On Friday 10th after a storm passed I
went overboard for a swim to check the anchor, visibility was terrible and
below about 3ft I could not see the chain I was holding on to, and found it
disappearing into thick mud so surfaced and cleaned the barnacles off the
propeller which was barely visible! The
next morning I reassembled the bike, dinghied it ashore and rode into Lewis to
the farmers market, which was well attended and had a tomato festival, then
took a tour around the town, very pretty and well preserved.
 |
| Passing storm |
 |
| Lewis farmers market |
 |
| Lewis |
 |
| Blacksmith |
 |
| Tall ship in Cape Henlopen |
 |
| Anchorage Cape Henlopen |
The morning of Monday 13th looked settled
so I went ashore again with the bike, and took a run around the Cape Henlopen
State Park, which turned out to be mostly (if not all) Fort Miles, now defunct,
but active during WW2 as a shore battery protecting Delaware Bay, only got lost
once on the cycle route (about 4miles) then into Lewis for a coffee and bun,
then back to the boat, dismantled bike, stowed dinghy on deck and filled the
fuel tanks.
I was up at sunrise but with no wind hesitated and
had breakfast, then lifted the anchor and left, a healthy easterly wind helped
us across the Delaware Bay which has three Traffic Separation Zones converging,
luckily nothing moving this morning! Stopped engine having crossed over and
sailed for about three hours, I had to furl the jib for the last hour as I
wanted to enter Cape May on a rising tide, about an hour and a half after Cape
May appeared out of the haze we anchored off the Coast Guard Station in 2m of
water, at about 2.30pm on Tuesday 14th.
On Wednesday morning I went
ashore and walked into Cape May and along the boardwalk (now concrete) and back
(about 6miles) the town is clean and pretty, definitely a holiday resort and
mostly wealthy. The anchorage is beside a busy route with fishing boats of all
sizes and pleasure craft going up and down all day, a bit different from the
peace and tranquillity, if not solitude, of Cape Henlopen.
Lewes was the first town Jack and I visited during our search for a boat. We thought it was charming. Cape May, too. Glad you got to visit both. If you decide to visit Atlantic City, the largest pipe organ in the world is there at the old convention center. Safe travels.
ReplyDelete