Cape May, NJ

We spent two weeks in May and June traveling to Delaware City and getting Zendo ready for our 2023 journey. It was wonderful to visit close friends on our three day drive north. And staying with Stephanie and Ryan in Philly was a blast and especially fun for Archie and Stephanie and Ryan’s 11 month old Corgi, Eloise.

Our initial  plan for  this season was to go back to Maine and travel further down east.  But due to commitments we have with MTOA in Long Island and the Chesapeake, Maine just wasn’t doable. Plan B is to travel up the Hudson River to Lake Champlain.  We even bought tickets to a two day jazz festival in Saratoga Springs! 

But the first step was to launch Zendo which had been “shrink wrapped” for the winter. 

Unfortunately, after launching her, we ran into considerable delays prepping her for the journey and dealing with Jonny’s lingering issues from the cataract surgery he had in January.  And just as we were about to leave on June 13 for the proverbial “shake-down cruise,” the steering on the flybridge went out. Fortunately, we hadn’t gotten very far, so we just turned around (with difficulty) and headed back to the dock.  The steering mechanism was skillfully rebuilt by one of the marina’s marine techs and we were ready to go following a day of stormy weather.

So happily, we took off for our 2023 cruising adventure at 8 am on Thursday, June 15. It was a perfect day for the long cruise to Cape May.  The weather was sunny, temperatures were in the 70’s and with no wind, the waters were calm.  It was a long day and the three of us fell into our usual routines with the Captain feeling relaxed enough to take a quick nap.

The currents were in our favor most of the way and we made it to Cape May in good time arriving by 3:15.  We headed to our favorite anchorage near the Coast Guard station but had a little trouble getting a good placement in the anchorage which was much smaller due to the presence of a large barge.  After a few tries, we finally got settled.  After that, we all boarded the dinghy for a ride to our favorite fish market which is run by the popular Lobster House restaurant.  As we arrived at the dock the dingy engine quit on us but fortunately Jonny got it started to get us in.  

We headed over to Utsch’s  Marina which is next to the fish market where we stocked up on hake, shrimp, crab soup, shrimp salad, cole slaw and potato salad which will keep us satiated for quite a few days.  At the marina store Jonny was able to snag the last fuel line to replace the one on our dinghy which was the probable cause of the problem with the outboard.

Back at Zendo, we unpacked our goodies.  Jonny made a delicious dinner of hake and zucchini on the grill with roasted potatoes.  We settled down for the night, so happy to finally be on our way!