Cape May!!

Wednesday, Sept 18 -- We arrived in Cape May mid-day after our first duo overnight passage, and anchored near the Coast Guard Training Center in 10 feet of water.  The tidal range here was about 6 feet, so we put out anchor chain for 16 feet -- about 120 feet.  After anchoring, Dorothy took a nap and Fred went out to refill an empty propane tank at a Shell station.  In the late afternoon, the boat had swung completely around, and we thought we might be too close to the catamaran that had been behind us, and was now in front of us.  Turned out it was OK.  Yeah!

Fred had discovered a seafood market, so we dinghied over to it and bought scallops and rock fish.  We had pesto scallops over linguini for dinner (pesto from home!), with enough left over for a second night, and froze the fish.

A week or so ago, I signed up for Daily Challenge at challenge.youmehealth.com, and my challenge for Sept 18 was to:

Stop and take a moment to enjoy a sight, sound, or smell.

Here is what I did for the challenge:

I went above decks to soak in the surroundings of tonight's anchorage. The air is crisp and cool, but calm, and the water in the bay appears still and smooth as glass. And yet, the boats are all pointing west, and by the light of the harvest moon, you can see the reason: the steady current quietly draining the bay, as the tide is going out. Every light around the bay has a pencil-like reflection in the water, each resembling an upside-down exclamation point, or a taproot down into the water. A steady chorus of crickets forms a backdrop for the occasional bird call.

Here is what I saw that night:

Lights reflected on the water at our Cape May anchorage at night.

Thursday, Sept 19 -- We had decided to take a "down" day today and explore Cape May.  When we bought the boat, the seller sold us two folding bikes.  We packed those up and dinghied to the public boat launch, tied up there, and rode the bikes to town.  Fred's bike had two broken spokes on the front tire.  Turns out biking is big in Cape May, and there is a bike shop right downtown.  Fred left his bike there for repair.  During the hour-and-a-half we had to kill, we split up to wander around separately.  Dorothy headed straight for Beach Avenue and the beach:

 Surfer at Cape May beach

I had worn long pants, but I rolled them up and went in up to my knees, anyway!  The water was cold enough to feel refreshing, but not too bad, really!  Fred poked around in the shops and found a few more kitchen gadgets.  Cape May has a very pleasant pedestrian mall much like Church Street in Burlington.  Here is Fred on the mall:

Cape May Washington St Pedestrian Mall

After a bite of lunch, we picked up the bikes and rode a few miles out to the Cape May Bird Observatory, where Dorothy bought a new pair of binoculars, as well as two bird field guides, then on to Cape May Point State Park, where the Cape May lighthouse is located -- 157 feet tall and built in 1859.  Here is Dorothy using the new binoculars to view a couple of peeps at a pond along the nature trail:

 Dorothy birdwatching at Cape May lighthouse / state park

As we rode home, we encountered a huge hardware store.  Fred is to hardware stores as Dorothy is to quilt or yarn shops.  Unfortunately, whereas Fred was in luck that the yarn shop in Oyster Bay was closed, Dorothy was not so lucky -- the hardware store was open!  Sigh.

 Huge hardware store OPEN

At last we got back to the dinghy.  Unfortunately, Fred's rear tire now broke a spoke.  Still, it was a lovely day, and we headed back to the boat for leftover scallops.

Did we mention the Coast Guard Training Center?  In fact, their website, http://www.uscg.mil/hq/capemay/, has a nicer picture of our anchorage than I could ever get:

USCG Cape May Training Center AND our anchorage

Toward the top of the photo is the inlet from the ocean to the harbor, where we came in from our passage on Wednesday.  See the coast guard vessel?  We were anchored between the inlet and the coast guard vessel.  We could hear the Coast Guard Boot Camp recruits' cadences beginning at 5:30 a.m. and going well into the evening.  In fact, I see there is a cadence contest going on this week!  Check it out and vote for your favorite cadence!  http://bootcamp.coastguard.dodlive.mil/2013/09/21/its-time-for-cadence-contest-2013/

Friday, Sept 20 -- We thought we had an anchor issue because our anchor chain was leading back toward the boat rather than forward, even at the height of the ebb and flood currents, so we thought we'd better tackle that first thing.  We figured out pretty quickly that the anchor chain was fine, perhaps just in a pile.  We then discovered that we definitely had a problem with our forward head holding tank, which was leaking.  I maintain that EW is a word, even if Words With Friends doesn't think so, and the meaning of it is, "how holding tanks smell when they are leaking"!!!  We will spare you the photos in this case, but we worked on the holding tank about half the day and resolved the leak problem.  Another successful repair!!

Now on to the bicycle spoke!  We packed up the bikes into the dinghy again, dinghied to Utsch Marina this time, biked into town again, and left Fred's bike at the bike shop again.  It was deja vu all over again!  This time I dragged Fred to the beach, where he took an artsy shot of the pattern made by water in the sand:

 Beach at Cape May

as well as one of me:

Dorothy in the surf

Woo hoo!  Did I mention I love the ocean?!?!?

When we picked up our bikes, our friendly bicycle repair man took our picture:

 Our folding bikes, unfolded (broken spokes replaced)

So we took his picture, too:

Cape May Bicycle Repair rocks!

Riding back to the dinghy, Fred noted the beautiful streets lined with sycamore trees:

Beautiful tree-lined and tree-canopied streets

The trees are a priority, even though they do lean into the street

It would not do to fail to mention the many, many beautiful Victorian houses in Cape May, of which this is but one example:  

Victorian House in Cape May

Finally, back at the boat before sunset, our last evening at Cape May:

 Cape May Coast Guard Training center,  the USCG cutter Dependable

And so ends our visit to Cape May!