Leaving Cape May, NJ.

After spending the Night in a small marina approx. 3 miles up the Cape May Canal,we set off again to make it around Cape May. We have to go around instead of through the canal because our mast is 58 ft. high, bridges here are only 55ft. So out into the ocean we go again, for six miles around the cape. The locals at the marina told us to stay close to shore "you have the depth", we were hesitant but we did it anyway. At the time when we needed it most our GPS for some reason stopped showing the depths and went blank.  Some guy named Murphy needs a kick in the pants. We got very nervous and started to head out to deep water. We felt a thump, then another ,..... thump, thump, thump we were hitting the bottom and then stopped dead, for a moment then a big wave came and knocked us off the shoal. We were moving again. That was close. If we had to phone for a tow I'm sure he would have been shaking his head at us. Close call. On we go again.
Finnally we headed up the Delaware for our anchorage at Cohansey river off the Delaware. The locals had also told us the current would push us at around 8 knots, that also did not happen. It was slow and bouncy. We are praying to get there before sundown. Wrong again, the sun went down and clouds moved in. The enterance light was bearly visable, we had about 2 miles to go into the river to anchor. We turned on Tuttys' new Ipad with the navionacs app ,to navigate the shallow areas I held it up while he steered the boat and  looked for crab pots in the water. Funny how we had to find ones that were painted black on top.
  Into the twisting river we go. There were two big boats anchored right in the enterance, as we made the first turn, we see some sail boats in the dark, and also some with no lights. They should all have on an anchor light. We continue down the river to the last sailboat, and dropped the hook astern of him. By this time its 9 pm , a strong drink then off to bed.  Ahh!!!........... the cruising life.

After a great nght of sleep we woke to little fishing boats zooming by us on their way out to the crab pots at six am. I stick my head out one yells ahoy big guy, I hope he means our boat which turns out was right in the middle of the river. Oh well I thought we did well with no GPS and no light.
 Coffee on and we are on our way up the Delaware and to the C&D canal. We are hoping to find a West Marine to look at our GPS. As we come out of the river we work our way through crab pots hundreds of them. I do not know how we did not drag them in the dark the night before. Just Luck. When we finally reach the channel it was smooth sailing from there up to the canal. We stopped at a marina on the C&D canal, 8 miles in called Summit North which had a West Marine in the area. We called West Marine the next morning but they could not help us with our problem. Spent the day changing oil in the motor and doing minor repairs. The day spent at the dock not wasted. We are off Monday to the Chesapeake.