We were anxious to reach Delaware City on Oct. 15 where we planned to leave the boat for the weekend and visit with Stephanie. We woke to a bright and sunny day for traveling the short remainder of New Jersey’s intracoastal waterway before hitting the big waters of Delaware Bay. Delaware Bay is a very large body of water. The eastern portion of the bay is so wide that you can’t see the shoreline on either side. It’s important to traverse this bay with the right current since it can really impede travel time for a slow boat like ours if the current is running against us. We expected to have a decent travel day and so we did. The waters for the first half of the day were fairly rough, but not too terribly uncomfortable. As we reached the northwestern part of the bay (closest to Wilmington & Philadelphia), the waters calmed down some and we had a pleasant cruise from there.
Stephanie’s work is only about 20 minutes from the Delaware City Marina which works out perfectly for us. This marina is located at the head of the Delaware Bay where it connects with the D&C Canal. The dockmaster there is very helpful to cruisers by tracking all the weather patterns that impact bay crossings. He has provided us with valuable advice on how to time our crossings with winds and current which is especially helpful with a slow boat like ours.
Soon after we arrived, Stephanie came to pick us up. We made a return visit to Lewinsky’s on Clinton (described in an earlier blog) and afterwards headed to Stephanie’s apartment in West Chester, PA .
The next morning, we dropped her off at work at 6:30 a.m. so we could use her car for the day. We spent time cleaning the boat inside and out and doing boat chores and repairs (oil change and repair leak in transmission cooler heat exchange). That evening we were finally going to use the B&B gift certificate we had received at Jonny’s retirement party. This was intended to give us a reprieve from life on board. There are some beautiful B&B’s in this part of Pennsylvania – the Brandywine Valley area, and this seemed like the perfect time to use it. We found a charming inn called Faunbrook.
That evening, Stephanie’s boyfriend, Dave arrived from W. Virginia and the four of us had dinner at a very nice restaurant in West Chester. On Saturday, after a lovely breakfast where we chatted with some interesting fellow guests, we met up with Stephanie and Dave and the four of us went apple picking! It was a brisk fall day and the trees at the farm we visited were just loaded with apples. We picked a bushel of them – five different types – and brought them back to Stephanie’s for feasting.
With football games on TV, Lynn gave Stephanie a lesson in baking apple pies and between the two of them they produced a most delicious specimen! In addition, they made cranberry bread and applesauce – enough to feed an army!
The next day, Stephanie, Jonny and Lynn headed into Philadelphia for some sight seeing. With all the traveling that Jonny had done in his lifetime, he had never been to Philly (except for the airport).
We had just a little time to be tourists as we were meeting Lynn’s cousin, Taylor-Lynn for brunch. So we headed to the historic part of the city and visited Independence Hall and saw many of the beautiful historic buildings in the city. It was another gorgeous fall day as we walked through town admiring the architecture and marveling at the important part this city played in our country’s history.
We ducked out of the cold for a few minutes to enjoy a coffee at one of the many cool coffee shops in the city.
We met Taylor-Lynn for brunch at a hip little restaurant in her neighborhood called, Noord. It had a most unusual and delicious menu – the first time we had ever been to a Dutch restaurant. We had a lovely time catching up on each other’s lives. Taylor-Lynn’s dad was Lynn’s favorite cousin, Ronnie, who passed away suddenly last year. It was important for Lynn to see her and to have Stephanie and Taylor connect since they live so close to each other now.
From there we headed straight for Zendo where the three of us would spend the night. That way, Stephanie would have a shorter commute to work on Monday morning and we could get an early start on the next portion of our journey home. We had a most wonderful time (as we always do) visiting Stephanie. We are so proud of the competent and charming young woman that she has become!
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