Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake

Saturday, Sept 21 -- The Cape May Coast Guard Training Center bootcamp recruits were quiet at 7 a.m. as we slipped out of the harbor, bound for the Cohansey River in Delaware Bay -- perhaps they get to sleep in on Saturdays!

As we began heading up Delaware Bay, a veritable parade of tankers was heading down the bay -- seven, in fact.  Happily, they were traveling a fair distance from us -- but that means the photos are distant, too.  Below are a couple of them:

Tankers in Delaware Bay

 And below, if you squint, you can see a line of four, starting with the second one in the photo above:

Line of tankers going southeast in Delaware Bay

As the tankers were streaming by, we came to a Racon buoy -- a buoy that sends out a radar signal.  The wind was light and we were motoring (in spite of predicted strong winds -- again), so we had the juice to spin up the radar for fun.  Below you can see the signal from the Racon buoy -- three shorts and a long -- as well as the line of tankers (the yellow blobs):

Racon buoy and tankers in Delaware Bay

About an hour later, we came to another Racon buoy, with a different signal, two shorts.  You can also see the tankers, behind us now:

Another Racon buoy

About mid-day the wind freshened out of the southeast, to 10 knots.  This was straight behind us, so we pulled out the sails and went "wing-on-wing" -- namely, the main out horizontally to port (left) and the jib out horizontally to starboard (right).  Below is how it looks from the cockpit of the boat:

 'Wing on wing', sailing up Delaware Bay

Wing On Wing is such a glorious way of sailing, and also on account of the initials, we note it as "WOW" in the log.  In the photo, you can see the "whisker pole" on the jib, holding it out to starboard. The jib is quite large and thus heavy, and the whisker pole helps keep it out horizontal.  You can't see it in the photo, but we also put a "preventer" on the main -- a line preventing the main from swinging across to the other side, should the wind get too light to hold it out, or shift around and back-wind the main.  

We had a glorious (WOW!) sail up the bay.  We did at one point encounter a powerboat careening toward us, into our side of the channel and crowding us out of the channel where there were shoals on the side.  We (Dorothy) blew the air horn, long and loud, and it corrected course.  

By 2:00, we were nearly to Ship John Shoal, marking our turn into the Cohansey River:

 Delaware Bay, "Ship John Shoal"

Dorothy took the whisker pole down (Fred had put it up!) and rolled in the jib.  After we went around the Ship John Shoal mark, we headed into the wind (weaving between lots of crab pots) and brought in the main as well.  We had to be careful with depths, so motored in from here.  The Cohansey River terrain was comprised of beautiful marsh grasses:

 Cohansey River

The water was quite "lively," with the tide going out and about 1.7 knots current against us:

 Ebb tide, 1.7 knots,  Cohansey River

The river meandered, back and forth, and on the inside meanders, there was shoaling too shallow to pass.  On the outside meanders, the depth was sometimes over 60 feet!!  Fred deftly navigated up the river, about 3 miles, to where we anchored, right in the middle of the river, and hunkered down for rain and gusty winds up to 20 knots predicted overnight.  We got some rain and wind, and eventually it died down.  In the wee hours, we heard a great horned owl!  How often do you hear that when anchored!!

Sunday, Sept 22 -- In the morning, Dorothy navigated us back out.  At that time, the tide was ebbing -- current in our favor -- and was nearing slack tide.  The water had already dropped several feet, and the marsh grasses now stood on top of piles of dirt, one to two feet out of the water, all in all presenting a very different picture than on the way in:

Cohansey River marshes, near low tide

The wind had come around to the north overnight as the front came through, and was now straight on the nose.  We could not tack back and forth as we were traveling in a very narrow channel, so again, we were motoring, even though there was a vigorous 15 knots of wind!

As we continued making our way up Delaware Bay, we looked behind us and saw:

 A tanker sneaks up on us from astern

We left him plenty of room, and soon he was beside us:

 Tanker, probably bound for Wilmington or Philadelphia

And then leaving us behind:

Tanker overtakes us in short order

Below is another ship, passing us the other direction:

Another ship passing, bound for sea

Another sight along the way:

The Salem Nuclear Power plant dominates Delaware Bay

Salem nuclear power plant

By late morning, we came to the C&D (Chesapeake and Delaware) Canal, and turned on in.  The canal is quite beautiful, lined with stone and trees.  Below are a few sights along the way:

 Conrail Lift bridge, Chesapeake & Delaware Canal

 A natural gas pipeline aerial crossing

 In Chesapeake City -- 'boat-up' restaurant service

At last we reached the Chesapeake Bay, and now we could really sail.  So often, we have motored much of the day, then sailed near the end -- it lets us end the day with a great feeling!

 At last the Chesapeake - -lined with estates and rolling terrain

We turned into the Sassafras River to anchor for the night.  Fred's father had sailed there in the 1940's, and told Fred it was beautiful.  Indeed it was!  High bluffs, red soil.  Great blue herons, and Canada geese!

 Sassafras River

Our anchorage

Sunset on the Sassafras River

And our last seven days, ending at the Sassafras River:

Last seven days of locations, up to Sassafras River, Chesapeake Bay

A good time to say good night!