Crew Log for October 16th, 2022
Trip Summary:
Cape May, NJ to Chesapeake City, Delaware
Trip Distance of 56.5 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 1,331.8 NM
Departed at 0700 hours and arrived at 1730 hours
After the 24 hour trip down the Jersey Coast, we were looking forward to a couple of days to recharge and explore some of Cape May. However, after a quick look at the forecast for the next few days, we realized that we “had to get, while the getting’ was good”. There was virtually no wind in today’s forecast, but we had heard enough stories of tough conditions on the Delaware to know that for smaller boats like ours, motoring wasn’t the worst option.
The Delaware Bay is a huge estuary fed from the Delaware River to the North and the Atlantic Ocean, between Cape May, NJ and Lewes, Delaware, to the south. Fresh water from the northern watershed and surrounding salt marshes and mudflats, mixes with the saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean and gives the water in the Bay a chocolate milk like appearance.
Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are both north of the Bay, as is our destination, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (C&D Canal). There is a shipping channel that runs the length of the Bay, but the waters on either side of it are very shallow. Because of the shallow water, you are forced to follow the narrow ribbon of a channel along with all the commercial boat traffic. As a result, in addition to the natural challenges of wind and waves, you also have large wakes to contend with. And since the Delaware is one of the busiest shipping channels in the US (second after the Mississippi), there is a lot of wake from passing ships.
Once you leave the protection of Cape May, there are not a lot of anchoring options, particularly for sailboats along the bay, and those that do exist offer very little protection. This is one of those “all in” passages.
The geography of the Delaware and the resulting conditions that are created by the weather and tides, are not dissimilar to the Bay of Fundy. Delaware Bay, like the Bay of Fundy has a large opening to the Atlantic Ocean, with a long Bay that narrows, effectively squeezing incoming water. Again, like the Bay of Fundy, since the Bay is so shallow, all that water has nowhere to go. Nowhere, but up. Combining these ramp like waves, with outgoing water from the upstream watershed creates some interesting challenges. If anyone has ever been Tidal Bore Rafting, you will have a sense of what I am describing.
Not to spoil the story, but it turned out we had a perfectly uneventful crossing.
However, we spoke to a couple from Quebec after we arrived in Chesapeake City, who had waves breaking over the back of their 38 foot trawler, a couple of days before we made our passage. All this to say, better to go in no wind that the wrong wind. Which is why, despite being tired and facing the prospect of motoring 10 hours, we decided to leave today.
Fortunately, our decision to take a slip in Cape May, meant that we had an incredibly quiet night and woke feeling refreshed and ready to go. I spoke to crew from another boat on the dock who also decided to leave today, as were Magali and IMOK, who were both on anchor. First light was coming later and later and so we waited until 07h00 to push off. As we left the marina entrance, the other boat was waving at us madly. Turns out they took the 90 degree turn too wide and ran into the mud. They free themselves shortly after we went by.
One advantage of having a smaller boat is that we can go under fixed bridges that have a 55 foot air draught, which today meant, we could take the Cape May Canal, which would cut off over an hour and avoid some nasty conditions at the mouth of the Delaware. As forecasted, it was a beautiful morning with very light winds and clear skies. The sunrise over the canal was beautiful.
As we approached the Henlopen Ferry docks at the northern end of the canal, we spotted sv Magali who appeared to be stopped. They ran aground just across from the ferry docks. We briefly thought about trying to pull them off, by were worried about getting stuck ourselves given the narrow channel and shallow water. We radioed a passing trawler and asked them to create a wake to see if they could bounce off, but it didn’t work. The tide was on the way up and they could call Towboat US, so either way, we hoped they won’t be there long. As it turned out, they arrived in Chesapeake City at the same time we did.
Since the conditions were relatively “calm”, we took a short cut across some shallow water from the end of Cape May Canal and angled north towards the shipping channel. In rougher conditions there is the possibility of hobby horsing which came with the risk of hitting the bottom. Given the water was relatively calm, the advantage for us was it shortened the trip while avoiding commercial traffic in the shipping lanes.
I did however start to question our routing decision since we weren’t getting the tide push we had expected. Our expected 10 hour trip was starting to look like a 12 – 14 hour trip, which met we would in all likelihood have to anchor just outside the C&D Canal entrance at Reedy Point. Luckily however, the current shifted and by the early afternoon and were screamed along at over 6 knots! We sat back and enjoyed listening to the Patriots game on the radio. Very old school.
You don’t realize sometimes just how much adrenaline pushes you through stressful situations and the sense of calm that washes over you when you achieve what you set out to do. We reached the entrance to the C&D Canal at 16h00, which was perfect timing to take advantage of the current flowing down into the Chesapeake. We were feeling pretty good that we had finally made it to the Chesapeake, which meant, we hoped, the worst was behind us. Admittedly, we were still a little on edge, having just come from Atlantic Highlands in less than 3 days.
Just as we entered the mouth of the Canal, I played a Snapchat of one of the grandkids honking on a kid’s musical instrument and forgot that my phone was still connected to the Bluetooth speaker. Judy heard these crazy noises coming from some strange place on the boat, and thought there was something wrong with the autopilot! There was a massive sense of relief when I explained that it was her granddaughter’s musical talent not the autopilot.
We have wisely avoided any conversation of American politics since we arrived in the US, and while all of our interactions with the locals have been pleasant, politics will continue to be an off limits discussion. As we entered the C&D Canal however, after the massive amounts of debris floating in the water, the next thing we saw was a very noisy speedboat flying a giant “F*&$ Biden” flag. The flat water of the C&D Canal also seems to be a favorite spot for “drag racing” power boats. Fortunately, the resulting wake wasn’t too bad, although the noise was annoying to say the least.
The C&D Canal was built in the early 1800’s and was the vision of a Dutch settler, Augustine Herman, who saw it as a way to reduce the 300 mile trip around the Delmarva Peninsula. As the name implies, it connects the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. Construction started in 1824 and underwent a number of changes to get to it’s present state. The current canal is 14 miles long, 450 feet wide and 35 feet deep. It is owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as are the highway bridges that cross it.
There are a total of 6 bridges that cross over the C&D Canal: the Reedy Point Bridge; St. George’s Bridge; Sen. William V. Roth, Jr. Bridge, Delaware Central Railway Bridge; Summit Bridge; and the Chesapeake City Bridge. The St. Georges was the first to be completed in 1941. The Sen. Roth bridge, the largest at 6 lanes, was last to be built in 1995.
Chesapeake City is located on the Canal at the original site of the Old Lock Pump House, parts of which can still be seen today, at the local museum. It’s label of a “city”, is a slight overstatement of its 0.73 sq mile area and 736 year-round residents. There are however a number of original homes dating back to the early and mid 1800’s along with the usual collection of unique coffee and gift shops and a few local restaurants. As we would find out however, provisioning was a challenge, as was getting a taxi. There are no Ubers in these parts. After a stressful and challenging few days however, we welcomed a peaceful anchorage.
We woke the next morning feeling rested and dinghied into town to explore “the city”. Google suggested the only place within reasonable walking distance to get groceries was the “Dollar General” store. We managed to pick up a few things’, which exceeded our backpack capacity. It was at this point, that we realized, judging from the look on the Dollar General staff’s face when we asked about a cab, taxi’s were not common in Chesapeake City.
After a brief walk through the local museum, we toured around the anchorage to say hello to some of our neighbours, including 2 Quebec couples on trawlers, who shared their experience of crossing the Delaware noted earlier, with us. Then, there was “Chris” from Maine and his dog “Murray”. It turned out that Murray was a rescue that spent his early years being raised with ferrets. Despite his small toy dog like appearance, apparently Murray was a bit snappy, Chris said the dog thought he was a ferret, particularly when in the company of strangers. Chris, who can be best described as a Mick Jaggar look-a-like, has been on the water his entire life and had a number of stories to tell. He and Murray were headed to somewhere in North Carolina to do some boat work.
We made pizza for supper for the first time and I was actually surprised at how well it turned out, given we were at the mercy of Dollar General for ingredients. I found a new pizza dough recipe that suggested precooking the crust for 10 minutes to avoid having the toppings making it soggy. Judy prepared the sauce and it all came together wonderfully.
We were anxious to head out on to the Chesapeake. Our plan was to head to the Sassafras River in the morning, while Magali planned to go to Harve de Grace, which sounded wonderful.
But…more about that…next time.
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