Saturday, September 7. Day 59

Last night we set the alarm for 5am so that we would have 30 min to get ready to leave at 530am so that we would catch the rising tide at the end of Cape May Canal to ride the current up the Delaware Bay. I don’t know what happened, but we didn’t hear the alarm. I woke at 6am, “Oh My gosh we are late!” Phil said ” I wondered why we were bouncing around so much”. It was from the wake from the fishing boats leaving early. Being dark he thought that it was 3am and I wasn’t up yet so not to worry. Wrong! So we rushed around getting dressed warmly as it was a cold start to the day and lots of dew on the boat. We raised anchor at 610am entering the Cape May Canal at 624am. While in the canal, I made preparations down below for our passage, though we expected it to be a motor boat ride, it’s always good to have sandwiches made and breakfast fixed while you known it’s calm.

We entered the Delaware Bay at 651am with the current not much higher than the boat speed. But as we got further into the bay, the GPS speed increased starting at 713am. Thankfully we were only about 35 min behind our original enter the bay time and we had the positive current all the way up to the C&D Canal which we entered at 119pm (7h 10min) after traveling 51.2nm with max GPS speed of 8.3kts. The boat speed was between 5.9 to 6.25 kts. Two ships passed us and there was about 9 sailboats traveling up the Bay today, one that had AIS transponder on board. Of course there were the power boats too. After the initial entrance into the canal which caused a drop in speed, we continued with a GPS speed in the upper 7’s. We had planned on stopping in Chesapeake City to anchor, but the basin was filled being a Saturday and only 3pm so we continued on. There was also plenty of power boat traffic on the canal, so we were constantly steering the boat to minimize the impact of the wakes.

We exited the C&D canal about 325pm and decided to anchor in the first river south which turned out to be Boheming River. In Veazey Cove, we dragged the first time we dropped the anchor but the 2nd time with 60ft of anchor in 8 ft of water did the trick. We were anchored at at 410pm with the snubber hook set. BTW have I mentioned how much I like our new Mantus hook? It’s easy to put on and hasn’t fallen off once. Much better I think than our old one.

I had put a chicken and rice casserole in the oven at 315pm when we decided to continue on while still in the canal, but it still needed to cook for another hour so the first order of business was to set up the Sunshower. The water didn’t heat up yesterday in the Sunshower, so I was dying to have one while it was still warm outside AND the water was warm! Boy did it feel good to be clean! Then I put up the Breeze Bandit wind scoop to see if it worked with low winds.

After supper at 530pm, we relaxed in the cockpit. This seems to be a popular summer place to hang out in your boat as there were 2 house boats rafted together playing music and having a small party. There is also a small beach nearby and some event going on in a field behind the beach as there was music playing and many cars and what we thought a large amount of people getting together, though it was hard to be sure due to trees in the way.

I was able to talk to my parents on the phone and we hope to meet up while they are traveling south to their winter home somewhere around Swansboro just south of Beaufort, NC. As they will be more mobile than us, will see where we can meet up in October. I also spoke to my niece Heather who we will visit over the next few days about where to anchor. We will make some calls tomorrow to see if there is a yacht club or marina that has a dinghy dock we can use. It turns out that Wilson Point Park can be used only during the day. I found a good web site Marinas.com to search for marinas where we see photos of them, there locations on the charts and their phone number to call them, so we have a few choices to pick from. We are targeting to anchor in Hopkins Creek with 8ft depth and good protection all around as it looks like the wind will be clocking around to all directions during our stay.

We have the good news that Katie got a new job with orientation to start on Monday while she continues her schooling at Lakeland CC.

It was a beautiful sunset tonight and we hope for good weather tomorrow with the wind picking up some in the afternoon. We have about 32nm to travel tomorrow, much less than the 59.9nm boat and 71.0 GPS miles we covered today, so hope to arrive there early afternoon. The tidal current may be against us tomorrow instead of with us today.

After visiting Heather, we will go to Solomons Is, MD and then start going up the Potomac River to Washington D.C. We heard that the Capital Yacht Club is very welcoming and the trip is worth making even though it will take us 2-3 days to go up the Potomac. Phil’s cousins live there and I want to see some of the museums and memorials. It’s been MANY years since I was last there.

I hope everyone is having a nice fall and that you enjoyed the Labor Day weekend! Thank you for all your comments! I love getting them!