hi everyone, i am hoping you can give me a little advice. I have been sailing for several years, mostly on rivers off the chesapeake bay, however, i will be taking my boat(17' siren) to cape may for the summer. I have heard many rumors about cape may being an unfriendly area for sailors, especially ones with small boats like mine! does anyone have advice on some good spots to go out? I am not looking for long trips, just somewhere to enjoy the weather and the water. thanks!
cape may nj
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We spend days in Cape may every year on our trips to NY and NE from the Chesapeake. I would say they are unfriendly at all. It is a major port for offshore fishing and busy inlets and entrances to the inlet on the ocean side as well as the canal side.
Delaware Bay can be a great place to sail or can be brutal with square waves
Delaware Bay can be a great place to sail or can be brutal with square waves
If you hang out in a fishing marina such as South Jersey or the Canyon Club you might find folks focused on fishing rather than sailing. Hang out at Utch's and you find a mix of both power and sail boaters. We make the run down from Chesapeake Bay every day and have always found folks to be very friendly. The nice part about Cape May is you can either go out front if it's a calm day or duck out back via the canal to Delaware Bay. Whatever the choice you'll have good wind and all the room in the world to sail. Beware though if you use the canal during a peak time you'll likely get a flotilla of power boats leaving you in their wake.
Mike
Mike
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Beware of biting flies and mosquitoes. We stopped at Utsch's marina, and found them to be singularly unfriendly... and got a load of biting flies and mosquitoes there that we spent a good chunk of the day killing off.
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I HEARTILY second, third, and fourth Dog's advice. We were absolutely mauled by the biting critters during our transit of the Delaware and the little buggers stayed with us all the way up the Jersey coast. My buddy had previously done the trip in his own boat armed with an electric flyswatter and he couldn't keep up.
It seems that if the wind's not blowing enough to kick up a chop, the bugs come out to feast.
Other than the obviosu misquitos those would likely be both Green Head Flys and No Seeums. The Green Heads are big enough to carry off small children. The No Seeums are so tiny but boy can they bite. Luckily we've not had much of an issue with either as Cape May almost always has some sort of a breeze blowing. Dog as for the folks at Utchs being unfriendly that's not something we've ever found and we've stayed there numerous times.
Mike
Mike
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Mike—
As I said in my Delivery Trip post, the problem seems to be that we DID NOT STAY at Utsch's Marina, but were coming in for fuel, a pumpout and water... and the only facilities that they offered to us were some very disgusting portajohns.
Maybe, they're much nicer to people who stay there, but we were on a delivery, and didn't stay there. Nor, given the flies and mosquitoes that we got in the Cape May canal, would I want to stay there.
Personally, I prefer marinas where I don't get turned into a dinner buffet for the local bloodsucking insect population.
As I said in my Delivery Trip post, the problem seems to be that we DID NOT STAY at Utsch's Marina, but were coming in for fuel, a pumpout and water... and the only facilities that they offered to us were some very disgusting portajohns.
Maybe, they're much nicer to people who stay there, but we were on a delivery, and didn't stay there. Nor, given the flies and mosquitoes that we got in the Cape May canal, would I want to stay there.
Personally, I prefer marinas where I don't get turned into a dinner buffet for the local bloodsucking insect population.
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Hey, Dog. Do you have a link to your Delivery Trip thread? (I didn't see it in the first 6 pages of your post history. )
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