Mer Sea

We got back to Baltimore from the Cayman Islands at 11:00 on Monday night. We’d had a wonderful week with Danny and Marnie in their beautiful new house (complete with pool!!). It was great to have the time with them, and difficult to leave. Would that our families weren’t so scattered and that we could see them all on a more regular basis! It makes parting much more difficult because we don’t know when we’ll see each other again. However, the Great Loop calls, so leave we must.

 

Our plan was to spend Tuesday getting some work done on the computer (we’d enlisted the Geek Squad to come to the boat!), doing last minute laundry, shopping to provision for the next leg of the cruise, getting to a post office to mail something for Danny and to clear up a stupid change of address issue, and to be ready to leave at oh dark hundred on Wednesday morning.

 

We fell into bed on Monday night, and I woke at 6 AM on Tuesday. I checked the weather first thing, and saw that, looking ahead for a good, calm day to cross Delaware Bay on our second day of travel, we’d do best to leave that day (Tuesday) and cross the Bay on Wednesday. The weather was destined to deteriorate for the few days after that. We’d been told by countless people that Delaware Bay is the real monster, and that we’d do well to worry more about it than the run on the “outside” from Cape May to Sandy Hook. Roy and I talked about it, and decided to get our “chores” done as quickly as possible, cancel the Geeks (our computer seemed to be fine, after all…), and get started on Tuesday instead of Wednesday.

 

We were able to get off by about 11:00 – pretty good for all the stuff we’d been able to cram into the four or so hours we’d been at it! The Chesapeake was calm and easy going, and we had a pleasant ride to Chesapeake City. We’d planned to anchor in the basin there, but since we were arriving on the late side (around 6:30), the anchorage was too crowded for us to feel comfortable. Fortunately, there is a free floating dock, donated by the DuPonts, we later learned, also in the basin, and the wonderful boaters already tied up there offered to move their boats around and help us with our lines so that we could squeeze in. It took a shoehorn, but Roy and the new friends on the dock got us in with no problems.

 

We spent some time after docking studying the current tables for our ride the next day. On the Delaware, apparently even more than some other places, it’s prudent to be riding with the current. It looked like we’d have the wind against the current, but we figured that the wind speed was going to be so light as to be relatively insignificant. Generally, if the wind is against the current, that’s when you have the potential for really rough water.

 

Based on the information we were able to glean, we decided to leave at 5 AM the next morning in order to catch most of the current running with us. We had a simple supper of grilled hot dogs and beans, and hit the hay! It was going to be a short night!

 

The next morning we were able to pull away from the dock without hitting either of the boats around us, which was a testament to the fact that Roy’s dockmanship really has come a long way!! We headed out the C& D canal towards the Delaware River and Bay. There was a light breeze, and it was just a bit before sunrise. It was eerily quiet.

 

The canal is easy going – no navigation choices, you just stay near the middle, unless there’s a BIG freighter coming your way, right down the middle. The law of tonnage prevails, and you figure out a way to move over and let him by! We watched this big guy go under one of the bridges, and he just about made it. He was HUGE!!!

 

At the entrance to the Delaware River, there was a significant change in the water – current swirling around and pushing Mer Sea where it would. We are lucky to have plenty of “horses” (370 HP) that enable us to crank Mer Sea up when necessary to overcome such places, and we passed through unscathed into the Delaware.

 

There was an immediate change when we hit the river. The water was very choppy – not big waves, but rough, rough, rough, and relentless. The current WAS with us, however, and we were doing 11 knots where we would have been doing only 8 to 9 normally. It pays to get a free push!

 

The ride, as I’ve said, was rough. Not dangerous, not really “rocking the boat” but just choppy, so that we bounced and the water splashed and bounced and splashed our way down the Delaware. As the morning wore on, and the wind picked up a bit (it was certainly more than the predicted 5-10 knots), things got choppier, and the chop got taller, but it was still not really rolling the boat or feeling dangerous. I can see, however, that in any significant wind, it could be brutal! We saw several large tankers along the way, and a few other pleasure boats, but were mostly alone on the river.

 

When we entered the bay we made a turn towards the Cape May Canal, and were now out of the shipping channel. By this time, the current had turned, and although we were now losing a knot or two instead of gaining, the ride was better because the wind and current were no longer opposing. We encountered only a few crab pots along the way (always a concern when you’re not in the main channel), and saw lots of fishing boats. As we approached the canal, we saw several pods (is that the right term?) of dolphins fishing as well. Must be good fishing there!

 

Just as we were entering the canal, which is in the process of being dredged, and so partially blocked by a large dredging rig, one of the ferries at the terminal right there decided that that was the time to back up and get underway. Now, the canal is limited in size, the dredge is taking up a considerable part of it, another pleasure boat has followed us into the canal and is right behind us, and there’s a BIG ferry backing into the canal in front of us! Just a little more drama before we can make our way to the marina! We and the other pleasure boat were able to jockey around and avoid each other and the dredge and let the ferry out so that we could all be on our way. Whew!

 

We’re currently at Utsch’s Marina, watching the weather for a run up the Jersey coast. I’m looking forward to seeing all my old summer haunts from a mile or so out at sea. We’re hoping that our friends from Burnt Store Marina, Minnie and George, will get here in time to make the run with us (they’re in Chesapeake City preparing to cross Delaware Bay the last I heard). If not, we’ll catch up with them further down the “road”. As of the latest forecast, it looks like either Saturday or Sunday will be the day. We’ve decided to just wait for a good day and try to make the whole run, rather than breaking it up as we’d originally indicated in the float plan. Of course, if we don’t like what we see when we get out there, we’ll be tucking back in at one of the safe inlets along the way. Stay tuned!