Day 8 Cape May, NJ

We awoke to the sounds of the reveille and star spangled banner from the coast guard right off our bow.  A marina nearby had our slip but we couldn't ‘check-in’ until 1pm.  This was perfect as we were forced to clean up our act and get all of our garbage/recycling/laundry prepared for land as well as going through grocery lists and to do’s.

We pulled into our dock spot at precisely 1pm and overheard the VHF banter about ‘Irish Eyes’ coming in for gas. Our dock hand was as confused as we were… and then we saw her.  She was massive and could have given birth to us.  Then we found yet another “Irish Ayes” a few docks over!  So we started making up new boat names for fun.  I like ‘Life on Porpoise’.  Carrie likes ‘That’s What Sea Said’ which made Michael laugh out loud.  John likes ‘What the Heck?!’ because when you get called on the VHF people repeat your name twice and then say theirs once.  So it would be funny whether we were doing the calling or getting called ourselves.  He is so clever.

Our first day at this gorgeous marina was spent enjoying the infinity pool, doing laundry, grocery shopping, and having an awesome dinner of Beyond Burgers with spinach salad covered in candied walnuts and balsamic.  So good!  Carrie and Michael surprised us with my favorite GF beer and spiced rum :)

We also got the opportunity to witness a couple guys cleaning their catch of 4 very large tuna.  Carrie was fascinated and insisted we needed to learn the skills (referring you to Day 4 and fishing…) so we watched.  These small children were at the pier with all of their fishing gear and asked the men for scraps to fish with which the men happily obliged.  Within a minute this poor little boy was attempting to real in a 29 inch striper!  One of the tuna guys helped him and his siblings ran for their uncle’s fish bag.  That boy strutted like a peacock pulling his heavy cart up the dock ramp while his little brother pushed him from behind with all of his might. Video on Irish Eyes YouTube channel

Lastly, a strange and interesting education:  There are dead horseshoe crabs everywhere floating in the water.  Immediately, I felt concern for these poor creatures assuming the gas and oils and stirring up the mud from motoring in such shallow waters was to blame.  I was wrong, it was sex.  Wild horseshoe crab orgies according to an article Carrie read to us over coffee this morning.  Once a year, on a full moon evening (a couple days ago), thousands upon thousands of horseshoe crabs come to shore for a wild night of baby making fun.  Because it is so crawly crazy 10% of those males end up upside down and too exhausted to right themselves.  Although there are scientists on the shores counting them and flipping them (I should have been a field scientist) many still succumb to their night of passion and end up floating in marinas reminding us that sometimes, as Nazareth of the 70’s sang to us, ‘love hurts’.

Home