Chesapeake City, MD

We took our time leaving Delaware City on Monday, September 23 in order to take advantage of the favorable current on the C&D Canal. In the morning we took Archie for a shorter than usual walk along the canal path and afterwards spent some time chatting with Tim, the owner of Delaware City Marina. 

Jonny, who is always very busy, did some boat chores including filling the batteries with water.  We didn’t leave until after lunch at 1:15, cruising past Delaware City’s cute town center.

The weather was overcast and a bit chilly but we bundled up on the flybridge and were fine.  

 We cruised past the center of Chesapeake City going under the bridge that connects the two parts of the town that sit on either side of the canal.

A few miles south we came to the Bohemia River, our destination for the day.  We found an anchorage just outside of Bohemia Bay Yacht Haven and dropped the hook. This is a great anchorage because we could take the dinghy in to the marina and tie up at their dock. So much easier than having to haul the dinghy onto the beach or into a forest clearing! 

This is a very attractive marina that appears to be well-managed. One of our boating friends keeps his boat here in one of their covered slips.  Jonny seriously considered keeping Zendo here for the winter but there was no place that we could leave our car as we can do in Delaware City.  It is also further from Philadelphia, so for now we will continue to keep Zendo in Delaware City.

We took Archie for a walk around the marina and he was able to run off leash for awhile.

That evening we had a cozy dinner of meatloaf, boiled potatoes and broccoli. Jonny went to be bed early and I followed him a bit later. Next stop is Baltimore where we will stay for six days because we’ll be volunteering for MTOA at the TrawlerFest there. And Stephanie and Ryan will be joining us for an overnight stay aboard Zendo to celebrate my birthday again!

Delaware City, DE

We left early at 6:45 on Friday, September 20th in order to take advantage of the currents flowing favorably up the Delaware Bay.  We were bound for our “home port” of Delaware City Marina.  We made good time on a very nice day with calm seas and few other vessels, though this big one quickly passed us.

We arrived in Delaware City by 1:10 and quickly tied up at their linear docks. We are here at a somewhat in-between time for cruisers so the marina was pretty quiet. We were docked right in front of a big sport fish owned by Mike and Steph who we met last time we were here. They are fixing up this big 70 plus foot boat which is turning out to be a bigger project than they bargained for! 

It’s always nice to be back at this marina. Tim, the owner, and the staff are so friendly and helpful that we always feel at home here.  Our plan was to be here just for the weekend so we could visit Stephanie and Ryan and by Monday leave for the Chesapeake Bay where we’ll be for a few weeks.

After tying up and having a bite of lunch, we did boat chores, cleaning, and laundry all afternoon and had a relaxing night onboard.

On Saturday we took Archie for a long walk on the canal path here which is a favorite of all three of us. Archie especially loves it because he can be off leash most of the way. 

By mid-afternoon we were on our way to Philly in our car which we leave at the marina while we are cruising. Our plan was to stay overnight at Stephanie and Ryan’s home. We were excited to see them since we hadn’t done so since early June.

We had a lovely reunion at their comfortable row house. Archie was thrilled to see Stephanie, as he always is. Eloise, their Corgi, was especially happy to see Archie and wanted to play and play.  Archie was somewhat indifferent though he did engage some with his little “niece.”  

That evening they had arranged for us to go out for a drink at a very cool little bar where we had delicious and creative cocktails. From there we walked over to Osteria Ama, a little Italian BYOB where Ryan had made reservations. We were lucky to be in Philly at this time because it was restaurant week. We had a delicious three course dinner for only $40 per person! Of course, Philly’s popular BYOB policy makes eating out particularly affordable. 

The next morning we all took a great three mile walk throughout the nearby Graduate Hospital and Fitler Square neighborhoods. This is the area where we will consider moving when the time is right for us to move to Philadelphia.  We stopped for coffee and breakfast sandwiches at one of their favorite coffee shops. 

 

These neighborhoods are very attractive with lots of parks, restaurants and even a lovely walkway and bike path along the Schuykill River. As we strolled along it and over a footbridge we got a fabulous view of the city. skyline. 

On the way back to their house we walked by Ryan’s twin sister, Shannon’s apartment where she lives with her boyfriend Andrew. They live just two blocks from Stephanie and Ryan. As we chatted with them, their friends Tim and Tom, who also live nearby walked by and stopped for awhile. It’s so nice that our kids have friends and family who live so close to them!

After returning to their home, we chatted for a bit and I got to open my birthday gifts from Stephanie and Ryan. They were so sweet and thoughtful and I was very appreciative. And we’ll get to celebrate again next weekend when we are in Baltimore! Jonny and I have a boat show that we are volunteering at and the kids will join us on Saturday to go out to dinner together.

We left their home around 1:00 to drive back to Delaware City stopping at Costco and Trader Joe’s along the way to pick up some groceries.  That evening Mike and Steph, in the boat behind us, invited us over for a drink. We chatted with them for a couple of hours before returning to Zendo where we ate the leftovers from the previous night’s dinner.

The next day we’ll start our trip to Baltimore which will take us a couple of days.

Cape May, NJ (return trip)

We had to leave our Brigantine anchorage by 7:30 on Thursday, September 19 to take advantage of the tides on the ICW in New Jersey.  We were heading to Cape May and had to continue on the inside passage which is very skinny (shallow) and is essentially unpassable for us at low tide.  The sky over the Atlantic City skyline was beautiful that early. 

It was an interesting passage in that we went through several New Jersey coastal towns with their waterfront houses tightly packed.  Some of them were built on top of their boat houses making for an interesting look from the water. 

The highly populated areas were interspersed with beautiful open marsh lands.  

The journey required hyper-vigilance on the part of the navigator due to the sinuous and very narrow track we had to follow most of the day.  Jonny found a special app that provided up-to-date information on the safest route to take that showed the areas of greatest shoaling.  If we had followed our usual routing tools we would have run aground.  Running aground would mean being stuck for hours until the tide turned. I was actually surprised that Jonny had me navigate for a couple of hours while he napped. I understand better now why it’s preferable to travel on the ocean side whenever possible.  Although the ride might be a little rougher due to ocean swells, it doesn’t require the vigilance that the inner route requires, especially in the southern part of the state.

As we left Wildwood we could finally start to relax as there were no more shallows and we had made it through before the tide changed.  We arrived in Cape May by 2 p.m. and heaved a sigh of relief as we anchored by the Coast Guard Station there.

We hung out for awhile before taking Archie in to shore.  Usually, when we are in Cape May we make it a point to go to the Lobster House’s excellent fish market. But we were headed to Delaware City the next day and would be seeing Stephanie and Ryan on the weekend so there was no need to stock up on fresh fish. Instead, we just dinghied to a closer site and gave Archie a short walk.  There is fish market there as well but it was already closed for the season.

We had some flounder in the freezer so we ate that for dinner and had a quiet night on anchor.  We’ll be doing the long slog up the Delaware Bay the next day to get to Delaware City and and the comforts of a marina for the weekend. 

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Brigantine, NJ (return trip)

On Wednesday, September 18 we continued our passage on the ICW in New Jersey. We usually travel on the outside on the ocean, but the wind was much too strong to be out there. We left our Glimmer Glass anchorage in Manasquan by 7 a.m. to take advantage of the favorable current. 

The weather was quite blustery all day. We expected rain throughout the day but we were lucky because it held off until the end of the day.

It was a long day of travel through many of New Jersey’s shore towns.  It’s quite remarkable to see the hundreds of houses lining the shores in this part of the Jersey shore.  There was very little boat traffic which made traveling much easier. 

A lot of the ICW goes through open marshes which are very peaceful and evocative. But the open waters can be deceiving. The route we must follow is often very narrow and it’s really easy to run aground in the shallow waters.

By the time we arrived at our mooring in Brigantine (thanks to our MTOA pal, Glenn Westervelt), the wind had picked up considerably.  I had trouble getting Zendo properly positioned so Jonny could tie up to the mooring.  Fortunately, we were out in the open with no other boats or barriers to get in our way.  After a few futile tries, we were finally safely secured. We could see the storied Atlantic City hotels from our mooring. 

Along with the wind we got some rain as well.  Archie didn’t seem to want to go into shore so we actually skipped taking him  in - a very rare occurrence!

I made meatloaf, fried potatoes and onions, and green beans for dinner. We started watching a new Netflix series called The Gentlemen which is kind of fun.  We went to bed pretty early because we were going to have another early morning departure the next day as we head to Cape May.

Manasquan, NJ (return trip)

On Tuesday morning, September 17 I had my usual Spanish lesson so Jonny took Archie for his morning walk.  By 8:45 he pulled us from our mooring while I was still in class and headed for Manasquan, NJ, our destination for the day. Cruising through the East River is always interesting with its numerous ferries and other crafts zipping by.

The skies were overcast but it was warm and we had an uneventful trip down the East River going under the array of bridges that cross it.  I’ve skipped the usual NYC landmarks in this entry but they can be found in the blog for all nine years we’ve been taking this route.

My favorite is always the Brooklyn Bridge. I learned so much about its fascinating story when I read The Great Bridge by David McCullough several years ago.

We were amazed to see half a dozen open water swimmers in lower New York harbor with kayak and boat escorts!

Our calm cruise changed pretty dramatically once we left New York Harbor and got to Sandy Hook. Cruising down the New Jersey coast we had 3-5 foot waves with short periods between them the whole time. Poor Archie was absolutely glued to my side while I clung to the edge of the settee as we rode through those bouncy waters. Jonny had to be hyper-vigilant at the helm to adjust our tack to minimize the impact. We were very glad that we dissuaded Addie and Lange from visiting us for this stretch as it would have been awful for them. 

At one point Jonny went below into the cabin to get something and reported that it was an absolute mess from all the rocking and rolling. 

We finally arrived at the Manasquan Inlet and as soon as we got through that very challenging and rough inlet, everything calmed down considerably.  

When I went below I discovered that the saloon was strewn with anything that had been on a counter or shelf, one of the heavy chairs had slid across the room and the galley floor was covered in all the pots and pans that had fallen out when the oven door was thrown open.  I picked up as much as I could before going back up to the flybridge as Jonny hailed the bridge tender at our favorite Glimmer Glass anchorage.  We got in and set the anchor by 4:10.  What a day!

After a short while we dinghied in to shore where we beached the dinghy and walked into the pleasant town of Manasquan which was starting to get decked out for Halloween.

We headed up to Joe Leone’s Central Market to select some goodies from this Italian specialty shop. Our purchases included homemade mushroom ravioli and taralli biscuits.

Back at Zendo Jonny rewarded us with Boulevardier cocktails and we had the leftover cabbage and sausage casserole from the night before. We watched a couple of episodes of Suits before hitting the sack by 10. But not before checking out this beautiful full moon.

Next stop is a Brigantine anchorage near Atlantic City, this time on the ICW since the seas are expected to be even worse than they were today.