Our First Post

O God, thy Sea is so great and my boat so small

  

 

May 11, 2023, Captain Bills Landing, Point Pleasant Beach, Manasquan Inlet, New Jersey

 

We finally had some great travel days on Chesapeake Bay this week and we visited some wonderful towns. It’s been a fun week and we have made a lot progress. We have traveled over 250 miles this week (including two very short travel days). We traveled through the C&D Canal, cruised down Delaware Bay (65 miles) and today we came 100 miles up the New Jersey coast on the Atlantic Ocean. So here is a review of our week:

 

 

May 5, 2023, Travel Day # 130: Rock Hall Landing, Rock Hall MD To Log Pond Marina, Have DE Grace MD.

Total Distance 23 Miles, Total Time 3 Hours

 

We spent two nights in Rock Hall due to the weather, a very small town that we walked into on Thursday and did our grocery shopping and picked up some supplies at West Marina. Always nice to not have to pay marina prices for supplies so if there is a West Marina around we always swing by and get what we need. We had dinner on the boat Thursday night and Friday was raining a total wash out until 2 PM, so we just worked on boat projects, cleaned, and I published my last post. We walked 2 miles to “the best restaurant in town” and it did not disappoint. We had a fantastic meal all local seafood, on a great deck overlooking the bay, just marvelous.   We woke up on Saturday morning and it was foggy. Around 10 AM we had over a mile visibility so off we went to Have De Grace which was less that 25 miles away. We left the dock and had a little visibility but as we got into the bay the curtain closed. Within 10 minutes we had less than a half mile of visibility and then it got worst. We had our radar on and there were not many boats out (for good reason!) and we were in deep water so there were not any crab pots so we figured we would stay the course.  The good thing was in this area of the bay it was very well marked, and we had buoys every mile, so we could confirm our locations. The Red and Green marks were only 200 yards abreast in this section and we had to choose which mark to identify as we could not see the other one, not fun! Fortunately, after one hour of this cruising we broke out into the sunshine, and it was a beautiful day. We slowed way down in the fog, they say you should only travel as fast as you want to hit something, good advice. We arrived in Have De Grace to find out they were celebrating Founder’s Day and there was a huge festival going on in the park by the waterfront, BONUS! We settled into the slip and washed down the boat. We walked about a mile to Mass at 5 PM, then walked back to the festival and had a wonderful evening. It was a great local celebration, bands playing, food trucks all around, a beer garden, families of all ages and types have a fun evening. The band stopped at 8:30 so we walked back to the boat in time to watch the fireworks go off from the bow of Her Idea.  

It was a fun stop and a total surprise to happen upon their special event.

 

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Pea Soup FOG!

 

 Now that is low visibility!

We could only see one Buoy

 

Finally Breaks Through 

 Still have Barges around

Have De Grace

Tug Behind Docked  Her Idea

Fireworks Barge

 The Celebartion

May 7, 2023, Travel Day # 131: Log Pond Marina, Have DE Grace MD. To Chesapeake Inn and Restaurant, Chesapeake City Maryland.

Total Distance 23 Miles, Total Time 3 Hours

 

Today we only had a short ride to the marina which is famous for offering boat side cocktails and meal service. The waiters cruise the docks and take your order and it being a Sunday they had two different bands playing. This marina gets a lot of day traffic folks coming in for 2-3 hours and then departing. In fact, when things cleared out that evening there were only three boats that had spent the evening at the dock, during the day there were 100 boats in the marina. Party Central!  We departed Long Pond in Have DE Grace at 10 AM and arrived in Chesapeake City just around noontime. Chesapeake City is located on the C&D Canal. The C&D Canal connects the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay on the northern end, is 14 miles long, 450 feet wide and dredged to a depth of 45 feet. I’ll show a picture of the information on the construction of the canal. The C&D canal is the third busiest canal in the United States and provides safe passage for many ships. It’s a main thoroughfare for products going to and from Philadelphia. On this voyage we spent our last day on Chesapeake Bay which we had been on since April 20^th. They last two days were by far the nicest weather wise (once we got through the fog yesterday), it was sunny and no waves.  I now understand the difference of being at the bottom of a 180-mile bay and the top end. Its called fetch, what the wind over time and distance does to the waves. If I were a boater on Chesapeake Bay I would live in the northern section for sure.

Once we got to the marina we had lunch on board and cleaned the boat something we didn’t do the day before. We walked around Chesapeake City which didn’t take very long. Back on the boat, we sat up on the fly bridge and played some cribbage. It was a perfect place to do some people watching, looking out at all the boats and boaters. Later we had a very nice dinner at the restaurant. It was a fun place to spend a Sunday afternoon overall, it was another great day on the Loop.

 

 

 

 

 

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Pictures

This is a range light at the top of Chesapeake Bay, the ships follow this as a guide down bay 

Great Journey over to Chesapeake City 

 Another Tiki Bar at the Chesapeake City Inn an Marina

Chesapeake City 

C & D Canal Facts 

 Chesapeake Inn and Marina, on a hopping Sunday afternoon

Can you find Her Idea ?

 

May 8, 2023, Travel Day # 132: Chesapeake Inn and Restaurant, Chesapeake City Maryland. To Delaware City Marina, Delaware City DE.

Total Distance 18 Miles, Total Time 2 Hours

 

We had another short run today as Delaware City Marina is located on the eastern end of the C&D canal located right off the Delaware River. We wanted to arrive on ½ tide rising as it’s a pretty skinny creek that the marina is located on, so we hung out until 10 AM and arrived at noon an hour before high tide. We arrived at noon filled up with very inexpensive fuel, less than $4 now for diesel (sure beats $7 a gallon in Canada this summer!). We settled into our slip, had lunch, and then walked into town.  Delaware City was much larger and nicer that Chesapeake City but being a Monday there was very little open. The owner of the Marina Tim does a Delaware Bay briefing including weather winds forecast every day at 4 PM. He lets us know if it’s a good day to make the 65-mile voyage. Unlike Chesapeake Bay wind and waves from the south are not good days on Delaware Bay. The Bay is 40 miles wide at the bottom of the bay and 65 miles long, so you need to pick your day. There also are no Plan B options, therefore once you go you go, or turn back (there is no turning

back!). The shore line is all marsh land, we did not pass one town, building or factories, the only thing we saw was a nuclear plant, so no bail out. We attending the meeting that afternoon and he advised us to wait one more day, which we did. Tuesday night we attended his briefing again, and the weather was still looking favorable, so we had one other boat LoriAnn that was going travel with us. Bill had just bough the LoriAnn and had a delivery captain Joe, on board and they were headed home to Sandy Hook NJ. We became friendly with them both hanging out in the marina for a day and a half, nice guys. So, we decided to depart at 5:30 AM and try and get down the bay in the best conditions. Early to bed as that would be the earliest we have depart since last summer.

 

 

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Pictures

Cruising down the C&D canal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 10, 2023, Travel Day # 133: Delaware City Marina, Delaware City DE. South Jersey Marina, Cape May NJ

Total Distance 65 Miles Total Time 6 Hours:

 

 

We were up at 4:30 and started untying lines and disconnecting power from the dock at 5:15 and we were underway just after 5:30AM. Loriann took the lead, and we slipped in behind them as we entered the Delaware River. It was just starting to get light and was a perfect morning. One of our prettiest sunrises, The Bay was flat, and we had less than 5 MPH of wind. This is normally one of the harder Bays to cross as the prevailing winds are Southerly and you have to pick the right day, which we luckily did thanks to Tim’s briefing.  It was wonderful to have had such a beautiful day to make this journey. We had several large container ships pass us by but with unlimited visibility and a very well-marked channel all our encounters were very easy. Just as we were getting to the C&D canal I got a text from an old friend “Good Moring Neighbor” who we had not seen since November Navigator Marko and Karen. Meredith looked over and they were just joining the Bay from the canal and so we all cruised down the Bay together. Unfortunately, they were trying to get to New York as soon as possible and they continued on to Atlantic City that day and didn’t stay overnight in Cape May. I was so looking forward to catching up.  It was still wonderful to reconnect.  We had a wonderful journey and when I talked to Tim at the marina (I had to call and thank him) that night he said we had the best day of the year to travel.

I had been concerned about this voyage and it turned out to be a wonderful experience.

We got to Cape May early and had plenty of time to walk into town, which was about 2 miles, and go grocery shopping. The marina was going to pick us up when we were done shopping so we could pick up more things rather what we would have if we had to walk back 2 miles. Cape May is a very nice town full of very nice Victorian house (more house pictures) and we enjoyed walking around. Joe and Bill were at our marina so we hung with them for a while and developed a plan to travel 100 miles to Manasquan Intel the next day which would put us 50 miles the following day to New York City and our ultimate goal. So, we were planning on another 5:30 AM Departure as we would have 9–10-hour day.

 

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Sunrise 

Lighthouse on Delaware Bay

Navagator Our Buddy Boat from The Rivers

Tanker Upbound 

Look at the Bow wake, another ship 5 miles behind him

 Cape May

Downtown Shopping Area

 

May 11, 2023, Travel Day # 134: South Jersey Marina, Cape May NJ, To Captain Bill’s Landing Point Pleasant Beach NJ.

Total Distance 100 Miles Total Time 9.5 Hours:

 

The forecast for this journey and the next day were very favorable, and that I why we decided to try and do the long leg. Traditional folks do the Jersey coast in 3–50-mile days, the first evening going into Atlantic City, second night into Manasquan Inlet, the third to Sandy Hook.  We had a beautiful sunrise and sun all day long. The seas were behind us giving is a little bit of a push and the winds were light. It was great being back on the Atlantic Ocean as the water was so clear. We have been in the inland waterways and the rivers since Chicago, last September! It was wonderful to see the green and blue clear water, ahh to be back in the Atlantic felt great. Not much to report as it was a long day just cruising 3 miles off the Jersey coast, it is beach after beach I have certainly heard of the “Jersey Shore” but from just off shore there are miles and miles of beach, it really is beautiful. Lots of seaside towns for sure.

We arrive at Bill’s Landing at 3:30 and topped off with diesel fuel as we understand the prices in New York are very steep. We were pretty tired and knew there was a great restaurant nearby and so we just hung out and had dinner there. It was a great day overall and put us only 50 mile to The Statue of Liberty which is where we would cross our wake on Friday.

 

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Pictures

 Sunrise 

Sunset at Captain Billy's

The clean Atlantic Ocean its great to be back!

Atlantic City

Jersey Shore 

The Atlantic Ocean

Now I know this post is delayed and I have already posted our Big News. Presently we are in Newport RI waiting for the wind to die down and make our next leg to Sandwich Mass the eastern end of the Cape Cod Canal. Hopefully its tomorrow maybe Thursday. From Sandwich we have two 60-mile journeys first to Gloucester MA and then our home port. The weather doesn’t look very good for the weekend so we will wait and see how long it takes to get home.  I can’t express how lucky we have been to have had this experience.  

but excited to get back to Kennebunk and RELAX!

 

Once I get settled in I will send out another post with all the numbers: miles, hours, days, and whatever I gather and share it with you folks. Thanks for coming along for the ride, can’t wait to catch up with you all in person.

 

Cheers and Fair Winds