 |
Sunrise over the Atlantic
Ocean (6:28am EST) |
Today was the best day, per Brian’s forecasting, to be in the outside of the Atlantic and cross the large Delaware Bay. During the remainder of the week, conditions would rapidly deteriorate due to Hurricane Cristobol. We didn’t want to delay our return to home waters, so we decided to get into the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and afterwards consider options depending on how tired and how difficult the crossings were. Winds were less than five knots, currents were running south along the New Jersey coast and north up the Delaware Bay. We left at 5:40am; Linda at the helm for her first time navigating out of a slip. She did great. At 6:22am we had a beautiful sunrise. The waves were two to four feet with an occasional six foot wave. The period betweens waves Brian estimates was about 8 - 10 seconds
 |
Delaware Bay's
Miah Maull Shoal Light
(You can see the wake of
the current on left side
of the light) |
(Linda doesn’t like rough seas), then we slowed upon entering Cape May, switched rivers, and ran 6 - 9 knots through the Cape May channel. In route we saw the back side of what looked like huge breakers along the New Jersey coast. We learned later that all along the New Jersey coast rip current warnings had been posted due to Cristobol. From where we were, the waves were not bad at all. We averaged about 10 knots up the Delaware Bay with an additional push from the currents. The winds were so light they were not a factor. We also saw two pods of dolphins. One was in the Atlantic and the other was at the western end of the Cape May Canal. All-in-all, this crossing was a great ride. We briefly stopped at Delaware City Marina to top off the tanks thinking we may have drained them by Linda’s hot run. We had much better than expected fuel economy. Yea! We took on enough fuel to get the volume discount. Delaware doesn’t have sales tax, so we really scored on this stop. We were happy the owner and dockhands remembered us from our stop in June. Although they sorely tempted us regarding a new restaurant which just opened, we wanted to be done for the day, so thanked
 |
| Chesapeake Inn & Marina |
them and pressed on. We entered the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in time to catch the westward current to Chesapeake Bay. We gained an additional 2+ knots from the push. Brian’s getting this navigation stuff down really well. We arrived around 2:15pm, checked in, and headed straight to the
Chesapeake Inn Restaurant (written up in the Wade’s book of “
Crab Decks and Tiki Bars”) for wine, beer, and even a gluten-free meal for Linda. We called this meal our “blinner” as it was breakfast, lunch and dinner in one. After returning to the boat, we listened to the live band at the Tiki bar. All in all, a good day with the added plus of being back in “our” own familiar Chesapeake waters.
