Wednesday, September 18th

Wednesday morning turned out to be bright and sunny.  It's still cool out but forecasted to be nicer than yesterday with the winds 9kts. and dropping, blowing out of the NNE.  Craig was out prepping his boat when he told us his plans for the day....which actually were relayed from the Catalina 42', 'Mar A Lago', on his port side!  So, Jane and Brian, from the Catalina came over to speak to us about making today's trip across the mouth of the Delaware Bay to a nice protected beach called Lewes Beach, DE. Some of their club members felt it was better to leave to travel up the bay from the west side than going around the Cape May Point and then up.   It would be a 4-5 hour trip on a nice sunny day and best of all, get us all away from the dock.  The plan sounded great, so we decided to join them. 

Around 11 am, the winds were suppose to die a bit and our three boats pulled away from the dock to backtrack our way carefully out of Utsch's Marina and into the channel.....'Mighty Fine', 'Mar A Lago' and 'Happy Hours II'....Heading out of the channel we had 4 foot waves rolling at us.  Once out into the ocean at the tip of Cape May, we turned to the NW heading toward the Delaware shore.  The ride smoothed out the further across the mouth of the bay we got.  However, we now had to keep our eyes open for barges and freighters.  At one point, we had to change our course to N to skirt not one but two freighters that radioed that they were turning to the SE in 15 minutes.  Talk about obstacles to try and avoid!!  The ships are huge!

Of course, we're the slower of the three boats and the other two were already anchored in a nice calm place behind the Ferry Docks.  Lewes Beach looked so enticing that once our anchor was set and secure, we lowered the dinghy and motor, and cruised to the beach.  Craig and crew pulled onto the beach immediately before us.  We all enjoyed the lovely afternoon, what we had left of it.  There were two men with their cast nets, netting mullet.  The one guy had a 5 gallon bucket completely full.  He was planning on salting them down in order to keep them, so he could fish through the winter months. 



  After our beach walk, Craig and Donna invited us all up to their flying bridge for Sundowners.  What a view of the setting sun and of our two sailboats anchored off the beach.  This is the life!  Such a calm and beautiful evening and the weather is suppose to continue throughout the night.



'Mighty Fine'

'Happy Hours II'

'Mar A Lago'

The six of us decided we wanted to catch as much of the incoming tide tomorrow as we could.  So 5:30 am was the scheduled time to lift the anchors and leave.  We would only have about 45 minutes of dark before the sun started to rise, plus there is a full moon to give us some light.  Our plan is to ride the incoming tide all the way to the D&C canal and then the tide will be ready to turn so we will then ride the tide down the canal to Chesapeake City.  Sounds perfect!