Deleware Bay

At Sea, N 39 01 w 75 02

Wednesday, September 21, 2006

I got antsy again. The optimum time to leave Cape May would have been 0400 tomorrow morning, but I got tired of waiting so here we are. The wind is against us and we'll have to do most of our cruising in the dark. What the heck, it's a very pretty day, warm and pleasant with a mild breeze. We should see lots of nice stars tonight.

This morning I worked on the engine. I tightened some connections, and measured a lot of voltages. Now the charging system is not misbehaving as it was when we were at sea. I don't know if it has anything to do with my fiddling or whether it's just mechanic's syndrome. We also changed the oil and the oil filter; one of our favorite activities. We must be getting better at it though because I didn't make a big enough mess to make it a fun story for the blog.

Last night we watched a DVD movie on the laptop. That's the first time since Marathon that we did that. It was an episode of The Sopranos. Libby and I are both big Sopranos fans. Even the theme music at the beginning of each episode is enough to give us an adrenalin rush.

We may sail all night to get to the Chesapeake tomorrow morning, or we may stop halfway tonight. It depends on whether we can keep up with the current. If one leaves Cape May just when we did, and if one can maintain 5-7 knots, one can ride the tidal swell all the 50 miles up the Deleware River and also catch the right current to pass through the C&D canal. If we're too slow though, we'll fall behind the tidal surge and the current will turn against us. It's like riding a wave on a surfboard. Either you catch the wave and surf with it or you slide down off the back of the wave.

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