Our last few days in Cape May were fun. We came last in the quiz night, US politics, history and pop culture obviously not our strong point, we had a good laugh though. The America was delayed coming to Cape May by propeller problems – happens to the best of us - so we didn’t get to see around her. However, she came past us on the way out and we followed her down the channel. The meal and theatre was very good, excellent meal and a better than average local play. We saw two skunks on our cycle home from the theatre which was exciting. We had maintained our running regime and James was plotting and monitoring our progress, good for keeping us going. It is so much better now we are both going and hopefully we can keep each other at it. James has been very well throughout the trip with no ill effects after the new valve op so long as he takes the tablets. He keeps a close eye on his heartrate when running to make sure it doesn’t go too high or get irregular, there have been no problems so far.

At last though we had to leave Cape May hard as it was to pull ourselves out and we rounded the Cape and made our way into the Delaware River. James had been studying the tide and current tables to try and work out when we would be able to benefit from the current pushing us up. It was not straight forward and low tide was in the early afternoon which was not terribly convenient for us. This was going to mean that we would have to take 2 days to do the journey instead of one but did mean we didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn, which is always a relief. After a run we loaded the bikes on board and set off.

We had an uneventful afternoon, keeping an eye out as it is a busy waterway. The weather was good and a breeze got up during the day so that by the late afternoon we could motor sail. We had decided to keep going after dark to make the most of the flood tide to push us along. We had to be able to enter Penn’s landing Marina in Philadelphia at high tide, 2.30pm on Thursday so we had enough water. We knew we would be sitting on the bottom at low tide! It is a while since we were out after dark and in a busy waterway this was much more challenging than at sea. There were lots of lights both on either bank and in the channel. We had to make out which ones were the channel markers – not easy. I don’t know how we would have managed without the chart plotter and GPS, thank goodness for them. We had bought an AIS transponder to transmit our location to passing boats but have not been able to fit it yet, we wished we had as we were worried about tankers coming up behind us as well as what we were approaching. We had identified an anchorage to head for and it was gone 9pm when we drew near. Sunset is at 7.30pm now and that felt like a long time ago. As we approached we felt the first spots of rain, we had seen some lightening, which is always a worry and so were not surprised. In fact, the occasional flashes had helped to illuminate the way ahead. However, once the rain started it poured and this made seeing ahead even harder. Thankfully, we were nearly there, the area was a large open space behind the breakwater of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and we dropped the anchor, in the middle of the assigned area. We were glad to get it done and rushed inside BB to warm up and dry out. We had no great expectations for a comfortable night as we thought there would be a lot of wash from passing boats and that when the tide turned it might get choppy. In fact we had a quiet and still night and got a good a good night’s sleep. When we woke in the morning it was grey and still wet, no wind and drizzly. We pulled up the anchor as the tide turned in our favour, the windlass seemed to be working hard and as the anchor rose up I could see what looked like a ton of weed attached. When it broke the surface I saw the weed was in fact a length of very thick steel wire and for a horrid moment I thought we had pulled up an electric cable or something similar. Luckily though it was just a 1.5m length, very old and rusty and James was able to unhook it fairly easily.

The Delaware was, as we had expected, pretty industrial although there were long stretches of green. The river narrowed the further along we got towards Philadelphia and we could see roads, cars, trains and all the buildings on both sides, not particularly pretty but interesting as were the various ships and tankers that passed us.

Philadelphia was a great city, very compact and easy to get around, loads of history and lovely buildings, fab bars a friendly marina and lots of waterside bars and restaurants. We did the sights, had a great tour around the East State Penitentiary the first one of its kind built in the USA where Al Capone was held. We saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted. We found the amazing food hall, Reading Station, and bought food from the Amish stalls and from local producers. We enjoyed happy hour drinks and snacks – too many probably. One bar called Cuba really conjured up old Havana and made us more excited about going. Philly is like a small version of New York, different cultural areas, Chinatown, little Italy, very artsy, multicultural, lots of music and outdoor entertainment, lovely. We went to the Cinema twice and saw two great films in the small independent cinemas in town.

As we arrived in Philly hurricane Hermine had become an increasing threat and was approaching Florida and expected to sweep up the coast, this put us on our first hurricane watch. We have a hurricane watch app and were accessing the hurricane watch sites to watch the movements and the expected track. We had planned to leave the marina and go to a cheaper buoy at a nearby yacht club but we decided to stay where we were as it was a safer place to be. Also, in the middle of the city it was a wonderful location. James carefully monitored the information, we double tied our lines, took in the flags, and watched the skies. We kept in touch with friends along the coast to check how they were but after a week of horrible scenes from Florida and the havoc wrought there it moved out to sea and away from us thank goodness.

We hired a car for two days and headed out to the Amish area in nearby Pennsylvania, New Jersey. The first sign that people were living differently from the crowd was long lines of washing hanging outside huge farmsteads, and I mean a lot of washing. Americans don’t tend to hang out washing preferring to use up the world resources and increase global warming by using driers, so this was immediately unusual. Next we saw a man with a horse drawn plough working in a field, then horse drawn carriages along the road. Oddly, too, we realised that what first appeared to be women on bicycles actually didn’t have pedals or saddles and were in fact a cross between a bike and a scooter. Apparently, even bicycles are too modern for some of the Amish. We arrived at a town called Intercourse, much sniggering, where there was a sort of shopping mall of recreated old fashioned houses, horse drawn carriage rides and crafts. Sort of outlet centre/theme park Amish style. We were conscious of not being too voyeuristic and treating the locals like zoo animals but seeing this level of consumerism made us realise that the Amish are making a good living out of being a tourist attraction and have encouraged visitors. Leaving the rather unpleasant spectacle of Intercourse we drove out into the country and found Lititz, (James liked the name) a much nicer little town to have lunch. Along the way we passed many horses drawing covered enclosed carts and old fashioned farming machinery. Most of the farms had stalls at the gate selling produce and we stopped at a few to stock up and to chat to people. The Amish wear very old fashioned costumes, the women in long dark dresses covered by coloured, but dark aprons. They have their hair up and covered with an odd white hair net and there is no sign of make up or jewellery. The men have long beards but no moustache, very like James’s snorkelling mask look and pudding bowl haircuts. Quite honestly the dress and haircuts alone would put me off joining and it is a wonder that the young people stay in the Amish community. We marvelled at how a community can live and thrive so close to the most modern cities in the world and maintain their traditional believes and customs. They are obviously engaging with the modern world commercially and doing quite well at it but in most other ways they remain apart and very reclusive. At home time we saw many children return to the farms, most were barefoot and the schooling of Amish children holds some answers to how the culture and community is maintained:

http://www.exploring-amish-country.com/amish-education.html

‘An Amish education consists of eight years in a one room schoolhouse being taught by a teacher with an eighth grade education. On the face of it, this seems like a woefully inadequate and unfair way to prepare Amish children for an adult life as productive members of society.

The purpose Amish education is not to promote individuality and critical thinking. The goal is teach children the worth of hard work, ethical living, and how to be a valuable member of the Amish community. Amish education does not seek to create artists, scientists, musicians or actors.
The mission of Amish education is to teach the skills that are needed to lead a useful Amish life while developing the ability to function and do business in the outside world. But it also promotes separateness from the world.
Amish view education as the responsibility of the parents, the school and the entire community acting, as always, under the influence the church.’
After the eighth grade, Amish education moves from the school, back into the home and community.
Some boys go back to the farm to continue learning agricultural skills. Others might apprentice to Amish shop owners or tradesmen learning skills that will provide a living for them and their future families.
Girls go back home to work with their mothers polishing their homemaking skills. Some might work outside the home for other Amish or keep house for an “English” family.
Working outside the community poses a threat of overexposure to worldly influences and is avoided when possible.
Young Amish adults go through a stage called Rumspringa (Pennsylvania Dutch for “running around”). During Rumspringa young Amish men and women get out and experience the world to see what it is all about before they make their decision to join the church.
Amish Shunning
You had better be able to make an informed decision because when you join the Amish church it is for life. If you join and later decide to leave you will be shunned.
When you are shunned, you are treated as if you total outsider. The Amish Church forbids any member of the Church to give you any social standing. Amish shunning divides families and causes much heartache in the Amish community.
In fact, one of Jakob Ammann's major issues with the Mennonites was their reluctant use of shunning as discipline for those who disobeyed Church doctrine. This along with several other doctrinal differences caused Ammann to split from the Mennonite church.
Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish Mennonites. Later the “Mennonite” was dropped and the Amish sect was born.’
On our second car day we drove out to Trenton which was not appealing and after an interesting session in the launderette where the Mexican manager came and spoke to us about his fears around Trump getting elected and said if a wall was built Mexican cooperation with the US would stop in terms of drug trafficking and any border control. We headed off to Princetown which was very pretty, very privileged and a stark contrast to Trenton. It is always interesting to get out and about and great to see beyond the immediate mooring area which is accessible with our bikes.

We got the car back to the airport and after a frustrating time trying to get an UBER ride, finally got back to the boat. We enjoyed our last happy hour, moving from a Mexican bar back to our favourite Cuba and then on to a tourist favourite, The City Tavern as we had a 2 for 1 voucher.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Tavern

Here the staff dress in Civil War dress and serve authentic (sort of) food. The food was good and we felt we had had the full Philly, historical experience having been there.

The next morning with all hurricane threat gone we set off back down the Delaware to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. We left with the ebb flow with us to take us down the river and then anchored at the canal to wait for the flood which would take us through the canal.

The Canal is an Amazing feat of engineering especially when we found out it was started in 1789! We motored through and came out into the open water of the Chesapeake, flat water, green banks and a beautiful evening. A very different night from our evenings in Philly, peace, moonlight and lots of birds. We were looking forward to exploring.