Stranded in Cape May

Posted 11/29/05
by Jane Kashlak

When you live in Cape May, you learn early about the intense power of the winds and the ferociousness of the rip tides.

Sid Walton from Berkeley, California found that out the hard way.

Sid set sail from Lewes, Delaware, a couple of days ago, bound for home. But thanks to Mother Nature's intervention, Sid and his sailboat ended up stranded on Cape May Point State Park's Beach early Tuesday morning.

When Dave Thomas called Tuesday to tell us about it, of course we headed right over to the Point. Late November is pretty quiet in Cape May. A stranded sailboat sounded interesting.

When we got to the Point, we saw the Strange Bird, a 30 foot, ketch rigged sailboat, lying almost on its side along the surf line.

Turns out, the captain is not just any sailor. He's writing a book about his journey.

The former school teacher told us, as we ate sandwiches together on the Point's hawk watch platform, that he's heading south to the Panama Canal, to Ecuador and Costa Rica before sailing home to Berkeley, California.

An ambitious plan, to say the least.

If the first two days of his adventure are any indication, it's going to be some trip.

Sid promised his daughter he'll be home by June, in time for his 72nd birthday.

We wished him well.

Email us, we said, when you get home.