Time to Head South

Friday was our third and final day on Chesapeake Bay and we covered 47 nautical miles in about 7 hours.  Winds were calm two days in a row and day three on the Chesapeake was just as calm and smooth as the 2nd day was.   Unlike the southern part of the bay, the northern part has sections that are much deeper.  We saw depth readings of over 150' as compared to the more typical 30' - 50' we had seen on day one and two.  Such a difference from GA, SC and NC with depths regularly under 10'.

Also unlike the southern part of the Chesapeake, we didn't spend the third and final day dodging crab pots like we did the first two days.  For those of you not familiar, crab pots are laid out in lines, typically 10 or so pots in a line.  A crab pot has a small colored buoy floating on the surface of the water which is tied to a line that goes down to the crab trap.  These are to be avoided as running into one can wind the line up around your prop, or worse yet, if the line cutters don't work as they should, the metal crab trap can get wound up into your running gear.  Even on a calm day crab pots can be difficult to spot until they are right in your path, especially buoys that are blue, green or black.  Yellow, orange and red buoys are a lot easier to spot sooner and avoid.   When there are waves or when the sun is in your eyes, like first thing in the morning if you are driving east out of an anchorage, they are even harder to spot.  This was the situation our captain was in as we started out on day two from our anchorage, we had to head east for about 30 minutes before we could turn north and the captain had the sun in his eyes making it very hard to see the crab trap buoys.

Both the Captain and the Admiral spent two days on high alert
looking for crab traps on Chesapeake Bay. 
Manual steering to avoid them was frequent.

Much of Chesapeake Bay was littered with crab traps.

Stock Image of a Crab Trap.
Not something you want to get tangled in your running gear.
The metal trap is approximately 2' x 2'.

At the top of Chesapeake Bay, there is a short 14 mile man made canal called the C&D canal that runs east/west and connects Chesapeake Bay to Delaware Bay.  We secured dockage Friday night on the free city dock in downtown Chesapeake City at the beginning of the C&D canal.  Chesapeake City is a quaint summer resort town with a population under 1,000.  After successfully completing Chesapeake Bay we relaxed a bit and treated ourselves to a Friday afternoon happy hour at the tiki and enjoyed a live country band.  We also met a really fun couple from PA that we visited with for a few hours.  Very nice folks and hopefully our paths will cross again someday.  We also very much enjoyed the Friday afternoon boat activity coming to the tiki.  The weather was mid 80's and based on the number of patrons at the tiki, best guess is many folks took Friday afternoon off to bring their boats out and enjoy the nice weather.

We think we read that the C&D canal is the third busiest canal in the United States and very large vessels pass through it.  Saturday morning, this 5,000 car hauler from Seoul went by in the canal, just yards from where we were tucked away on the free city dock.  It was bigger than a cruise ship!  It passed us a couple days ago and quite possibly it could have stopped to unload cars in Annapolis or Baltimore and was heading through the canal and then up to Philadelphia.

We moved Make Me Smile the short 14 miles to the east end of the C&D canal Saturday to Delaware City as the free city dock in Chesapeake City allows just a 24 hour stay.   We also crossed another state line and said goodbye to Maryland and hello to Delaware, making our seventh state so far (FL, GA, SC, NC, VA, MD, DE).  

While we were touring Delaware City on Saturday afternoon, the park had a booth set up advertising the inaugural "Charge the Fort - 4 Miler".  It is a 4 mile run with proceeds benefiting Fort Delaware State Park.  Hilary registered on the spot and ran the 4 mile race on Sunday morning, April 27th, with about 62 other participants for the inaugural event.  Registration also included a free admission to Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island.  

This afternoon we packed a picnic and rode the ferry over the 1/2 mile from Delaware City to the fort in 20mph sustained winds and 40mph gusts. So thankful we interpreted the weather report correctly and knew of high winds and small craft advisories today and chose to not move Make Me Smile today.  

For the history buffs, Fort Delaware was built in 1859 and served as a Civil War prison which held roughly 33,000 Confederate prisoners of war.  The fort has costumed interpreters that tell stories of what life was like on the island at the fort in 1864.

After traversing the C&D canal yesterday we are back in twice a day 6' tides with strong currents after having less than 1-2' tides for the last several weeks.  It's a strange sensation to look out the windows and see a dirt bank at low tide and a few hours later look out the windows and see streets and houses at high tide.

Low Tide
(note the proximity to the street light)

 

High Tide
(note the proximity to the street light)

The wind looks cooperative for tomorrow and our intent is to travel all of Delaware Bay which is about 55 miles south and arrive in Cape May, NJ (state #8).  Cape May is the jumping off point to run outside in the Atlantic Ocean up to New York Harbor, which will also require very careful weather planning and we estimate will be three travel days.   

To speak briefly on the name of this post, Time to head South, like life, following the water isn't a straight line, thus a full day of traveling south for us, just to turn 180 degrees and start back north for New York at the next weather opportunity.