Sail Ariel: NJ Coast, Delaware Bay, C&D Canal

There are many challenges facing us, and some are more difficult than others. One that we had thought about and discussed a lot was our overnight passage along the New Jersey coast. We had never done an overnight trip before, so this was new territory for us. While anchored in Atlantic Highlands, we met Christian and Mary from ‘I Wanda’. They have been cruising since 1993, including three years in the Mediterranean. They have a wealth of knowledge and advised staying only about 1–2 miles off the coast. We adjusted our planned course to be two miles off. We waited until 1:30 pm to depart so we could be sure to arrive at Cape May in daylight. We stood two-hour watches right from the start and powered under sail until sunset. We shortened sail at sunset and motored through the night. It was an uneventful night, and we had two other sailboats within one to two miles, as displayed on the radar all night. The skies were clear, so millions of stars were visible. The casinos in Atlantic City are lit all night, so the city is visible for miles before and after passing. We dropped anchor in Cape May just off the Coast Guard training facility at 8:00 am. We took showers and had short naps, and then shortly after lunch, picked up Doug and Sharon on ‘About Time’ to go into the town of Cape May. We had seen their boat at all our anchorages beginning in Port Jefferson, and they were one of the two other boats traveling with us through the night. They are from Toronto, Ontario, and just spent the summer in Maine. After a visit to town, we compared plans for the next day over cocktails on their boat. We agreed to anchor up at 4:30 am to get out to the mouth of Delaware Bay at the right time to catch a favorable current all the way up the bay and through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (C&D). We are too tall to use the Cape May canal, so we had to go around the outside. There are shoals, so picking the right course is very important. We decided on the Cape May Channel, which is a middle course. Adding to the challenge was doing this at night, but with the chart plotter, we easily picked our way through. Our trip up the bay was very fast with both wind and current favorable. We had decided to anchor in the Sassafras River, again based on a recommendation from both ‘I Wanda’ and About Time’. We anchored in a beautiful spot for a very peaceful night, with some much-needed rest.