Frigid temps force Cape May/Lewes Ferry to cancel trips

No more ferry trips between Lewes and Cape May today as icy waters and high winds force the ferry to cancel several crossings Thursday and early Friday.

Cape May-Lewes Ferry trips were suspended as of noon on Thursday because of heavy ice conditions created by the brutally cold temperatures. The high winds across the Delaware Bay were also a factor in the decision to suspend sailings.

On Friday, the 7:30 a.m trip out of Cape May and the 9:15 a.m. passage out of Lewes have also been cancelled to give tug boat operators enough time to clear the ice near the docks on both the Delaware and New Jersey sides.

When the Delaware Bay gets icy, the MV Cape Henlopen is the ferry’s go-to vessel. In WHYY’s documentary marking 50 years of the ferry, Captain Rick McCann told us, “When we had her built we had a reinforced bow put on so we could go through the ice.”

But unfortunately, the Cape Henlopen is currently undergoing maintenance in Connecticut, leaving only the M/V New Jersey and the M/V Delaware left to ferry passengers across the bay.