Cape May, New Jersey May 26

On Memorial Day, despite our usual aversion to being on the water on holiday weekends, we traveled from Delaware City down Delaware Bay to Cape May, NJ.  The decision to travel Monday instead of waiting until our planned travel day of Tuesday was occasioned by careful study of the weather.  Delaware Bay is known as one of the roughest inland bodies of water when conditions are not favorable, and studying NOAA wind and current models suggested that the beautifully calm weekend weather pattern would begin to deteriorate soon after the weekend.  We therefore departed a day earlier than planned, and had a delightful journey down the bay.  Spirit Journey and Francesca followed us, and we timed our departure for 1030 to ride a favorable current for most of the 5 1/2 hour trip.  We arrived at Utsch's Marina, and were secured in our reserved slips by 5 p.m.  We will be here awhile, as both we and Spirit Journey's crew have obligations "out of the area" for a few days.  There was, indeed, significant wind on Tuesday followed by rain and thunderstorms ahead of a cold front, which arrived with high wind and low temperatures Wednesday morning.  This morning (Thursday) it is 55 degrees, and won't change much throughout the day!

Cape May Light, 165 ft., 1859

Cape May Architecture

Cape May Victorian Architecture

Cape May Architecture

Delaware City and Fort Delaware May 25

We spent three days in Delaware City, a quite "out of the way" place.  Though quaint, with less than fancy dockage facilities, the service quality of the staff was truly outstanding.  There were some pretty good little cafes and restaurants, as well.  We saw a preserved original section of the Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D) Canal, and took a tour boat over to Pea Patch Island, home of Fort Delaware.  Fort Delaware was constructed in the 1850s, and became perhaps the Union's largest POW prison for confederate soldiers.  On the island along with the POWs was a village that sustained the fort and its operations.  The entire population of about 16,000 + resided on a 70-acre island, the garrison in the elaborate fort (complete with a moat and indoor plumbing which flushed into the moat), and the prisoners and other island residents in outbuildings.

Downtown Delaware City, Delaware

Section of Original C&D Canal Lock

Fort Delaware, Pea Patch Island, Delaware

Entry, Fort Delaware 

Prisoner Barracks for 250 men, Fort Delaware
 

Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, Delaware City, Delaware May 23

We traveled up the last reaches of the Chesapeake Bay, and entered the C&D Canal.  This canal, originally conceived in 1661, won Benjamin Franklin's support in 1788 and was completed in 1829.  It reduced the required travel distance from Philadelphia to Baltimore by over 300 miles, and removed the need for ships to enter the Atlantic Ocean to make the journey.  As we passed under the bridge shown below, we left Maryland and entered Delaware.  Some 13 miles later, we exited the canal, turned slightly upstream in the Delaware River, and then entered the small channel to the Delaware City Marina.  We were "last in", so I got to "parallel park" between two boats already secured to the pier.  It is interesting to try to move 60,000 pounds of boat sideways into a spot only 10-15 feet longer than the boat itself.  The operation went flawlessly, however (don't ask to see it a second time!), and the very friendly and professional dock staff soon had us tightly secured in place.  This is a quaint little town, but tomorrow we will ride the bus to a West Marine store up toward Wilmington.  This is our hangout through the holiday weekend, and then we will have to find an appropriate weather window (current and wind on the Delaware Bay) for our transit to Cape May.

 

C&D Canal

Delaware City Marina

Chester River & Sassafras River, MD May 22

We looked at the weather forecast, and decided to make a bit more progress north the first day out of Solomons, MD, than we had first thought.  We anchored a night up the Chester River in one of its tributaries, the Corsica River.  It was a very secluded and quiet anchorage  We then traveled further up the bay to the Sassafras River, and spent two nights anchored there.  Our cruising compadres Ron and Michele aboard Spirit Journey also joined us for one night in the river before they moved on.  As you can see from the photos below, we shared an anchorage with a fox ashore (he reappeared later with a fish in his mouth), a lot of mosquitos shown on the window screen (second only to our insect population off the Alligator River in North Carolina last year), and a violent (purple inside red on the radar) thunderstorm which blew about 50 knots and hailed for 10-15 minutes. 

Blue Angels Practice off Annapolis

Spirit Journey, Sassafras River, MD

Fox Who Shared His Anchorage With Us

Other Less Desirables Who Shared Our Anchorage

Back on the Water Again May 19

We are "Back On The Water, Again"...  Wasn't that an old cowboy song, or was that something about a saddle?  Anyway, Kay and I returned from Texas to Virginia (over 1600 miles) via Baton Rouge, Montgomery, and Charlotte in a crammed-full rental car, and reached our boat about a week ago.  A couple of highlights of the trip were tours of the Hank Williams museum in Montgomery and the Billy Graham library in Charlotte.  We unloaded all of our stuff onto the boat just before a 45 mph squall and rainstorm blew through, thoroughly rinsing the boat!  After a side trip to Norfolk to meet with Customs & Border Protection folks and few days of provisioning and last-minute preparation of the boat, we were off for a delightful trip north to Solomons, MD, where we have spent the last few days unwinding from the trip and visiting with other boating friends.  It is amazing how both in Deltaville and Solomons we continually meet up with former acquaintances.   We do now understand why last fall the locals suggested that we not return before well into May...it was 46 degrees this morning!  Below is an osprey chick in its nest in Deltaville, and a view across the creek in Solomons toward the lighthouse museum.