Chesapeake City, MD to Cape May, NJ

The little historic town of Chesapeake City sits directly under a new bridge that connects the Eastern Shore with Delaware.  We weren't able to dock at the free city dock, as it was a full house when we arrived.  We adpoted plan B and tied up just across the cove at the Chesapeake Inn.  Something about being exactly 37 steps up the dock from the bar decided the issue for us.

 

The live band in the bar kept playing until well into the night.  We needed a quick morning fix to get the day started on Wednesday.  Niki walked up around the corner onto Main Street to the Bohemia Cafe in search of breakfast fixins.  Nothing starts a day full of sailing capers as well as a fat bagel with lox, cream cheese, and the other caper.  She brought us hot coffee to wash it down and then out the C & D to the Delaware Bay.

 

 

We were chased down in the canal by a huge undersea cable laying ship.  She threw a huge bow wave and Broad Reach went a little broad side as she passed.  There was a steady line of south bound sailboats heading for the Chesapeake Bay as we continued to motor out to the Delaware.

 

 As we left the confines of the canal, the wind began to fill in directly on our nose.  We motored south down the river into an increasing chop.  We motored down the Baker Range due south with the winds pushing against us and the the force of the exiting tide.  Just beyond the Salem Nuclear Power Plant the river widens and heads southeast.  We were able to set the mainsail under power and motorsailed the boat close hauled almost all the way to Cape May.

  

 



We saw very little traffic on the river. What we did see was all bound north to Philadelphia.  From the looks of this half filled container ship, we all better start our Christmas shopping now.  The economy needs a boost, so go somewhere cool and spend some money on whatever the Marfret Line can lug your way.

 

 



 

Or if consumer goods are not your thing, you can at least throw one hell of a feast with the quantity of food on this Crowley Foods barge.  Niki had never seen a pushme-pullyou in person.  I pledged to make a one man effort to lift the economy by eating more yogurt.

 

What we were not aware of from reading the charts, is that a lot of the marks on the Delaware are old lighthouses that have been converted over to modern racons.  Here is the structure we passed when we got to Ship John Shoal.

 

 As we approached the dog leg called Elbow at Cross Ledge, we could see a very large tanker approaching from the south.  We stayed mostly in the channel on the way down river, but this big boy deserved considerable respect.  Rather than pass port sides, we decided to cut the corner of the elbow and gave him the whole width of the channel to make his impressive sweeping turn.

 

There is a actually an abandoned lighthouse marked on the chart just on the southeast corner of  Cross Ledge.  Just after it was abandoned, it got misplaced, because all that marks the very shoal water there now is this.

  Our final departure from the shipping channel was at the weirdly named Miah Maull Shoal.  Something about a short defenseless Italian and a poorly trained kept bear down in the hold of Spanish galleon?  I don't really know, but there must be a story there.  The lighthouse was pretty wonderful.

  Niki took the helm for the last mile close hauled before our turn to the SSE.  I took a short and intense few moments to closely inspect the leeward shrouds.

 

 OK, I was actually napping, but is was a long hard slog upwind for most of the day.  We passed some beautiful new and traditional boats that appeared to be Annapolis Boat show bound.

 

Niki had never seen an ocean going super tug pushing a barge before, but we got a close look at this one.

The final leg into Cape May was only 14 miles.  We had been making good 7 to 9 knots with the receding tide.  We mistimed the tidal change at the mouth of the river.  When the Delaware switched to flood stage, our speed over ground went all to hell in a handbasket.  The last leg was long, long, long.  As we patiently worked our way to the Cape May channel, we had time to enjoy this beautiful sunset.

 

As the sun was going down, the moon was rising.  We did the final 5 miles to the canal in the gathering dark, with moonshine reflecting off the water directly ahead of us.  It was very calming.  That turned out to be a very good thing.  There is a swing railway bridge halfway down the canal to Cape May harbor.  With Steve at the bow shouting directions back to Niki at the helm, I think we discovered a brand new method of couples therapy.  She likes to call it the No No No No No No method.  When we finally tied up around 10 PM we were ready for sleep, and just a little better prepared to cope with whatever life throws at us.