Fickle as the Weather
25 June 2016 | C & D Canal 6/16
Elizabeth (photo by Ed)
We left Annapolis Friday morning spending last night in a quiet anchorage about 6 hours up the Bay at Handy's Point. It was our first time there and worked out well. We were ambivalent about leaving Annapolis because of the squalls all around (which were NOT forecast) but I pushed and Ed didn't resist and I think he just needed a little nudge. He is very weary of planning weather routing only to have everything fall apart time and time again. And neither of us want to be caught in a major squall so there is that. Maybe he just needed me to let him know I was game and he didn't have to carry the burden of responsibility if the proverbial shit hit the fan. I don't know but we left and motored through a lot of bad weather, including a squall just as we were approaching the anchorage but none of it was terrible. We were both glad to have made some progress.
This morning we motored across the Chesapeake/Delaware Canal toward the Delaware River and Reedy Island where we've been many times before. We set the anchor and planned to spend the night, leaving at the break of dawn tomorrow (Saturday) to complete our Delaware River leg of the trip. We are trying to beat another nasty weather system forecast to hit Newport by Tuesday afternoon. We commissioned the dinghy, took Luna for a walk, did some boat chores and then Ed said, "Want to leave tonight and get a jump on the bad weather, getting to Newport Monday afternoon instead of Tuesday morning?" I asked what the downside of that option would be and he said we'd transit the shipping lanes at night rather than in daylight. Not our favorite thing to do in the Delaware River It's busy, narrow and can be harrowing if there's strong wind which although was expected tonight, doesn't seem to be the case when we looked at the gribs this afternoon. I asked how we would manage watches since I didn't have my afternoon nap which enables me to stay up on the first long evening watch. He suggested we wing our watches until we get through the shipping lanes. I said, "OK, let's go!" And that's what we did. We are now on our way at 17:55 (our Spot tracker is on if you want to follow us) and we are feeling as fickle as the weather.
More importantly, it feels like maybe we have our mojo back.