Well, I can tell ya, you want to be careful coming into the canal from the west side. Locals coming out told us to favor the North side. Big mistake. I think the shoaling changes a lot, and were I to do it again, I would stay in the middle, and go very slow . . .
Took TowBoat an hour and half to wrestle us off, in an ebbing tide, not the highlight of the trip. Bill Coleman Entrada, Erie, PA From: CHARLES SCHEAFFER via CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com] Hi Joe, What's your air draft? Mine is 54' You can't overcome physics. I've done the Cape May canal bridges many times. There are two bridges over it and a railway swing bridge that remains open cause it's broke. Sources list Cape May Parkway and Seashore Rd bridge height at 50' or 52.5' and there is a graduated table at the base of the bridge. The water level shows the actual clearance. The tidal range is 4.5' in this area and I would time my trips so the tide is low or close to it and find 57+ feet at the bridge. This works the best for climbing the Delaware River. When motoring at 6 knots hullspeed, the favorable current gave me 8.4 knots Speed Over Ground on GPS. There is another challenge to running the canal at low water; running aground. The bottom is muddy, so backing out or spinning usually get you clear. Keep your speed low so you The ferries really kick up the sand where they dock and it forms a sandbar on the opposite side of the channel. So favor the side where the ferries dock. Be mindful, if they blast their horn, they are backing out, so U-turn and hold off till one leaves. Note: Heading West, the tide can give a boost for eight hours or more. It's like riding a wave that's travelling West (turn of the Earth). I've had a favorable tide the whole way from Cape May to the C&D Canal. Heading the opposite direction the tide is favorable for less time, like four hours, because you're travelling East and the wave passes under you in the opposite direction. Sucks but true. Heading that way, I would consult Reed's and use math to leave the C&D so I would arrive at Cape May at low tide or just after it to use the canal. If I arrive more than two hours before Low, I wait. If it's more than two hours after low, I go around. There is a channel along the beach but I'm not sure if it's marked. Hopefully others will chime in. Chuck Scheaffer, Resolute, 1989 C&C 34R, Pasadena, Md
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