Cape May, Waiting Out the Bad Weather

Monday, September 21

Bad weather begins, mainly a gray sky and a bit of rain.

We work until about 2:00 PM, then we go around the ship stores, where we buy a hose for potable water. We return to the boat and fill it up.

Jonathan tries to make the hot water work with the shore hookup, but without success. However, the hot water works very well when the engine is running. Lucky us!

I go do the laundry at the marina, another advantage! I hang up a few pieces of clothing. It's windy, so they should dry quickly… In the end, we decide to go eat at a restaurant to cheer up. So I hang the clothes inside, because I'm afraid they'll blow away. The advantage of colder weather is that we can leave Miela on the boat.

We go to Lucky Bones Backwater Grille, located a few steps away.

They make us wait at the bar, where we have a beer. The atmosphere is fun and the beer is good.

They then seat us at a table. We choose the French onion soup, which is excellent. We ask the server for sparkling water. He tells us he has soda. We ask him if it's seltzer. He answers yes, but ends up bringing us a soda which, in the end, is excellent!

However, we find the server condescending. He doesn't seem to like us much.

We then order a prosciutto and arugula pizza. It looks promising… but the prosciutto is more like cheap ham, thin and cut into squares. It's average!

We leave and go to bed early.

Tuesday, September 22

The wind picked up during the night. In the morning it reaches 27 kn, but it mostly stays around 23 kn.

The clothes dried while hung inside Éolo! Hooray!

Around 4:00 PM, we decide to go grocery shopping. There are good options, but the meat is not very interesting. We return to the sailboat under a light rain.

Wednesday, September 23

A windy day, but generally sunny!

We go for a walk around 3:00 PM and discover areas we hadn't seen yet. The terraces catch our eye and we end up stopping at the Porch, a hotel for retirees. They have good beers and good drinks.

We also try their pickle wings and their shrimp cocktail, both $10 each. It's happy hour and we then give in to the pretzel served with a crab dip. Delicious!

At the Porch, everyone is in love with Miela.

Around 7:00 PM, we think of going to eat crab at the Raw Bar, but the entrance is flooded. It's high tide! So we improvise a cheese plate and a caprese salad on Eolo.

Thursday, September 24

We're surprised: the winds have died down and we had a very calm night with no wind. We wonder if the forecast has changed. We hope so, but we expect the worst, as they are forecasting up to 45 kn of wind, with winds of 35 to 45 kn for 24 hours.

Despite the cold, we decide to try the Lobster House. We have a beer and a shrimp cocktail, which are not very good, while waiting at the takeout counter. The Raw Bar is closed, surely because of the bad weather.

The bar at the Lobster House is really beautiful and the atmosphere is hushed. The dining rooms are a bit less cozy, but I think we ended up in the nicest section. The waitresses wear sailor outfits.

We order a steak for Jonathan and a seafood platter including a whole lobster, mussels, clams, scallops and one shrimp.

They serve bread right away. It's excellent! We're surprised: the meal includes a salad, a choice of potatoes and a side dish. We won't be hungry!

Jonathan's steak is very nice, with good texture and a nice thickness, but it lacks a bit of seasoning. For my plate, it's good, but I expected more flavor from the Lobster House.

The wine is excellent. It's a wine we would have paid $90 at the SAQ, sold for $88 US at the restaurant… unfortunately served in very ordinary glasses.

That's what we noticed in Cape May: because it's very touristy and most restaurants are bring-your-own-wine places, they haven't invested in quality glasses. It's disappointing.

We finish with a decadent brownie!

When we leave, the entrance is once again flooded.

Friday, September 25

We work all day and, at the end of the day, we go for a walk. We stop in a specialty peanut butter shop to buy some. The shop is very busy and, since Jonathan is outside with Miela, I don't take the time to wait for advice or a tasting.

We return to Éolo, where we prepare a small dinner.

In the evening, the winds pick up. We monitor conditions on our Eolo app late into the evening. We don't see gusts exceeding 38 kn. We go to bed and sleep fairly well despite the winds.

Saturday, September 26

I wake up around 7:30 AM. The water level is high and I decide to go to the restroom before it overflows. A coastal flooding alert is in effect!

When leaving Éolo, I see we have a problem: part of our dock is no longer floating. It is almost underwater, which puts pressure on Éolo.

Back from the restroom, I ask Jonathan to come see. We then understand that one of the extra mooring lines we had installed as a precaution is stuck between the dock and the piling, preventing it from floating freely.

We take out our Gill knife and cut the line, which immediately frees the dock. We learned not to leave lines lying around!

The water eventually rises so high that the sidewalk is completely covered. The buildings are inaccessible.

We spend the day working on Éolo and reward ourselves with a good homemade dinner.

We prepare spaghetti carbonara. We wanted to eat a steak, but there wasn't any left and we hadn't managed to buy one at the ACME Market grocery store.

The winds have died down.

Sunday, September 27

Another very calm night, but rainy. The winds pick up quickly when we wake and the rain continues to fall heavily.

For two days, I've been filling our glossary and learning the terms in English!

The weather calms enough for us to go for a walk without Miela. We walk again to the beach. A nice smell catches our attention, surely from Leone's pizza. It's also a bring-your-own-wine restaurant.

We tell them we're going to fetch a bottle and will be right back. When we arrive, we're surprised: they had set our table with wine glasses!

It's a new family-run restaurant, opened in June or July 2026 and operated by the mother, father and their daughter.

We choose an Italian sushi made of rolled prosciutto, arugula, sun-dried tomatoes and stracciatella. It's excellent and surprising!

Their pizzas are offered in two sizes: 12 inches with a thick crust or 14 inches with a very thin crust. We choose the first option. The taste is excellent!

We spend a very nice evening there in a beautiful setting. It's bold for a beachfront pizzeria: the pizzas cost $30, but the flavors are worth it!