Preparing for Voyage: Tuesday, September 17th

We woke up to some strong winds, 20-25+ kts and cooler than what we've seen so far on our trip. We decided to spend a third night at Utsch's due to this weather. Even the fishing boats didn't leave the docks. Neither of us complained about the delay, other than the price of the dock but it sure beat swinging around on the anchor for 24 hours!

We decided to walk to the 'Sea Gear' store which was across Lafayette St. Well.....people in Cape May have no clue what a 'cross walk' means, so it's near impossible to cross the street in other locations...but we did! This store has two floors. The 1st floor is filled with all kinds of boating hardware while the 2nd floor has foul weather gear and clothes. The prices on name brand apparel was about 25% off. So if you're in the market, then this should be on your list of places to see.

From there, we walked over the canal between Cape May Harbor and the Delaware Bay. We were heading for the West Marine on Lafayette St. Even though it was blowing hard, the sun was out and it made for a very pleasant day to explore. Chuck wanted to talk to a salesman about ordering a thermostat for our heater/air. Jim at West Marine was very accommodating. He looked in his catalogs and searched the internet. He called a company but only got an answering machine. Finally we went back to the back waiting to hear from Jim with good news....and he did call us with part numbers and the phone number to have the part ordered in Annapolis. The Annapolis store shot us down. They said they don't deal with that manufacturer so they couldn't order it for us! Bummer!!!

One nice part about staying in port is that there's plenty of time to meet the other cruisers and to work on other odd jobs around the boat. That's how we met Craig, Donna, and dog Dillon. They are also newbies traveling south but in a 39' Mainship Trawler. Everyone is getting pretty antsy and talking about when would be the best time to leave in the morning. It's all about catching the right tides/currents, winds, and waves. Talk around the dock is early Thursday morning. We would like to leave in the morning but we'll get up and check the weather forecast again.

Wayne at Utsch's recommended we walk a short distance to one of his favorites....Cappanelli's or the locals call it 'Cappy's'. He feel's that they have the best toasted pizza steak subs around. Does it sound as thought we really miss Rocco's? So even though it was really getting cold...not to mention dark early....we took our stroll to the take out/dine in restaurant. Once again neither of us will brag about our sub. On our way there and back we decided to check out the side streets with the new condos before heading home.