First Overnight Passage

True North
Jun 23
2 min read

Nothing against New Jersey, but there are not a lot of stops along the "Jersey Shore" for a cruising boat. Plenty of beaches, resorts, jet skis, boats, & Ferris wheels (?!). So, we had a 20+ hour trip from Cape May at the southern tip to Sandy Hook at the north tip. We had planned to spend a day or two in Cape May to get the best weather window - but on the way down the Delaware Bay we realized we might just have the best opportunity if we keep going and don't stop there at all. So, our first overnight passage came sooner than we had planned! But let's back up a bit...

We left the Chesapeake Bay and crossed the C&D Canal (Chesapeake & Delaware) - supposably a very busy shipping route. We left early to make sure we had the current with us. This worked great until we came across the railroad lift-bridge that was down for some maintenance. Holding our position for 45-minutes in 3 knots of current was interesting, but luckily there wasn't much other boat traffic to deal with. In the end we didn't pass any barges or cargo ships. I was kinda looking forward to the up-close pass, but it was probably for the best. They are huge even from a distance.

Sunset - first night in the Delaware Bay

There are not many things to see or places to anchor along the Delaware Bay, so we had planned on a full day to Cape May. As you already know, we didn't stop there, but rounded the point and headed north. This ended up being a 106 mile day, taking about 36 hours. The predicted wind didn't work out too well and we ended up motoring for more of that than we wanted, but it did make for a calm night. That made for a pretty easy first overnight passage.

Atlantic City lighting up the night
Sunset for our first overnight passage
New Jersey in the distance
Dashboard at night
Sunset over the New Jersey coast

We ended our trip at Great Kills on the south coast of Staten Island, NY! What a fun name for a town... Anyway, that was a quick few days to get from Maryland, through Delaware, past New Jersey, and to New York!