A real sailor comes into Havre de Grace having been through a storm.Our voyage from Baltimore to Havre de Grace, Md was a joy and our two day stay there even better. We slid easily onto the end of the first T dock to find ourselves welcomed by cruisers on adjacent boats. As usual the Admirals first question was "where is the best place for breakfast". An enjoyable evening of cruising tales and information was followed by a morning walk through old homes on tree canopied streets to a charming coffee shop for muffins and bagels recommended by Bob and Jean DuBois, our dock mates. It was a very relaxing day visiting with new friends Bob And DoraTurner who joined us the next morning for another visit to the the coffee shop before we set off on the "strenuous" 2 1/2 hour run to Chesapeake City at the head end of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.
Chesapeake City proved to be a charming little village and took more than 30 minutes to walk all of the streets. That was followed by lingering over cool drinks on the deck of a neat restaurant overlooking the small harbor. Off at daybreak for the remaining 12 miles of the C&D canal and the 40 miles down the notorious Delaware Bay. The Bay could not have been kinder being almost flat and with a 1.5 kt boosting current we were in Cape May soon after lunch. We topped off our fuel at the last reasonable price going north and proceeded up the ICW 2 miles to Sunset Lake (you could row across it in 2 minutes) and anchored for the night. The Atlantic was rough the following morning so we elected to proceed up the "Inside" a little earlier than the recommended "half tide rising". Long story short, we saw lots of water less than 5' (we draw 4.5") and a snake like course that took 9 hours to go 40 miles and 30 as the crow flies. It was a very stressful day but God sent 3 Angels at critical times that got us through. On the first occasion we were lightly aground seemingly in the channel (not much wider than the boat) not knowing whether to push left or right. A small runabout came up from behind and saw our dilemma and zigzagged to locate the channel and proceeded to lead us the next mile or so in the very narrow and shallow area. Nearing the end of the day we were very tired and getting desperate for a place to anchor. We saw a number of boats anchored off in a pond listed as 8-10' deep. We joyously headed for it and as we passed another small boat the chap, dropped his cell phone in mid sentence, shouting to us that it was too shallow for us to get over the bar and instead recommended a spot on down. We pressed on and found a sizable area on the south side of Atlantic City and threw out the hook only to find the area alive with jet skis and water skiers. Shortly after anchoring another boater came along and hailed us to say we should move about a mile east to a very small pond where we would be much more comfortable. We did the next morning and we were much more comfortable. We spent the afternoon riding the bus to the grocery store for much need supplies.
This morning (Sunday) we ran 5 miles to an anchorage near the mouth of the Abscom Inlet at Atlantic City in anticipation of jumping off outside (in the ocean, weather permitting) tomorrow for Manasquan Inlet about 5 hours north and 30 miles short of Sandy Hook, the entrance to New York Harbor.
We are still healing up from our Intra Coastal adventure and look forward to a few hours looking at something other than the depth sounder. Also we need a long period to replenish our adrenalin stores.
After all the traumas of the past couple of days, the Admiral declared a day off to explore Atlantic City. We dinghyed across the Inlet in rough waters, found the city dock, tied up, had lunch, found transportation into town, found the boardwalk and the beach, noticed how black the sky was, walked through a casino back to the bus stop, jumped into a wet dinghy and made it back to the boat in time for thunder and lightening all within an hour or two. Tour report: If you get a chance to come to Atlantic City ... don't.
For tooooooo many pictures go to picasaweb.google.com/lropka
These are found in Havre de Grace to Atlantic City
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