Big Step!
16 August 2016 | Solomons, Maryland
Carol
We started our next trip on Wednesday, July 13, 2016, headed up the Chesapeake Bay to Oxford, Maryland, another historic, quite, little town. We anchored there for two days, then left for Annapolis early the next morning where we picked up a mooring ball (there's not much room to anchor because they have a lot of mooring balls) so that we could spend a couple of days walking around one of my favorite places. It's unfortunate for me that it gets cold in the winter, or I'd relocate there....I love Annapolis!! The next morning (July 17) we went up to the Sassafras River, anchoring there for the night, and from there, we got up early (July 18) and transited the Chesapeake/Delaware Canal to Delaware City, Delaware. We were both a little nervous about it, but we had no problems at all. We passed a couple of HUGE cargo ships going through the canal, and we made it under the lowest bridge, a railroad bridge, just in time as they were closing it for inspection (they usually leave it open for boats going through the canal). We arrived at the Delaware City Marina at 11:30 a.m. The owner of the marina gives a weather/tidal briefing every day at 5:00 p.m. He tells you when is the best time to go down the Delaware Bay because if a tide is going up the bay against you, it can slow the boat down. We stayed there for a few nights waiting for the right weather window to go down the Delaware Bay and to Cape May, NJ.
On Wednesday, July 20, we left Delaware City Marina at 5:15 a.m, almost getting stuck in the silt at the entrance of the creek because, even though the current was going the right way for us down the bay, it was almost low tide. We had a nice sail down the Delaware Bay and made it to Cape May by 3:00 p.m. It got very windy going down the bay, and especially when we got into the ocean before we could make the turn into the entrance for Cape May. It was a little scary, because there are some shallow spots we had to watch out for. We anchored in Cape May in front of a US Coast Guard facility, so we heard Taps at night and Reveille in the morning, and heard them training all day. They yell a lot!
We were definitely stressed about our first ocean passage, and especially because part of it would be at night. On Sunday, July 24, we left Cape May at 4:45 a.m. (IN THE DARK!! AND IN THE FOG!!) and motored out into the ocean (first for us!!) passing the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia on the way south. There was very little wind at first, so we had to motor down the coast, but later in the morning we were able to put up the sails. We were very lucky with the weather, and the seas were calm except for 2-4 foot rollers. At 4:00 a.m. Monday morning (that's right...almost 24 hours later), we finally reached the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel! IN THE DARK!! With big cargo ships all around!! A HUGE 860' long cargo ship called us on the VHF radio (he even knew the name of our boat). He was behind us coming through the shipping channel by the bridge and wanted to let us know that he was behind us and asked what our course was. Bob told him that we will be going out of the shipping channel (the water is deep enough for us even though it was out of the channel) and we'd let him have all the room he wanted to get by! All we could see in the early morning light was a big black thing looming behind us. Good to know that our AIS and radio are working. (AIS is "Automatic Identification System". It shows up on a boat's AIS Receiver and lists a boat's name, size of boat, speed over ground, course over ground, etc. All commercial boats and any pleasure boats over 65' must have AIS. We have one, and it is very helpful.)
We stopped at Deltaville, Virginia, at 10:25 a.m., to get some much needed rest, anchoring in the Pianketank River near a very nice Marina where we were able to pay a small fee to use their amenities (internet lounge, swimming pool, vehicle to go shopping, and bicycles).
On Wednesday, July 27, we headed back up the Chesapeake and arrived back at our Marina around 8:00 p.m. We are currently installing our watermaker, but more about that in the next blog.