Boating with Sunset Delight: 2021: West River anchorage MD to Cohansey River anchorage NJ

12 May 2021

Depart: West River anchorage, south of Annapolis, MD 8:25

Arrive: Delaware River - Cohansey River anchorage, NJ 7:40

Distance: 87 nm

Conditions: 40s at night, 60s during day, calm

I woke at 6:30 this morning to find Clark already awake, so I asked him what was disturbing his sleep. Bad news! The rubber insert used for the stabilizer fix is deteriorating rapidly due to friction. He found signs of wear and tear when he did engine checks before going to bed last night. We decided that the best plan would be for him to disable the stabilizer again and run without it.

Given that the temperature in the stateroom sat around 60 degrees, and Clark said he did not need my help, I stayed in bed where it was cozy. When he had completed his engine room work, I got up to get ready for us to be on our way.

With current against us, we had a boring and slow trip up Chesapeake Bay. Thankfully, we had very calm seas, so we hardly missed the stabilization. We traveled many miles with nothing worthy of taking a picture.

Here are some of the things we did see today ...

Osprey Family -
one of many we saw today

Thomas Point Shoal Light

Anchored tankers at Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Ships at the Bay Bridge ...

"Century Dream" - Panama
Displaying Yellow Quarantine Flag

"Algoma Valour" - Nassau

"Feng He Hai" - Hong Kong

As we passed under the Bay Bridge, I snapped some shots of the bridge. This is normally Clark's job!

After that we saw nothing picture worthy until we got near Elk River. Then we saw a very unusual barge being towed by a tug.

What is that tug towing?

As we turned onto the C&D Canal, things got a bit more interesting.

Bird convention at "G21"

We turned in to take a peak at the Chesapeake City free dock. The powers that be need to dredge this area. At the entrance we found very little water depth, and as we got further in, both of our depth sounders failed to read depths. As expected, we found a full house at the dock, and no room for another boat there. As we turned around to leave, we churned up muddy water. It made me wonder if we had been able to stay here if we would have been able to leave.

Given the lack of space, we continued on our way to look for an anchorage for the night. Clark had something in mind.

Continuing on, we saw ...

C&D Canal Museum -
Chesapeake City, MD

On the canal, we passed under an overhead pipeline. As we looked up, we noticed that some men were busy at work on the line.

Casually hanging out many feet in the air.

We also passed impressive power lines.

Clark had chosen the Salem River anchorage for tonight. However, we had the current with us, an exceedingly calm Delaware River (it can get real wicked at times), and daylight to spare. We finally decided to continue on our way to anchor in the Cohansey River.

Our next point of interest for today ... .

Salem Nuclear Power Plant in NJ

Since we passed on the Salem River anchorage, Clark decided on an anchorage located just off the Delaware River. As we traveled the Delaware River, we had an almost 3 knot boost. For a good distance we had a speed of 11.2 knots. With almost no wind and absolutely no waves, it proved to be an almost perfect ride as the miles ticked by at a much faster rate than our usual 8.5 knot speed.

We knew it would be very late when we got to the anchorage, so I brought up snacks for both of us. Later, as we got closer, I prepared and precooked as much of tonight's dinner as I could. Finally, at 7:00 we turned towards tonight's anchorage.

On our way to anchor, we passed a very tall green marker for the end of the Cohansey River. I had a laugh as I saw it had two tiers of birds' nests. The lower tier for the riff raff and the penthouse on top.