Delmarva — Cupcake Afloat

Delaware. Maryland. Virginia.

Delmarva.

We have made it out of the Northeast and are now Mid-Atlantic. Made the short hop across the mouth of the Delaware Bay. It was anything but treacherous today. Light winds, no seas to speak of. Just a short, sunny-day motorboat ride. (By the way, despite my dire predictions, we sailed the majority of the New Jersey coast. Just motored our way in and out of anchorages. That’s pretty good stuff.)

We are anchored (finally, back on the hook!) behind one of the three breakwaters here at Cape Henlopen, Delaware. It’s a calm spot. We had a pleasant day. After settling in and eating a delicious lunch (bacon, lettuce, and avocado sandwiches) we all jumped in the water to give Cupcake’s hull some cleaning.

While the Ellen scrubbed the waterline and Moss scrubbed the rudder, I dove underneath and put two new zincs on the propellor shaft. The water was warm and murky. Not ideal swimming, but possibly the cleanest water we are likely to see for some time.

One zinc that I installed in May when Cupcake was still high and dry. And two zincs I installed in Delaware. When will I do the next set? Bahamas I hope.

After the scrubbing, we rinsed off and hopped in Mr. Flowerpot to check out the beach. On the way back we saw a pod of about four dolphins (looked bottlenose to us) hunting about 100’ from the dinghy.

Now Cupcake, clean waterline and protected metal bits, is the picture of domestic bliss: Ellen is baking bread, Moss is sending pictures to Simon. We even managed to poach some free wifi from a hotspot we are picking up with our antenna. (It's too slow for pictures, so be patient and I will upload images when I can.)

Before we left Cape May this morning, we had one more beach day. Saw an interesting bicycle in the marsh. Took a picture of the cookie-cutter condos on the way to the beach.

Yesterday evening a 34' Freedom was towed into the marina by a Sea Tow boat. The guys aboard were bringing the newly-purchased boat from somewhere up the Chesapeake Bay all the way to Connecticut when they had an engine problem. We loaned them some tools so they could remove the broken heat exchanger in preparation for getting a new one.

Then we went back to Cupcake and ate a delicious pizza.

This is Moss on a bike we found in a marsh.

This is me. Ellen is too much of a lady to get down in the mud.

Row after row of condos in Cape May. Everyone wants their slice of heaven.