From Chesapeake Bay to Delaware Bay

Carol, here's an osprey nest you haven't
photographed yet!!  Both mommy & daddy are home!

We spent 3 nights in Rock Hall MD (because if you paid for 2 nights, you got the 3^rd night free) and ended up doing mostly chores around the boat.  Still trying to work down the list from the boatyard.  We didn’t really get out into the town like we did last year.

A Coast Guard buoy tender doing what he does best:
tend buoys !!

It looked like we had a good 2 day weather window to make the trip up the Chesapeake to its end (or its beginning, depending on which way you’re looking), across the C & D Canal (which links the Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware Bay, DUH) and then down the Delaware to Cape May NJ.  But as you know, the weather guessers are one of the few professions where you can be wrong 50% of the time & still have a job.

We departed Rock Hall on Thursday and ran in the cold 52 degrees rain all day.  But we had two good things on our side.  1) The winds and seas were quite calm, and 2) We caught a flood tide (with a tail current as much as 2.5 mph) all the way up the Bay and across the C & D Canal.  It quickened our planned arrival time by more than an hour.  I’ve learned that in this neck of the woods, the tidal current can be your real friend or your worse enemy.

In Delaware City, this is what low tide looks like.
The flat boat on the left is sitting on the mud.

The tides on Delaware Bay were not in our favor, so we diverted north 3 miles to a small marina in the small town of Delaware City DE.  On Friday, the winds on the Delaware Bay were causing 3-5’ waves, so we used our superior executive judgement skills, which we had honed over many many years of real-life working experience, to decide that you’d have to be an idiot to go out in the Bay today!  So we took a stroll into the quaint small town to discover its history, and we’re very glad we did!

As we’re looking at the old lock in town, we strike up a conversation with a nice lady who obviously knows quite a lot of history about this area.  We soon learn that Pat has lived in the area all her life, she used to be an American history teacher and loves the history of this area, and her father originally built the marina we’re staying in!  On top of that, we found that she must be the nicest & friendliest lady in town, as she invites us to ride with her to one of the historic forts across the canal.  And then, she takes us on a 5 hour tour of several nearby historic towns & becomes our personal tour guide.  Both Sue & I were amazed at her generosity and willingness to treat some visiting boaters like royalty.  Thank you, Pat, thank you.

The weather guesser promised us that the winds on the Bay will settle down tomorrow, so we’re getting ready to get underway to New Jersey tomorrow.