Sunny, 20-25mph winds, wicked waves on the bay
10/02/2008, Rogues Harbor, MD

Well we started out to go to Worton Creek (about ½ way to Annapolis) but the winds were working against the current and building some good size waves. After we passed Turkey Point we turned around and headed for a spot where we saw some boats anchored, in what looked like still water. They were boats on private moorings, but there were some boats anchored a little further up, at Rogues Harbor so we dropped anchor there for the night. Whenever a freighter or barge comes through the channel we get wake but it wasn't to bad.

Made BBQ Ribs and broccoli slaw for dinner and then played dragon lady during the night. We set the anchor alarm (remember the freighters passing us in the channel?) and it went off several times during the night. It was hard to see at first but little by little we seemed to be getting closer to the group of 4 boats to the North of us. Nothing to get alarmed about but then our depth alarm went off too (I have it set for 8 feet). We were reaching low-low tide and our reading went from 9 ft to 7.5 ft. but whenever it hit 8 ft an alarm went off so I turned the thing off at 5:30 in the morning (after checking our surroundings and depth once more). Between the anchor alarm and depth alarm it was an interesting night. We had enough water under us and around us, but each time something went off you had to get up to check. Hence - Dragon Lady (Dragging Lady) throughout the night...

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Cloudy, rain, seas - sloppy
10/01/2008, Cape May to Chesapeake City, MD

Crossed Delaware Bay today following a rhum line across old oyster beds and cutting out some of the shipping channels. The freighters and barges pulled by the tugs are huge and their wakes are something else. Saw one that was stacked up high with train cars. I'll be honest, I was in a pretty pissy mood all day and just tried to stay out of Waynes way. There's not much room on a 36 ft sailboat so things tend to get magnified I guess. Except for explaining the routes and how to read/interpret them I pretty much hung out reading below. Wayne and Otto followed the course laid out for them today and once we reached the C&D Canal and Otto was put to bed then I came up and steered through the canal (short one - 13 miles). The current was pretty good - with us the entire way it seemed. We averaged about 6.5 - 7 knots. Ran into some shoals coming into Chesapeake City to anchor but nothing serious - depth read 4.2 under the keel but with some gentle persuasion we made it into their channel and anchored in 12 ft on the east side. The free dock (200 ft) was filled up by the time we got there. This is a well-protected little cove but very crowded for it's size.
Made a nice salad, Beef/mushroom/onion stew with French bread for dinner and am about to play a computer game. Waynes working on a suduko puzzle.

Took a few night shots - I think these came out. Its still out tonight. Cold but still out.

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Sunny - too sunny - I'm tired...
09/30/2008, Cape May, NJ

Sunrise was amazing... I know, I know, it always is for me right? But it was. Twilight showed fog and clouds on the water and when the sun started to rise you could see a slice of red showing through the clouds which built into a brilliant red inverted semi-circle and proceeded to grow into a huge shimmering red orb that burst into a bright orange, then yellow. Spectacular. Radar off, autohelm off (that was a major success for us once we figured out how to hook it up, and use it) - we reached the entrance to the Cape May Channel. Sails tucked away, everything off. Time for some shuteye at long last. We're anchored on the east side of the Coast Guard channel. There are 4 other boats here and an Island Packet that we recognized from Sandy Hook followed us and then led the way to where we're anchored. Boats keep coming in.
Forgot to mention - Saw my first jelly floating in the water - it was about a foot and a half in diameter and transparent. Very pretty.

Catch up on sleep day... the picture is what we saw when we passed out...

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