Monday, June 3, 2013

STUCK FOR A COUPLE DAYS IN DELAWARE


 
Wow.  Today was a very long day.  We left Annapolis at around 6:30 headed for Delaware City.  We made it, but the trip was not without its interesting moments.  This trip was one of those, at the beginning of which, you say to yourself, “Gosh, I wish I had left an hour earlier.”  Of Course the National Whatever Service had a small craft advisory posted for the northern Chesapeake Bay, and this time they were a little closer to correct in their forecast.
When we left the dock, the winds were quite light, but, by the time we reached the outer harbor, the water was quilted in whitecaps.  There was a pretty good lump rolling in with the wind, too.  No problem, however.  Although we were having a hell of a time running beam to the conditions, we simply adjusted course to find the best ride until we were at a good angle to turn left and head under the bridge. Finally, we turned left and started heading north.  The course adjustment only took us a mile or two out of our way, but what’s a mile or two compared to the seventy we had planned for the day.  Again, if we had only left an hour earlier….

By the time we got to the bridge, we were feeling the full brunt of the outgoing tide.  The turbulence as we passed through the footings was impressive.  Our speed dropped to just over 5 knots and I had to take it out of autopilot to keep the nose from turning too far that we would spin out.  A sailboat in front of us kept doing just that.  They were rolling and spinning rail to rail.  At that point, I was very glad we have 200 turbocharged ponies down below which gave us all the push we needed to make it through safely.  And we did.  Moreover, once through the bridge, the turbulence was gone and we had relatively comfortable following sea conditions.  That first hour or so was a bit rough, and again, had we only left an hour earlier.
As we headed further north, the Bay narrows and the conditions were fine.  The scenery improved, too.  By the time we got as far up the Bay as Fairlee Creek, a very cool place where we spent 4th of July in 2011 with our friends Barry and Jodie on “Love Shack”, the wind was basically behind the land and not impacting us at all, and the cruising was easy.  The upper Chesapeake is a very different place from the middle or lower parts.  It is actually quite beautiful.  At some point, you feel more like you are on a river than a huge bay because it gets quite narrow and the banks make for good sight seeing.  There are lots of pretty homes to look at and wonder about.

It’s been a while so I forgot that there are some rude folks out there who happen to own boats.  Several times throughout the day, we got “waked” pretty hard.  With as much space available as there was, why did that numb-nuts find it necessary to pass us within a boat length while pushing a 3-4 foot wake?  I’ll never understand why it is impossible to slow down, make a radio call, and then pass considerately.  But for the fact that I would probably get arrested and go to prison for a long time, it has certainly occurred to me to fit the front of Abreojos with steel plates and a ramming pole.  I’d actually love to find some of these dumb bastards and side punch a good size hole in their boats while their wives and children watch. However, I digress.  Following a year-long cruising break following two years of dealing with “wakeful idiots” on a daily basis, I thought the feelings had gone away.   I guess they haven’t.  Rather, I think they have intensified.  It’s a good thing Brenda was not on the boat yesterday, or some of these courtesy-lacking, floating fools might have had their esophagus hooked and removed with a boat hook……..from the lower end, if you know what I mean.  I know how much she hated getting waked.
The C&D Canal was a total breeze.  The tide was with us as we got in there and we were flying along at between 10 and 11 knots at barely 1000 rpms.  There were no ships passing through until the very end, but one interesting thing did happen.  As we were passing under the Chesapeake City Bridge, we saw a Towboat US boat waiving at us with his flashing lights on.  I looked at him and pointed to the vhf radio with a rather quizzical look on my face, and he looked back like, “oh yeah – the radio.”  So he called over and warned us that the powers that be were pulling power lines across the canal and that we should move to the north side for more vertical clearance.  The warning was a good thing as, when I got to that place, the lines were super thin and almost invisible, AND very close to the water.  They were going up as we were going by, so there was never any danger of hitting the lines (and they were not charged), but they looked like spider webs; the kind that get you right under your nose as you walk unwittingly between two trees.  So, no harm, no foul.

Whenever you arrive at a confluence, the system of markage always seems a bit “wonky.”  For example, when you are coming off the C&D Canal, there are marks that take you up the first river on the left between the shoals, then, there are marks that take you up the larger part of the river to the left en route to Philadelphia, or Camden, NJ., and then there are marks that take you down the Delaware River to Delaware Bay, etc.  The ones I think most boaters find confusing are the marks that are split colored, i.e., top half red and bottom half green and vice versa.  You have to know which channel you intend to follow before these kinds of marks make any sense, as it is the top color you heed onto the “preferred channel” and the bottom color that you heed onto or off of the less than preferred channel.  Again, a preview analysis of your charts helps.  Don’t try to figure it out when you get there or you’ll probably end up aground.  In any event, this is the kind of thing that happens when you leave the C&D Canal and flow onto the Delaware River.  Having been there before, I knew where I was going (I also studied my charts in advance).  Fortunately, for the less initiated, it is plenty deep around there so you’d have to work pretty hard to end up stuck in the mud.
So, as we spit out of the canal, we turned left and headed about two miles up the Delaware River to the turn off for Delaware City.  Now, here, we get into some skinny water.  Abreojos draws 4 feet.  Of course we arrived at low tide, but I radioed the marina and got some helpful advice: “Stay 20 feet to port of the green and aim for the little red boat’s bow, and that will keep you in the deepest water coming in.”  So, I did just that and slid into the creek with .4 feet under the keel to spare.  On the west coast, this kind of thing is not really an issue.  On the east coast, however, you get used to accepting the fact  that, if you draw 4 feet, and the creek is 5 feet deep, there is PLENTY of water……so what you fussin’ about?

Our plan was to get to Delaware City on Sunday and then leave for Cape May on Monday.  Well, you know how plans and cruising go.  You make a plan, God laughs, so you make another plan.  It would appear we will be stopped here for at least a couple days to allow a sizeable storm to pass through before we head down Delaware Bay for the Jersey Shore.  The storm is not producing buckets of rain by any means, but the lightning show last night was quite impressive.  We witnessed bands and sheets of lightning so big they covered the entire state of Maryland.  The radar showed these really thick red and yellow cells moving right over the top of us and all of Chesapeake and Delaware Bays.  The radar can see out 150 miles and more, and all of that was completely covered and colored those deep autumn shades.  This went on for quite a few hours and continues as I write this note.  No thunder, just a lot of lightning off in the distant skies, and great cloud formations – true thunderheads.  Weather like this is something I truly missed this last year in California, where there is no weather.
Since we are going nowhere today, it will be a good time to get caught up on rest, reading, laundry, boat cleaning, and other things.  So, for now, that’s it and I will talk at you later.

Stuck in Delaware City, Abreojos is…….
Out.

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