38.57.037N  074.53.149W

A very hot night and with the threat of downpours, thunderstorms and not forgetting the millions of bugs “Moonbeam” was not a cool place to be trying to sleep! The weather forecasts were warning about high temperatures of over 100 degrees F and the thunderstorms with 60mph gusts and hail the size of ping pong balls! How does that happen?

We spent the morning doing boat jobs and the afternoon exploring Turner Creek in the dinghy. 2 British yachts came and anchored nearby, “Alice” we had met in Antigua, so it was evening drinks aboard “Caduceous”

After another hot night we headed north again on Friday morning for the C+D canal which joins the top of the Chesapeake Bay to Delaware Bay. We had planned to anchor in a rather ‘exposed’ anchorage in Delaware Bay but the marina on the canal advertised a swimming pool which tempted us alongside. After we had paid we discovered the pool was closed but after a bit of a ‘discussion’ they phoned for a lifeguard and eventually we enjoyed a very pleasant couple of hours in our ‘ own’ pool!

Our ‘own’ pool !                                                                                       Moonbeam in the middle of the far pontoon

We enjoyed the evening company of a pleasant couple with a lovely 52ft motorsailer and headed out at 0500 to catch the tide along the rest of the canal ( yes ! ) and then down Delaware Bay. The plan was to either overnight to Atlantic Highland ( about 180 miles ) or make Atlantic City ( about 100 miles ) by mid evening. In practice the fog never lifted all day so we took the cautious route out of the bay which added about 20 miles to the trip so we headed into Cape May ( 70 miles ) and anchored off the Coast Guard Depot about 17.30 in the company of ‘Alice’ and ‘ Caduceous’ who had spent the previous night in the Bay anchorage.

Judging by the evening parade they train the coastguards here; presumably in the same manner as British Rail Station announcers as the USCG VHF calls are largely unintelligible—I assume they are fined if they take excessive time over an announcement and as a result the message is delivered at high and garbled speed.

 There must have been a fishing tournament as there was a constant stream of all sizes of sport fishing boats heading back in from open Atlantic

Sport fishing boats of all sizes                                                                    The guy standing on top is washing down the gear with fresh water.