Cape May

Boat/US Magazine, May, 2004 by Tony Gibbs

Location, Location, Location--it's the realtor's mantra, but it can apply to whole areas as well as individual homes. Take as an example the seaside resort of Cape May, New Jersey, an island (kind of) with attractions to spare and a personality crafted over a couple of centuries.

Geologically, Cape May isn't much different from the rest of the mid-Atlantic coast--barrier beach backed up by shallow bay and extensive salt marsh. But its site, where the southern tip of New Jersey juts into the mouth of Delaware Bay, is the key to its success.

Approached from the north, either down the Jersey coast or inside it, via the ICW, Cape May is a logical cruising boat destination. The inlet entrance, at the island's eastern end, is stabilized by big, well-marked jetties, and once through them you have access to a multi-branched harbor that should provide shelter in almost any condition. To port, just past a covey of restaurants, is Utsch's Marina, a big, well-established facility that can handle any problem you may have acquired along the way. Other marinas and boat yards speckle the shoreline.

Utsch's lies at the entrance to Cape May Canal--not a canal in the usual sense, but a marine shortcut that makes Cape May an island and also allows cruising boats to slip behind the ugly, extensive shoals southwest of the cape itself and avoid the big-ship traffic nexus at the mouth of Delaware Bay.

If your boat has come up the coast along the Delaware shore, you'll have no choice but to make the run across the bay's mouth. But here again, a quick leg north into the canal's western entrance will usually be wiser than swinging well outside Overfalls Shoal and Five Fathom Bank. And finally, if you've fought your way down the dreary length of Delaware Bay, the Cape May Canal entrance will probably look heaven-sent.

Cape May also has its own resident fleet--most of them either private or charter fishing craft--as well as a considerable number of deep-sea commercial vessels. Fishing is definitely the biggest nautical game in town, and the lineup of charter and open boats around the harbor offers everything from a four-hour flounder excursion for the kids to an overnight bluefin tuna hunt. Prices vary, but figure about $100 an hour for an inshore striped bass or bottom fishing excursion for a party of up to six people. A 10-hour tuna trip might run you $1,500 on the same boat, and a 24-hour overnight excursion to the offshore canyons could be about $2,400.

If fishing isn't your thing, you can still rent a PWC or a kayak, and explore the branches of the harbor on your own. Harbor speed limits exercise severe constraints on what PWCs can do, so my own choice is a sit-on-top kayak from the Miss Chris Marina. Depending on your skill and energy, you can snoop all the piers and corners of the harbor or explore the twists and turns of the vast salt marsh that comprises much of Cape May island's north side. If you opt for the latter, though, keep a sharp eye out for airborne swarms of gnats.

Cape May's fishing community centers around the harbor, at the west end of the island. A block or two away, down treelined side streets, you'll find the historic beach resort that's created its own rebirth of popularity.

Named for a 17th-century Dutch explorer, Cornelius Mey, Cape May early attracted refugees from the dank summer heat of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Wilmington. In the years before the Civil War it also drew a large number of visitors from the South. It achieved national fame as a resort in the Victorian era, when the term "cottage" had a rather different meaning than it does today. Well-to-do families constructed huge vacation homes throughout the island, and the place was so popular that even after a major fire leveled much of the town in the 1880s, replacement homes soon filled in the gaps.

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In the 20th century, however, stagnation set in, and in 1962 a fiercely destructive hurricane threatened to finish off the town. But enough grand old structures survived to make possible a conscious (sometimes self-conscious) municipal revival, and today these magnificent, continually restored homes are not only visible on every street, but many of the most handsome are available to visitors as bed-and-breakfasts, specializing in up-to-date comfort in genuinely antique settings

If a B & B isn't to your taste, there's a whole constellation of hotels and motels to choose from. Most are right along the beachfront, and the most striking by a country mile is the immense yellow Congress Hall, built in 1816 and just emerged from a two-year renovation. Like many places on the island, it's open year 'round.

Another way of enjoying the resort is to rent your own house. Most of the rental homes are big--six or eight bedrooms aren't unusual--and they're typically rented for a week or two by an extended family, often one whose members have been coming here for a couple of generations. Renting a house isn't cheap, but it's certainly not as expensive as bringing the same number of people to a hotel or B & B.