Stampone O'Brien Dilsheimer Holloway Escape the Cape Triathlon - 1 Mile Open Water Swim

Twelve feet of open air above the waters of Delaware Bay separate the Cape May-Lewes Ferry from the starting line in the sea. This plunge marks the start of the Stampone O'Brien Dilsheimer Holloway Escape the Cape Triathlon - 1 Mile Open Water Swim, an open water challenge held in Lower Township, New Jersey. Swimmers assemble at the ferry terminal before embarking into the bay for a straight swim back to the coast. Since its inaugural running on June 2, 2013, when 1,000 athletes first took the leap, the event has earned a distinct place on the East Coast calendar. Athletes jump in small, controlled groups to ensure everyone clears the landing area safely before the next wave steps up.

Hitting the water delivers an immediate cold shock as the saltwater rushes in, though in June the bay typically hovers around the mid-sixties Fahrenheit, allowing swimmers to settle into their stroke after the first few brisk seconds. From there, a one-mile course stretches across the open water toward the waiting shore. Navigating back requires a keen eye on the landmarks, as the open bay generates shifting cross-currents that follow the moon and can nudge swimmers off line. In past editions, swimmers have even found themselves accompanied across the water by pods of dolphins surfacing right alongside the course. The entire morning carries an electric atmosphere, moving from music and pre-race nerves on the ferry deck to a high-energy celebration on the sand as swimmers cross the beach finish line.

Cape May Peninsula: where Delaware Bay currents meet the Atlantic

The race unfolds along a unique geological hinge where the Cape May peninsula divides Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The waters here are fully marine and tidal, driven by powerful lunar currents that sweep past the sandy cape twice a day. These shifting sandbars and aggressive shallows have challenged mariners for centuries; back in 1609, explorer Henry Hudson saw his ship run aground on an offshore shoal after encountering the cape's deceptive tides. Cape Island is technically a man-made island, severed from the mainland by Cape Island Creek, Cape May Harbor, and the Cape May Canal. This canal is a 2.9-nautical-mile waterway that cuts cleanly across the peninsula, linking the protected harbor directly to the open waters of the Delaware Bay.

Sunset Beach and Cape May Point: concrete wrecks and coastal batteries

During a heavy fog, the American brigantine Nancy ran aground, prompting her crew to haul barrels of gunpowder through the surf to hide them safely behind the dunes before an explosion destroyed the vessel and killed seven British boarders. A few kilometers from the race area, another maritime curiosity rests right off the sands of Sunset Beach: the SS Atlantus. Launched in 1918, the vessel was towed to Cape May Point in June 1926 to serve as the foundation for a ferry slip. A fierce storm broke her moorings on July 10, 1926, grounding her permanently in the surf. Today, the concrete hull lies broken in pieces just offshore, exposing its weathered ribs above the breakers at low tide.

About four kilometers from the ferry slip stands Battery 223, a World War II fortification completed in 1943 featuring reinforced walls six feet thick engineered to withstand aerial bombing and battleship fire. Its six-inch guns boasted a firing radius of nine miles into the bay. Nearby on the beach, the historic Fire Control Tower #23 remains standing as an artillery spotting outpost, a towering concrete cylinder rooted directly in the coastal sands.

Higbee Beach and Cape May Point: coastal dunes and wildlife migrations

Under one kilometer north of the race site lies the wild shoreline of Higbee Beach, running for a mile and a half along the bay edge. Tucked behind the sands, the tall dune of Signal Hill once served as a hidden vantage point for bootleggers scanning the shipping lanes during Prohibition. Walking the wrack line here often reveals remnants of the cape's industrial past, including early twentieth-century railroad tracks that were buried by shifting tides and periodically emerge through the sand. Beachcombers who sift through the shoreline gravel can also discover Cape May diamonds, which are clear quartz pebbles polished smooth by the constant tumbling of the waves. The point is equally famous for its aerial highways, serving as an essential resting stop for wildlife.

Migratory birds pause before attempting the long flight across open Delaware Bay, while monarch butterflies travel from Canada to Mexico. Looking out past the breaker line between May and December, swimmers and visitors can frequently spot migratory whales surfacing in the bay waters.

North Cape May: bayside sunsets and the Cape May-Lewes Ferry

Back on the shoreline of North Cape May, life revolves around the water's edge in Lower Township. Unlike the bustling seaside resorts on the Atlantic side of the peninsula, this bayfront faces west across Delaware Bay, creating broad, gentle beaches celebrated for unobstructed sunset views. Residential lanes once dominated by modest summer bungalows are now lined with larger multi-story homes, while the Port of Cape May sustains a massive commercial fishing fleet that remains a cornerstone of the regional economy. As dusk approaches, locals and visiting swimmers gather along Sunset Beach to watch the sky turn red over Delaware Bay and witness the traditional evening flag-lowering ceremony. Right beside the swim course, the ferry terminal continues to send large passenger vessels on their seventeen-mile voyage across the bay to Lewes, Delaware. Crossing that same bay by ferry gives travelers an expansive look at the leaping dolphins and seabirds that share the water, offering a scenic perspective on the very bay where athletes make their 12-foot leap into the sea.