FAVORITE DELAWARE COAST PLACES SAGA 6:

LEWES-CAPE MAY FERRY
Lewes, DE to Cape May, NJ

This ferry connecting the Delaware Peninsula with the NJ mainland is a marvel. It goes 17 miles in 85 minutes from coast to coast.

It takes foot traffic so it's also a great way to tour Cape May, a charming Victorian town.

While on board, there's excellent seating and a nice lunch area.

The terminal in Lewes also has a nice lunch spot—open air!

FAVORITE DELAWARE COAST PLACES SAGA 5:

REHOBOTH BEACH

Delaware

Rehoboth Beach is one of the best beach towns in America—clean sand and water, small town, friendly, beautiful old houses, great restaurants.

It's a town of 1,000 people that swells to 100,000 on the Fourth of July!

One can always "get-away" to an uncrowded beach area.

As well as enjoy the crowds.

It's full of wonderful, old beach cottages from the 30s on.

Beautiful sunrises over the Atlantic.

FAVORITE DELAWARE COAST PLACES SAGA 4:

WORLD WAR TWO TOWERS
Lewes, DE

These towers were used for observation not armaments. Several towers would triangulate on say a German submarine and send instructions to fire upon to Fort Miles.

The Fort Miles Historical Association, which is located at the State Henlopen State Park in Lewes is taking responsibility for their maintenance.

I have to give you some info. on these towers so that next time you are driving with family and friends you can explain to them their significance.

Eight of the 11 towers built along the Delaware and New Jersey coastlines during WWII are here in our beaches; 3 are in N.J.  They were used as artillery spotting locations.  Our military was posted in each of the towers to coordinate artillery fire on enemy ships off our coast.  This fortification was from 1940 to 1942 during which these huge fortifications were erected at the mouth of the Delaware Bay to protect Philadelphia.

The towers have different heights and some of them have only two viewing slits, while others have four.  Apparently, the military could see about 14 1/2 miles into the Atlantic.

From the upper level the spotters could scan the Atlantic for enemy vessels; could direct the fire of the guns mounted along the coast.

It was believed that after Pearl Harbor, the Delaware Beaches were in danger.  In 1942 the German U-boats were skinking an average of a ship per week.  The Jacob Jones was one of those ships torpedoed off the Delaware coast and over 100 of its crew perished.

FAVORITE DELAWARE COAST PLACES SAGA 3:

LIGHTSHIP OVERFALLS
Lewes, Delaware

Overfalls is a "lightship", meaning it was a portable lighthouse. It's a National Historic Landmark—the only one in Sussex County, Delaware.

Built in 1938, it served the East Coast for 34 years. One hundred seventeen were built. Seventeen remain extant; Seven are open to the public.

What is a lightship?

A lighthouse that floats, it serves the same function such as:

• A light to aid navigation at night
• A horn to warn mariners in fog
• A radio beacon for longer range identification

Lighting the way
The Overfalls main aid to navigation was a 375 mm dual electric lantern located 57 feet above the water line. Rated at 15,000 candle power, (approximately 1,000 watts), it flashed every 3 seconds from dusk until dawn. On a clear night it could be seen for 12 miles.

The ship also had a dual diaphone fog horn with a range of 5 miles that sounded every 30 seconds in foggy weather.

A radio beacon with a range of 25 miles transmitted the call letters of the ship (NMJF) in Morse code. In foggy weather it was synchronized with the horn and broadcast every 30 seconds.

P.S. Back in the 1950-60s, Lewes was the biggest fishing port in the country by tonnage of fish caught.

FAVORITE DELAWARE COAST PLACES SAGA 2:

FUNLAND
Rehoboth Beach, DE.

Funland has been owned by the Fasnacht family for 50 years!

click to see: FUNLAND.

When the Portuguese sailor Lorenzo Dow was shipwrecked on the shores of what is now Rehoboth Beach, he must have liked what he saw. Dow built the first residence in the area, and was followed in 1872 by the Reverend Robert W. Todd of Wilmington, who claims he envisioned the exact spot as the ideal location for his Methodist retreat camp in a dream. Todd also was influenced by his journey to another oceanside camp in New Jersey, claiming in a sermon that "...the sea hath spoken"!

Despite Rehoboth's origins as a religious retreat, Reverend Todd and his pious followers soon found themselves at odds with local "land pirates" and saloon owners, and the longstanding dynamic of the beach resort was born.

Some came seeking serenity, some for absolute pandemonium, some commune with the heavens, others commute for the happy hour! It wasn't long before the rest of the Eastern Seaboard caught on, and families have made Rehoboth Beach a perennial playground ever since.

Its famous boardwalk was built in 1873, and has weathered a slew of tropical storms and hurricanes. Thousands still make the pilgrimage to Rehoboth every year to while away the summer months in style!

When the Fasnacht family bought the amusement park "Playland" on the Rehoboth boardwalk in 1962, its hurricane ravaged facade didn't look like a great investment. But now, over 40 years later, the thriving, family run park still boasts the best entertainment on the Delaware Beach, and still charges its original 25 cent ticket price!

Four generations of the Fasnacht family operate the park, and grandparents now watch with glee as their youngsters ride the same rides that thrilled them in their youth!

FAVORITE DELAWARE COAST PLACES SAGA:

INDIAN RIVER LIFE SAVING STATION
Rehoboth Beach

This is a remarkable group of 19th Century buildings.

Before the Coast Guard existed, these life saving stations were at regular intervals along the coast to save people from ship wrecks.

Men would stay for weeks at a time occupying the barracks.

Special equipment was invented to help the rescues.