped the anchor and we weren’t happy with our position in respect to the neighboring boats.  So, he stepped on the windlass control to raise the anchor and it wouldn’t work.  Just what we didn’t need to happen…..we needed sleep!  Out came the tools and Chuck temporarily fixed the issue at hand so he could raise the anchor. 

We moved, dropped the anchor again in a more favorable spot and then we both dropped into a sound sleep for about 3 hours. When he woke, Chuck got down to tearing the windlass control apart and found one of the wires had broken. While he had everything spread out on the deck of the boat, our dear friend Terry Cusick called to see where we were.  When he heard we were in Cape May he said he would drive down to meet us in about 2 ½ hours. We hadn’t seen Terry in about 2 years, so this was going to be a great visit!  Once we got our reservations to dock at Utsch’s Marina, I called Terry back to let him know where we were going to be for the next two nights.

Utsch's came highly recommended by our boating friends, the Link’s and the Globig’s.  What a nice and friendly marina.  They just can’t seem to do enough for the transient boaters.  Since this was our first time entering their marina we were given explicit directions as how to enter their channel from our anchorage:  turn to starboard at day marker 14, turn hard to port at day marker 16, stay 20’ away from their bulkhead until the decorative lighthouse and then hard to starboard at their entrance and continue down their fareway to the 2 story building to their diesel pumps. The charts show only about 3.5 ft of water and we draw 5 ft. Yippee we got into this marina.  I was going to be so disappointed if we had to find different marina.

Wayne, the dockmaster, was at the fuel dock waving to show us where to go and waiting to give us their dock lines to tie Happy Hours II to.  This doesn’t happen often.  There was also another friendly face standing nearby….Jack Pavesich from Passage.  They left about 2 weeks before us from Grand River Yacht Club and we often wondered where they might be!  It was great to see someone that we knew.  We needed 11.5 gals of diesel fuel @ $3.799.  Wow we burned a little over ½ gal per hour.  Not bad, not bad at all! Once we were fueled up, Wayne met us at slip #11 and helped with docking again, bow in.  He’s such a nice guy!!

Passage

Jack and Sue than came over and we talked about both of our trips up to this point.  Jack told us they were going to leave at 1:00  am that night to go out the cut and catch the incoming tide up in the Delaware Bay to the C & D canal.   Most of their time on the Delaware Bay would be night sailing or motoring.   As it turned out, we didn’t get to see them again because by the time we were free to visit, they were already in bed resting for their night trip. We’ll catch up with them again at the Annapolis Boat Show.

Terry showed up around 1:00.  We had a nice visit on our boat while sharing a glass of Ohio’s Debonne Raspberry Riesling wine.   After Chuck and I showered, Terry drove us out to eat at the Menz restaurant north of Cape May.  It was a very ‘different’ place to eat.  They had displays featuring rarities like 2 headed calves, deer heads with extra appendages, a record size lobster, but yet it was also a bit nautical.  It reminded Chuck and me of Pickle Bills on Grand River!  The food was very good.  I ordered tomato and  eggplant parmesan…..only New Jersey tomatoes which are suppose to be the best. 

After dinner, Terry drove us back down into Cape May where he lucked out and found a parking space.  We walked the area know as the ‘mall’  It was surprisingly busy for a Sunday evening in September.   From there, the three of us walked down to the beach and back.  What a busy day…and all on 3 hours of sleep in a span of  31 hours…..we’re getting to old for this!   We didn’t want our visit to come to an end, but when Terry dropped us off at our boat, we called our parents and I was in bed sleeping by 7pm….exhausted. Chuck followed shortly after.

There one thing I forgot to mention.  Utsch's gives each boat a welcome bag.  It has a bottle of Utsch's Blueberry wine, a package of biscotti, and a bar of Little Egg Harbor Soap.  They have very clean facilities, a ship's store, a laundry room with front load washers and dryers.  Wifi is also available but hard to receive unless you sit in their small lounge.  Peaches and apples have been sitting on their counter in the office for everyone to take....very nice people!!