63 miles to Cape May NJ

I remember when they started the state quarters for the U.S., Delaware was the first quarter.  That town is cool and I look forward to going back.  After taking on 209 gallons of diesel we headed back out Branch Channel and entered Delaware Bay.  It’s roughly 56 miles to Cape May Canal,  the channel is 12′ deep.  Delaware bay has some shoals and they are marked by the lighthouses and they show up on the GPS.  Just gotta pay attention, for the most part I ran along side the ship channel because their was a good amount of commercial ship traffic.  You pass Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station on your way down the bay, big tankers are prevalent and also are ITB’s which are Integrated Tug Barges.  Some of the tankers are loaded to over a 40′ draft and this is too much for some areas in the bay.  To solve this problem they have mooring fields for these ships and the ITB barges come along side the ships and offload fuel to help lower the draft on the tankers.  Cape May is beautiful, UTSCH’S Marina is a great spot.  Only a 10 min walk to the trolley stop then for 1$ you can go to the beach or about 4 other stops which allows you to see most of Cape May’s attractions.  We had a great meal Saturday night aboard the Bayflower.

The lighthouses below are throughout Delaware Bay, they are from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s some have been auctioned off to people who can take care of the upkeep and preserve these historic aids  

entering Cape May Canal 

UTSCH’S Marina arial

The Flowers family Mandy and Langdon with their daughter Maggie and her two daughters Ann and Clara, and Maggie and me

Homes here have beautiful architecture 

Its 6$ a person to visit the beach here but we never saw anyone who enforced this 😉