On to Chesapeake City

Tuesday, August 9:  Ted took over at midnight and helmed the rest of the way to Cape May.  I came on at 3 am and rounded Cape May up into Delaware Bay, where we went off to the left side of the main shipping channel and paralleled it all the way up the Bay.

When Sheila came back on watch at 6 am, the sun was just peeking up above the horizon.  Two big cargo ships loomed from opposite directions and passed each other and us at the same time.  It was no problem, since we were well out of their way.

Ted was at the helm when we left Delaware Bay and entered the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal and he brought us the rest of the way in to our destination – Chesapeake City, MD.  They have free docks that boaters can tie up to for up to 24 hours.

From the time we left New York, until we tied up at Chesapeake City, we have had strong following current.  Our over the ground boat speed rarely has dropped below 7.5 kt and often was as high as 8.5.  As a result, we have made excellent time the entire way and arrived at Chesapeake City before lunchtime, when we thought it would be mid- to late afternoon.

We had lunch together at the Hole in the Wall restaurant, just a short walk from the boats.  During lunch, a huge thunderstorm blew in, with torrential rain for about a half-hour.  At one point, the wind was blowing 30 to 40 kt from west to east, straight down the canal, and it was raining so hard that you could not see the other side of the canal.  We watched as a small power boat that got caught in the storm, struggled to deal with it.  At first, it was motoring slowly into the fierce wind and rain, then it turned around and ran with it until it disappeared into the storm.

When the storm passed, the air was cooler and drier and the sun came back out.

After lunch, Coleman arrived in his truck.  He came to get back on the boat and allow Sheila to return home.  We helped Coleman move his bags from the truck to the boat.  He had also bought some provisions that we were running low on.  We loaded Sheila’s bags into the truck and walked across the street to the ice cream shop for gelatos to celebrate her successful ocean overnight and Coleman’s return.   

We said our goodbyes and Sheila was off for home.

For happy hour, everyone came to Bottlenose, with plans to do dinner ashore.  However, we decided that we didn’t need another big meal, so Coleman volunteered to whip up one of his masterpieces in the galley and fed all six of us.  Great food and a nice view from Bottlenose’s cockpit of all the commercial traffic passing by on the canal.  Two huge roll on/roll off car transporters glided by.  They were so big that they seemed totally out of proportion to the size of the canal and everything else around them – like the transporters the Sand People used in one of the Star Wars movies.