Wide water and Narrow water

So over the last few days, we've covered some wide waters (Chesapeake and Delaware Bays), and some narrow waters (C&D canal and NJ ICW).

Last Friday we left Solomons MD at 0815, after taking on 100 gallons of diesel (@ $2.65/gal) and topping off the water tank. It was a nice calm day on the Chesapeake and we made our goal of Queenstown MD, some 55 miles farther up the Bay, in time for a walk around the lovely town.

Saturday was the perfect cruising day: calm waters, warm & sunny, and favorable currents, and we had made the top of the Chesapeake (Chesapeake City, at the entrance to the C&D Canal) by 1400 hr, and instead of dropping anchor as planned, we kept going, across the C&D, and nearly half way down Delaware Bay before finally pulling into the Cohansey River in NJ to anchor for the night. It was tough to find a spot to land Riggs for 'necessities', but we managed. Totals for Saturday: about 90 miles traveled over 11 1/2 hours. A record for the entire cruise.

On Sunday we got an early start out into the lower Delaware Bay, but soon the current and wind turned against us, and it was a rough ride down to Cape May, where we entered the protected waters of the NJ ICW, and traveled a mere 6 miles before dropping anchor in Sunset Lake. At least we were able to dinghy ashore to a park to play ball.

Today was a grueling day. The NJ ICW has not been maintained well, and has some shoaling issues. Fortunately we've hit a time where high tide is mid-day, so morning travel is on a rising tide, and there is extra depth for mid-day travel. But when we pulled anchor at 0800 hr, the tide was still low, and we had barely traveled a mile north before we ran aground. We we right in the channel too. With the rising tide we waited maybe 20 minutes and were able to back off and resume travel, and made maybe 300 yards before running aground again! Fortunately, the bottom here is typically soft mud, plus Spray has a deep skeg that protects the propeller, so a little patience is all it takes. As the tide rose, we had one more bump on the bottom, and some scary depthfinder readings, but we did OK.

Until the bridges. Just before reaching Atlantic City, there are 4 drawbridges to deal with. The first one, Dorset Avenue, was being worked on when we arrived, and we had to 'hover' for 20 minutes before the crew could be moved aside, and one span lifted for us to get through. The next bridge went OK, then we again waited 20 minutes for a RR bridge to open (they had a train coming through - the nerve!). The last bridge went OK and we were free to pull into the'Brigantine' anchorage overlooking th Atlantic City hotels.

You just might remember that we were stuck in this anchorage for 5 nights back in October while two nor'easters passed through. Well, when we dropped anchor today we had strong, warm SW winds (30+ knots) to deal with. It made for a hairy dinghy ride to a beach for Riggs, but has since calmed down.

We are moving north faster than does the boating season. In the lower Chesapeake we were about a week ahead of the beginning of the boating season. Here we are about a month ahead. So today we saw maybe 4 other boats, and are the only boat anchored here.

Tomorrow we fight our way another 40 miles up the NJ ICW. Stay tuned!