CAPE MAY / AVALON

Friday August 19, 2022

Our plan to take a layover day at Metedeconk really paid off.  Not only did we avoid rough sea conditions, but we simply got to rest.  

I was – in a word – exhausted.  I could tell it by the clumsy way I docked the boat in NY, and the rough trip from NY to Metedeconk didn’t help.

But we got to spend all day Wednesday relaxing on the beach, watching sailboat races.  AAHHH!

So we left Thursday morning.  The Windy app told us that sea conditions would improve as the day went along, so we stayed inside Barnegat Bay, all the way down to Atlantic City.  It was an excellent plan, except for one little unforeseen factor…

The wind had clocked around 180 degrees and was now coming from the west.  This was helping to quiet the waves and swells, but as we passed by the marshes behind Beach Haven, we found ourselves surrounded by hoards of greenhead flies.  The winds were carrying them toward us.  

It couldn’t have come at a worse time; we were in very skinny water – sometimes I had less than a foot under the keel.  So I had to concentrate completely on following the deepest water on the chart.

Lynn became a killing machine.  Like Wack-a-Mole at hyper speed.  She figures she killed 53 flies before the rest turned tail and ran.  The boat looked like a killing field, and we could barely see through the windshield.

For those of you who believe the greenhead fly is a sacred animal, we ask your forgiveness.

But.  And this is a big but.  Once Lynn vanquished the flies, we emerged from the Absecon Inlet (Atlantic City) to sunny skies and moderate sea.  All the way to Cape May.

Last night, my cousins Jeff and Kathy drove down to pick us up and take us back to Avalon for an overnight visit.  Breakfast this morning was heavenly.  Tonight we’ll go back to Cape May and then Saturday we’ll be home in Rock Hall!

TTFN