2019: Chesapeake Bay to Atlantic City NJ

4/28/2019
Depart: Cape Charles Town Docks 9:00
Arrive: Patuxent River / Mill Creek Anchorage #2 6:45
Distance: 77 nm

We looked at the calendar yesterday evening as we debated whether to hang out exploring the Chesapeake Bay area further or to go home to New Jersey. All things considered, we opted for home. Today's travels was the first of several long days.

Before departing Cape Charles, I had Clark go out and capture a picture of the memorial there at the docks.

Virginia Waterman's Memorial
on the Eastern Shore

We had calm waters and warmer temperatures for today's trip. With a lack of wind, we collected a number of freeloaders traveling north with us. The cockpit of the boat was covered in house flies - a lot of small, young ones. The ones that came in the cabin seemed to want to leave. The ones collecting on the door and the galley porthole, I let out.

Since we were well away from both shores, I wondered how the flies all found us. I could not shoo them away as there was no wind so they just resettled somewhere new on board.  I decided to ignore them. By the time we had finished anchoring, they had found new homes somewhere along the Chesapeake Bay.

We saw a few interesting sights on our trip north today.

Pilot Boat

Point No Point Lighthouse

Interesting cloud formations

Heavenly Rays of Light

Tug boats at dock

We got in and got docked in time for Clark to capture a nice sunset picture in the anchorage.

4/29/2019
Depart: Patuxent River / Mill Creek Anchorage #2  9:00
Arrive: Chesapeake City Free Dock (on C&D canal) 7:00
Distance: 90 nm

We had another long day today. With a current pushing us to speeds over 10 knots, Clark did not want to stop and just kept going and going and ...

Nice calm waters on Chesapeake Bay
and happily no insects riding with us today

Ocean-going vessel from Panama
Victoria Highway

Bloody Point Bar
Lighthouse

Clark took some aesthetically pleasing bridge shots as we passed under the William Lane Memorial Bridge.

With the current pushing us along we made it all the way to the C&D canal and Chesapeake City. We hoped that our Plan A of docking at the town's free dock would pan out for us. If not, we figured we could anchor nearby. We hoped with it being early in the season to find space. When we arrived, however, we found other boats already occupying the dock.

We decided that the 40 or so feet of dock left at the end would be sufficient space for us to tie off - our bow would just stick out by a few feet. As we pulled in, a Canadian couple came out to assist us with our lines. Power was available for a fee, but we decided we did not need to hook up.

No sooner did we finish tying up than we had surprise visitors. Clark was up top and heard someone yell out, "Hey, you can't dock here!" Instead of looking to see who was challenging us, he looked at the sign to see if it showed any reason why we could not dock there. When he finally looked up, he found the challenger to be our friend Kenny Beach on Daybreak and his wife Jeanne.

They just happened to be in town to go to dinner. On their way to dine they swung by the docks to check out the steel boat on the dock and found us! They went to eat, and Clark and I ate on board. After dinner they stopped back for a quick chat. What a great surprise!

Although we seemed to be in "no man's land" last night at anchor, we found WiFi and watched Netflix. Here, at Chesapeake City, we had no WiFi and no television, so we had a very quiet evening.


4/30/2019
Depart: Chesapeake City Town Dock 8:15
Arrive: Brigantine Beach Anchorage #3 8:00
Distance: 100 nm

Today we traveled the furthest distance I think we have ever traveled. Because Clark paid close attention to the tides and currents, we had another fast day today - even better than yesterday.
On our trip down the Delaware River today, we sped along at times over 11 knots!

Clark was up and around before me this morning and spied a big vessel making its way down the canal.

View from our front window of the canal
Hoegh Autoliners

Hoegh Trove - Oslo
Hardly looks like it will fit under the bridge!

When I came out into the salon, Clark had already had breakfast. We decided to pull in lines and get going as I could eat as we moved along. As we traveled along the Delaware River, we saw the Coast Guard doing training exercises.

And we caught up with the vessel from Oslo.

We saw the Ship John Shoal Lighthouse.

Clark recorded the sounds coming from the lighthouse.

Clark took some pictures along today's ride while I took a long nap.

Approaching Cape May Canal from Delaware River

Entrance to canal

Route 162 Bridge over Cape May Canal

Open RR bridge on canal

Rte 633 Bridge

We passed a huge collection of Coast Guard boats near the USCG station.

USCG Water Tower

USCG Cutter Rollin Fritch

Another cutter - Lawrence Lawson

USCG Inflatables

Another Coast Guard Cutter
(different number than prior one)

As we passed through this area, Clark also spied the boat that occupied the portion of the dock last night directly in front of us. We could not find a name for this vessel anywhere. They left the dock about two hours before us but we caught up to them. During a brief conversation last night with the woman on board, Clark determined that they headed to Atlantic City tonight. Given their speed, we wondered if they made it there.

No Name Steel boat
that was docked in front of us at Chesapeake City last night

We briefly considered spending the night in Cape May, but with enough daylight remaining, we decided to continue on to Atlantic City.

Hazy view of Wildwood

Atlantic City up ahead

Atlantic City - coming to the inlet

Sun going down over Atlantic City

Peek-a-boo Sun over Atlantic City

We have never anchored in the Atlantic City area before, so tonight was a first for us. Our friend Kenny told Clark where he anchors when here, so we decided to check it out.

Brigantine Beach Anchorage #3

Many similar houses to these surround the anchorage