6/9/25 Cape May to Delaware City

Riva greeting her dock mates at Delaware City

As much as we would enjoy staying another day or two in Cape May, the weather and wave report from Foster said today was the day to go up the Delaware Bay which can get rather snotty at times.  He said we should aim to be there by noon to avoid the strong currents at Delaware City Marina.  We pulled out and headed across the channel to Utsch’s Marina to fill the gas tanks before heading out the channel to Delaware Bay.   There we met the 78 year old owner, a congenial man whose father started the marina 75 years ago.   He shared his memories of the Cape area as a child with a man there at one of the marinas that always gave him a Coca-Cola.   That man’s generosity to children rubbed off and now for many years he gives all the kids that come to the marina free ice cream!  Good folks.  

The first hour or so was choppy but not bad, and as the bay narrowed into the Delaware River it got much smoother for an overall great travel day.  While Erik went down to nap Renee drove and was extremely nervous when a HUGE ship came up and passed.  After checking the depths and watching several loopers passing (going the wrong way) outside the shipping channel she found it much more comfortable to put more distance between us and the huge ship!  

Ships are a LOT larger than they appear in pictures
Left pic is it coming up behind us
Two on right are us letting him pass by

We didn’t make it by noon, it was almost one when we came upon the canal that goes to Delaware City Marina.  We were behind another boat, Blue Moon, that was pulling in ahead of us.  They needed to fuel up so we held back while they got tied up.  As we came in the narrow channel the very knowledgeable dock-master gave very specific directions over the radio to get to the dock amid the strong currents.  Erik had an engine stall upon approach 😮, which threw him off and he did not follow directions very well! He got turned around and docked just fine with no issues though 😝.  We got checked in and decided to walk the short distance into town to see what was there.  This would be our one and only stop in the ginormous state of Delaware (the 17th state we have now adventured to on our Loop).  There is a ferry that takes you out to Fort Delaware, but they were closed on Monday, as were many other shops and restaurants (we’ve found this to be true in almost all of the small towns along our travels).  There was a path along the canal with many signs explaining the history of the canal, the multiple forts, and the area in general; these are always interesting and enlightening to read.  

View of Ft Delaware with a neat history out in the bay (bottom left)
History of the 3 forts in the area at the top of Delaware Bay
Herons of the area

While trying to decide what to have for lunch, ice cream or real food 🤪, we walked onto the deck at Dolly Spankers, because they allowed dogs, to check out the menu. While looking at the menu a couple said they had the special, a pulled pork sandwich with homemade chips, so the decision was made…. Split a special to leave room for ice cream later 😂.   As we were finishing our light lunch on the patio the same guy approached us at our table and he and his wife proceeded to talk to us for over 15 minutes telling us all about the area.   Turned out that she was a previous ED of a Habitat affiliate in upstate NY Hudson Valley area for 8 years after at first being a volunteer there.   Just a couple of doors down a stop at ‘Ice Cream Parlor’ scored us a couple of  cool, delicious cones.  

Dolly Spankers where we had lunch
Our lunch tour guide told us of the storied history of the building
When he was a kid he said the upstairs was a brothel and the ladies would be on the balcony beckoning to the men coming in to port 

After lunch we stood on the dock, which in this case was just one long face dock running along the one side of the canal, and chatted with all of the fellow Loopers who had come in throughout the afternoon…there were many!  The neat thing this year for us is being able to talk with so many people who have just come through the areas we will be headed next and being able to get suggestions from them on what to see/do.  We then got the bikes off the boat and took a nice ride around the small town.  We like to explore the areas of town that are off the beaten path to get a real feel for what they are like.  Delaware City is particularly small and sleepy aside from the water front area.   We ended our day with a late, light bowl of soup with some of the Italian bread we had gotten back in Staten Island and then sat for a bit in our recliners to catch up on a couple days of blogs before heading to our pillows.  

All of the Loopers on the Delaware City Marina face dock this evening

Riva found friend 
This was one of two cats aboard one of the boats
This one got along splendidly with her
The other not so much 😆