NYC Bound

At Sea
N 39 30 W 74 11

We left this morning expecting light winds in the morning and a fresher breeze after noon. In fact, we had the opposite. Leaving the Cape May inlet we had a brisk 15-20 NW breeze. Ah the thrill of putting out to sea. We always love it.

Within an hour though the breeze stopped. We were forced to motor for much of the day. I know I wrote in the blog that I don't use the motor at sea, but today was the exception.

Around 19:00 the NW wind picked up again and we're tooling right along at 6 knots. I don't think it will last all night but we'll see.

If we can make it to the Verazzano Bridge by 10:00 tomorrow, we'll have a favorable current to carry us up the Hudson. If we miss that, we'll probably anchor overnight at Sandy Hook.

Our course takes us up the NJ coast, never more than 10 miles off shore. However, the NJ coast is boring. Just fishing trawlers and barges out here. There are a few inlets where we could put in if a storm came, but they don't sound interesting.

I did learn one thing by listening to the local radio stations. A poll of NJ residents say that they prefer that Tony Soprano should not get whacked in the finale episode but that he should go straight instead. Well, now you heard the word from the horses mouth.

No Respect for Delaware

Cape May, New Jersey
N 38 57.002 W 74 53.246

We made very fast progress today. 80 miles in 12.5 hours. If we maintained that for 24 hours it would have been a 150 mile day; our second best ever. It helped a lot that we had the current against us for only 3 of those 12 hours. Studying the current tables can really pay off.

This is the third or fourth time we made the passage to/from Cape May to the C&D Canal. Each time we pass from Maryland, through Delaware to New Jersey. Yet, we still haven't ever set foot in Delaware. I think that even when traveling by car, that we've always passed through Delaware without stopping. There seems to be nothing of interest to attract us in Delaware; hence no respect. Now I expect emails from blog readers who love Delaware. Let them come.

As we approached the C&D canal, we were making 5 knots under power at 2000 RPM. As we exited the canal we were doing 8.9 knots, still at 2000 RPM. Two hours after that we were doing 8.9 knots under sail, with a double reefed main. No wonder it was a fast day.

Coming in to the Cape May canal I plugged in my computer and the new WiFi gadget and scanned for a signal. Soon I found one coming from a house along side the canal. I told Libby to stop and circle near the house while I checked email. She did so. When I was done I came up on deck and saw an apparently irate homeowner on the shore staring at us. I suspect that he was angry at the thought of sharing his Internet with passers by. Too bad for him.

Havre

Havre De Grace
N 39 32.729 W 076 04.948

On Sunday the remnants of tropical storm Betty passed by. It was cold and rainy all day long so we just sat it out and did nothing all day.

Today started rainy too but we were restless, so we headed across the bay to Havre de Grace, at the mouth of the Susquehanna River. This is yet another place where we've never been before. We tried to get here last year, but just as we entered the very long (7 mile) channel in, we got hit by a very powerful 30 knot north wind that raised steep 5-6 foot waves almost immediately. That made us change our mind and we retreated to the Sassafras River.

Today, we had a mission. We were nearly out of clean clothes and some provisions. We hadn't had a chance to do either since Solomons. Therefore, we sailed here to Havre and took a mooring at Tidewater Marina for 75 cents per foot. While Libby did laundry, I walked around the town. There was nothing of great interest.

There is a railroad bridge nearby with an amazing amount of traffic. It seems that a passenger train passes every 15-20 minutes. I suspect that this might be the main train route from New York City to Washington DC. There is a highway bridge just upstream from the railway bridge and I suspect that it is the I-95 crossing.

When our chores were done I elected to not stay the night. I wanted to cross the bay to the Bohemia River so that we could be in a better position to traverse the C & D (Chesapeake & Delaware) canal tomorrow morning. We slipped the mooring but soon thereafter we got a weather report of a severe Thunderstorm near Annapolis heading our way, so we changed our minds and came back.

Tomorrow, we'll have to get up early and be underway by 05:30. The reward for timing it right is a rapid ride on the canal's currents. If we do it right, we'll have 4.7 knots of current with us as we pass Chesapeake City on the canal. Wow! If things work well, and if the weather holds up, we will be all the way or most of the way to Cape May NJ before sunset tomorrow.

Out of There

Still Pond
N 39 19.975 W 076 08.521

Things went fine in Baltimore until about 02:00 last night. We were woken by a bunch of loudmouth drunks, and kept awake for about an hour until they passed out. I think that the drunks came from the power boat that was tied up on the wall in front of us.

This morning we got a treat from the Starbucks coffee shop 300 feet away. After that we decided that we had no more things to do in the morning and that we definitely didn't want to stay in Baltimore another night. So we left about 09:00.

As we sailed out of the harbor Libby and I both had the same thought at the same time. (It's funny how often that happens to two people who have been together for 45 years.) We thought, "Well. We are very glad that we visited Baltimore, but we are also glad that there is no reason to ever do that again."

Around 15:30 today we dropped the hook in Still Pond on the eastern shore after a pleasant sail and motor over here. As typical for the Chesapeake in summer, we had wind for a while and no wind for a while.

This place is much more to our liking than any city. I like Still Pond because it is a great place to jump overboard for a swim. The water felt great and tasted great (no salt up here). We visited Still Pond last year with my son Dave and grandson Bobby. They took the dinghy exploring and got caught out in a violent thunderstorm.

Next, our thoughts go toward making the passage from Cape May to New York City. Preliminarily, Tue-Wed-Thu next week sound like possible days.

Baltimore

Baltimore, Maryland
N 39 18.907 W 76 37.091

Wow! What a difference from our normal routine. Instead of coves, creeks and bights, we have Skyscrapers, water taxis, and tens of thousands of people walking around. Instead of great blue herons and barn owls we have street jugglers and night life.

We've never been to Baltimore before so we decided to give it a try. We especially wanted to see the world famous aquarium in the inner harbor. We tried to sail here, but once again the wind died on us and we had to motor.

I was a little apprehensive about the approach. There are over 4,000 ships per year that enter Baltimore Harbor. I was afraid of getting run down or getting yelled at. In reality it wasn't bad at all. We saw only two ships and we had no trouble avoiding them.

When we came to the inner harbor we had our choices of places to stay. There it a marina, and there are city docks and there is a big seawall to tie up to, and one can anchor. There are no dinghy landings so if you anchor you have to use the water taxi to get ashore. No matter which choice you make, you have to pay a fee to the harbor master. No big deal. We chose the sea wall, and the fee was $1 per foot -- not bad. The harbormaster came over in a golf cart to collect the money.

It's hard to describe the scene in the harbor here. We're tied up along a big indoor mall called Harbor Place. The water taxis come in at our stern and off our bow is the schooner Pride of Baltimore II. To port we have the USS Constellation -- the last sail warship ever commissioned for the US Navy. Past that is the Baltimore World trade center building. Past that is the Chesapeake Light Ship. Past that is the submarine USS Torsk, and past that is the aquarium. That's an awful lot of stuff concentrated in a very small area.

Even though we didn't arrive here until 16:00, we decided to go to the aquarium this afternoon rather than waiting for tomorrow. (Hint, it was 95 today and the aquarium has air conditioning.) It is an excellent aquarium that lives up to it's reputation. We had several enjoyable hours touring that.

After leaving the museum, Libby spotted a Barnes and Noble bookstore and headed for that. I spotted a Best Buy store and headed for that. I wanted to buy an external USB WiFi adapter so that I would get a stronger signal without having to bring the computer up on deck. I bought a D-Link Rangebooster N USB Adapter, I'm using it right now and it works fine.

On the way back I spotted a Filene's basement store. I need some new underwear so I went in to buy some. Too bad, they had only Calvin Cline and Ralph Lauren brand undershorts. Since I'm just a cruiser rather than a fashion model Wal Mart briefs are good enough for me.

After dinner we walked the waterfront and stopped to watch a steel band. The steel band played great and they inspired the young kids in the audience to come out and dance. They were mostly black young kids, and they tried out their Michael Jackson moves to the steel drum rhythms. It was great fun to watch. It is also a sobering reminder that the under age 7 kids in this city go to bed later than Libby and I usually do.

We'll see how well we manage to sleep tonight. It's already 23:30 and the noise and the music show no signs of letting off yet.