May 28
A relatively short distance trip planned for today just to
the top of the Chesapeake, through the C&D canal and then a mile or so up
to Delaware City. It wound up being
quite an interesting and varied day. We
had hoped to shove off around 8AM to catch a favorable high tide for departing the
skinny waters of the Bohemia River.
Weather radar would have none of it with an approaching rainstorm. Thankfully it passed rather quickly with
nothing more to come so at 9:30 we unwrapped the lines and headed out. We knew it would be an unfavorable current
to start so had planned to stop at Chesapeake City after about an hour on the
water, walk the town, grab a bite to eat and then head back out around noon
once the current changed direction. That
all went as planned but the level of current was a bit of a surprise as we were
losing almost a full knot of headway on this first leg.
Approaching Chesapeake City Bridge
Chesapeake City harbor
Chesapeake City was built around the western terminus of the
canal in the mid 1800’s and while small has a well preserved historic district
of houses. They do an excellent job
placing readable plaques in front of many houses giving their family history,
build date, and architectural style. It’s a very pleasant stop with a free town
dock and anchorage and several waterfront eateries. Not
long after leaving Chesapeake City we also left Maryland and entered Delaware. It was a line on our chartbook but no
designation at all along the canal to let us know.
Some of the oldest building in town on the waterfront
Reading historical plaques in front of homes
The bridge looms large over the town
Once back on the canal we suddenly were making good time as
the current had changed. Instead of
turning 1700rpm just to stay above 6 knots we were now cruising along at 8.5
knots at just 1500 rpm. Things just got
better the longer we kept going as the current dragged us along at times
reaching over 9.5 knots! That’s a crazy
speed for us as the boat at WOT running 2600rpm in perfectly calm water is only
capable of around 9.3 knots.
Check out that speed!! 9.8 knots!!
The C&D canal is said to be the busiest sea level canal
in the world, and we got a chance to see a few big boats. The canal is plenty wide and deep so passing
is never an issue. And because the canal
is used for transoceanic sized commercial ships all the bridges are fixed high
clearance – not a draw bridge to worry about which is good because for a 14-mile-long
canal it had quite a few bridges.
Bridges
Boats
More Bridges
More Boats
And even more bridges and boats
It’s a
fairly scenic canal with wooded shores on both sides with much of the land part
of a state park. Martha and I commented how enjoyable it might
be if the entire loop were this tranquil.
Flat waters, great speed, good scenery, deep water, no concerns. The open waters of the Delaware Bay and the
NJ coast are looming large in front of us and we hope to pass them quickly and
without issues.
After being spit out the C&D into the Delaware we had a
short trip north for a few miles once again against current. There’s only one marina in Delaware City and
it runs down the length of the old original canal. It’s just a single long floating pier on a
60’ wide channel. We pulled alongside
the dock into the current handed off a few lines and then the dockhand pushed
the boat out into the current while keeping the stern tied to the dock. The boat swung 180 degrees with the current
and back against the dock and positions you for an outbound passage out the
canal in the morning. Our maneuver
didn’t go exactly as the dockhand had planned and we wound up catching the
corner of the swim platform on the dock.
Looks like some minor cosmetic scaping but nothing too bad.
The original canal channel and our marina for the night
All that's left of the original canals locks
There are 5 looper boats tied up here preparing for the trip
down the Delaware Bay to Cape May, NJ.
We all got together for dinner at Crabby Dicks to coordinate our 6AM
departures. They had several big screen
TV’s all showing weather reports of a nasty line of storms heading our way. Not long afterwards we heard pounding on the
roof as hail began falling. Not the
little small stuff, many were the size of a quarter or bigger. Here's a little video of the hailstorm.
Glad we were in a building and not on the
boat where I know the sound would have been very disconcerting. Once the storm was past and dinner done, we
headed back to the boat and so far have found no damage. After all that excitement lets hope for a
stress free and uneventful trip down the Delaware tomorrow.
Journey for May 28
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