Day 2 Avalon to Sea Isle City

No, it's not very far between Avalon and Sea Isle City. It's 4.6 mi., to be precise.

First of all, the cheerleaders woke up at 5a.m. - woke ME up at 5 a.m. Although I was thrilled to finally be staying in the StarLux in Wildwood (but not in an Airstream as they are under renovation), the walls are too thin to dampen the many hair dryers used by cheerleaders competing in Cheertech - "Best of the East." However, I met adorable 9-year-old Sara Hanellin in the elevator and doesn't she have the coolest eye shadow?!

Second of all, there was plenty of wind. Even the metal petals on the fake palms of the Starlux were fluttering - on the leeward side of the barrier island. And, as there were no guest day-trippers at the put-in who might have paddled the 3 sounds between Wildwood and Stone Harbor before and known what they would be like in the wind, we decided to exercise a new plan to paddle between sounds.

Lastly, and the best part of the day, was there was lots of bird activity to observe en route. There were bird baths, birds dropping shells to try to break them open, birds fending off attackers from nests, birds flocking, birds diving for fish, etc.

We noted this is one of the parts of paddling this area that makes it special - the wildlife. You don't see 1/10 as much on the Delaware River. The long vista is special too. If you look towards the mainland, all you see is wetland and birds, and today's paddle also had nice, puffy clouds. No boats, no houses, no people. Very relaxing - except for the wind.

Day 1 Cape May to Wildwood

Call me lefty.

The wind first came from the west, later from the northwest. And not 10mph as first predicted but rather worse with 20mph gusts! My boat wanted to turn left all day.

We put in at the western end of the Cape May canal. A ferry came in just before we took off. And, with it's engines running at dock, paddling through the churning water behind it was like being in the fun house. First you're going east, then north, then southeast. The rest of the canal was pretty calm - wide enough that passing boats didn't swamp you with their wake. A woman cleaning up her lawn waved. A work boat was driving in some pilings.

Crossing Jarvis Sound was a bit off-putting. Wind raced across the open stretch of water from the west as we headed north - putting the whitecaps nearly broadside to the boats if it weren't for the left thing, which rendered us at angles to the waves and being ferried northeast by the wind. I for one was exhausted at the other side and we beached in some mud to have lunch. It was a warm enough day but some hot tea in a thermos was somehow refreshing. There were many shells in the mud a crab or two. I almost left my boots there as the mud tried several times to suck them off my feet.

Headed north before Channel Dr., the marina and the Rte. 47 bridge we passed a boat run aground and sea town trying to pull it free. Sea tow motioned for us to move away from them and closer to shore and then encouraged 2 or 3 passing cruisers to blast by them and leave a huge wake to aid in their efforts. Thanks a lot, all of you. Those boats sent Tsunamis in our direction and had we moved all the way over as you wished, the waves would have tossed us up against the shoreline. Having just taken the boating safety course, I know you motor boaters are responsible for what happens in your wake. All of you should take the course again.

After the take out, we spent a few minutes calculating our wear and tear and what we could accomplish Day 2. It was decided to break the trip into 2 shuttles in case the first stretch, which includes not 1 but 2 open stretches of water, is too taxing. So, we spent the next 2 hours looking at and noting waypoints of 2 good takes outs - the first in Stone Harbor, the second in Sea Isle City. Some ducks were looking for a hand out at the latter site.