Rockin and Rollin on the Delaware River

4/24/2017

I woke this morning at some ungodly hour to the sounds of squealing, squeaking, and thumping. During the night, the winds had picked up, or shifted direction (I know not which), and our fender and line arrangement of the night before failed to stand up to the challenge. The best comparison I can make for the squealing noise is the sound air makes coming out of a balloon when the opening is compressed but still air escapes. I would hear this followed by thump, thump, thump. The fender being dragged across the hull of the boat???

I wondered if the noises bothered Clark as much as they did me, but he made no move to go investigate and fix the problem. I decided I would not know what to do if I got out there and looked, so I stayed in the cozy, warm bed and wished away the noise. I heard Clark get up around 7:00 something and decided that I would stumble out of bed into the shower and then head for a cup of caffeine. It was going to be a long day!

Clark pulled in the lines and left the dock around 8:30 this morning while I was still busy trying to finish my breakfast. Anxious to get underway, he decided he could single-hand the departure from the calm dock this morning. We had a deadline to meet - make it down the Delaware River to Cape May before the heavy rains beat us to it.

We departed Schaefers Canal Marina with cloudy skies and air temperatures in the mid-50s. To stay as warm as possible on the flybridge, we left even the front panel of the full enclosure closed to try to fight off the chill in the air. I dressed in layers including my rain pants since I knew the day would only get chillier as we left the protected water of the canal and headed into the open waters of the Delaware River.

As we left the docks at the marina and traveled down the canal, Clark grabbed some pictures of the area.

Schaefers Canal Restaurant and Marina

Bayard House Restaurant

The Delaware River is narrow near the C&D Canal and widens as it opens into Delaware Bay and approaches the Atlantic Ocean. The red line on the map below shows our path from Schaefers Canal Marina to Utsch's Marina in Cape May, NJ. The border between Delaware and New Jersey runs right down the middle of the river. We followed that line mostly on the Jersey side.

The rain held off for the first portion of the trip down the river, and for one very, very  brief moment we even saw some sunshine. Dressed as I was, protected in the full enclosure from the chilly air, I enjoyed checking out the views. On the Delaware side we had one wildlife refuge after another - Silver Run Wildlife Area, Augustine Wildlife Area, Appoquinimink Wildlife Area, ... On the Jersey side,

Hope Creek Generating Station followed by the Salem Nuclear Power Plant

To be fair, New Jersey also had some wildlife refuge and management areas further south, but the contrast of seeing the power plant on the NJ side and then looking to the Delaware side and seeing nothing but greenery was quite remarkable.

The lack of boat traffic on our trip was also quite remarkable. As the river widened and the coastline disappeared in the fog, the only sights to be seen were the occasional lighthouse marking a shoal here and there.

Ship John Shoal Light

We had a strong current taking us along as we traveled downriver. Starting at 8.5 knots in the morning, we managed to achieve an amazing 11 knots as we picked up the favorable tide change along the way.  As we worked our way down the ever-widening river, the winds continued to pick up, and we started to see gusts of over 30 knots.

With the current behind us and our head into the wind, the ride became more and more exciting. The water became rougher, and we started to rock and roll. We have stabilizers on board that Clark said had reached their limit.

Our bow rose and fell as we moved over the waves. Wilhelmina, our ship's bell, tolled out her displeasure at the sharp drops as we fell off one wave after another.

Rough seas as we passed Brandywine Shoal Lighthouse

As the boat dipped down, we took spray over the bow of the boat that occasionally flew so high that it went over the top of the boat at 17 feet in the air. Thank goodness the front window of the full enclosure was closed, or we would have been soaked multiple times over.

The downside of having the front panel closed was the ever-increasing reduced visibility.  To top it all off, it started to rain, so we had sea spray as well as rain water covering the panels.

Visibility through full enclosure panel
notice the AGLCA burgee on the bow of our boat

Visibility when sprays hit

The question someone reading this might ask is, "Why not drive from down below, stay warm, and use the windshield wipers in the pilot house?" Sadly, the windshield wipers (all three of them) fail to clean the water from the windows. This is another costly item that is on our repair punch list, so as poor as the visibility was up top, it was still better than visibility down below.

Clark said that when we got closer to shore, the waves would drop off in height. Since we had four-to-five foot waves with some higher, rogue waves, I breathed a sigh of relief when we finally turned towards shore and the Cape May canal -- the pathway to our marina for the night. Sure enough, the wave heights declined even as the winds continued to howl.

Entering the canal, the wave action settled down enough that I could capture some pictures of the Cape May Lewes Ferry facility.

Cape May Lewes Ferry Facility

Ferries at Port

Ferry Twin Capes -- home port of Wilmington, DE

As we traveled down the narrow canal, we had the current against us and depths nowhere near the expected 12-feet of water shown on the chart. We needed to stay firmly in the center to maintain comfortable water depths. With the strong current pushing us either to port or starboard, we had to correct course constantly to maintain our path.

After over seven hours on the water, we finally arrived at Utsch's Marina in Cape May. Tying up in the wind and rain was the last hurdle we had to face before we could call it a day. It took longer than any of us wanted (Clark, me and the dock hand) to get the lines in place and the fenders positioned to keep us snug to the dock without rubbing on the dock poles. By the time we finished, I was cold and wet and looking for a hot cup of tea to warm up.

Following dinner, Clark tried to find television either over the air or via cable and failed miserably. Only one South New Jersey station could be found either way, so he pulled out a DVD and we watched a couple of old movies to pass the time.