Sunrise on Chesapeake Bay leaving Salt Ponds Marina. Eastern side of bay too far to block anything.
We are at Delaware City Marina at the east end of the C & D (Chesapeake & Delaware) canal. Yesterday we ran 93 miles up the Chesapeake to Spring Cove Marina. This is our longest “open water” run to date. It was OK, but with some rolling at times. As usual, the bay proved easier and smoother than expected. Things we have never done are always a bit scary at first, but then we find them nicer than expected. What should we expect? The Chesapeake is one of the boating capitals of the world, with many huge marinas holding boats most of which are smaller than ours. It could not be too bad.
Passed a few of these lighthouses out in the middle of the bay. I assume all are no longer manned.
On the other hand, I talked to a number of people at Salt Ponds where we stayed the extra night. While I’m sure there are many others who are different, none of those I talked with had taken their boat north of the Potomac mouth! Below are things we saw the second day on the bay.
A mysterious thing appeared out in the bay. We tried guessing, but the charts said it was an LNG terminal.
Long set of bridges crossing the bay. To the south bridges are partial. Traffic was in tunnels where we crossed.
The flag in the back is French. Going to Philadelphia July 4th celebration. Sails are for show. It’s under power.
Today it was 95 miles up to a marina on the canal west end, but we were making good time so I decided to go 20 miles further through the canal. I called Delaware City and reserved their very last spot.
After exiting the canal we went a mile north up the Delaware river and then a half mile up a very narrow channel where the shifting current can be 5 knots and more. We were fortunate in two ways. It was slack current as we went up. Then, just after we tied up to get fuel the mother of all thunderstorms came and totally drenched everything. I don’t remember of being in rain that heavy since we got the boat. If we had been twenty minutes later we would have been caught in the rain in the channel. It probably would not have been dangerous. There were no high winds or waves, but the rain was thick enough that it was hard to see, and maneuvering and docking would have been anything but fun. I suppose if the current had been maximum with that low visibility rain things might have gotten interesting.
Now we’re making progress. We went over 200 miles in two days. We plan to stay here an extra day and fix a few other things on the boat.
Jack & Sue 