NC to CT Day 10
Chesapeake City, MD to Atlantic City, NJ
We left Chesapeake City this morning at 0715 to get a favorable current for our trip to Cape May, NJ. IN the past we found that if we leave Chesapeake City so we arrive to Reed Point at just after high tide we carry a favorable current all the way to Cape May.
And today it worked very well... just before Cape May we lost our boots but for a good part of the day we were making over 8 knots... lost it going through Cape May and out the inlet to the Atlantic... but soon got our boost back once we cleared the Cape May Inlet.... carried it all the way to Atlantic City until we turned into the Absecon Inlet and then we had it full bore on the bow.... 5 knots all the way in to our dock for the night at Gardners Basin Marina in Atlantic City, NJ.
Conditions today.... Delaware River and Delaware Bay were choppy but not bad... the Atlantic from Cape May to Atlantic City... pretty nasty... 6 to 8 foot swell with about a 10 second period and the period shortened as we got closer to Atlantic City... they were almost beam seas so it gave a very rock and roll ride for 5 hours.
We arrived to Atlantic City at 2100... Location
39°22.579'N,74°25.275'W. Traveled today for 13 hours and 45 minutes covering 99.6 nautical miles averaging 7.24 knots.
Posted at 9:49 PM
NC to CT Day 9
Layover Chesapeake City, MD
Weather system moving over the area and this is a great place to hold up as it passes.
The sailboat that was in front of decided to move on to Cape May and hold up there for a couple of days while the system passes... I helped them off the dock... they were concerned about the winds and being so close to SAILS.
The trawler behind us decided to move their boat back 10 feet... they were nervous about being so close to us.
Posted at 8:09 AM
NC to CT Day 8
North Beach, MD to Chesapeake City, MD
Up again before sunrise and underway at 0600 bound for Chesapeake City. Forecast was for winds 20-25 knots ESE in the morning and switching to E winds in the afternoon....Seas 2-3 feet.
Forecast was accurate... we had every bit of the seas plus a little till we were well above the Chesapeake Bay Bridge where we turned to the NE and soon had the eastern shore of Maryland shielding us from the waves... still had winds steady at 25 knots gusting to over 30 knots and we had current against us... running at between 6 and 6.5 knots.
Current switched to out favor about 5 miles from Chesapeake City, however winds had intensified and gusts were now exceeding 35 knots and steady at 28 to 30 knots out of the east. Even with this much wind the current was soon pushing at over 9 knots.
We arrived to Chesapeake City to find the town docks had three boats docked... a trawler on the north end and a sailboat and smaller pontoon sightseeing boat on the south end. There was maybe 35 to 40 between the trawler and the sailboat... not enough space for us to dock... especially with 30 knots winds on our beam.
We came in close to the boats hoping to see someone aboard... there could be enough space for us if either of the two boats shifted a little on the dock... they both had 10-15 feet of space behind them. As we passed by we saw no one on the trawler or the sailboat... just as we passed both boats someone came out of the cabin of the sailboat.... I circled around so we could talk to him...
Susan yelled to him as we came past again and asked if he could possibly shift his boat back or forward to allow enough space for us to dock. He said he was unable to move it by himself and his wife was away from the boat....
We continued past him and approached the Chesapeake Inn Restaurant Inn and Marina docks. They have a large T-head dock and we pulled into it and docked. As soon as we were secure at the dock we headed over to the town dock to ta with the gentlemen on the sailboat.
When we got there we found his wife had returned and we could hear them discussing shifting their boat for us. They di not want to move forward to be bow-to-bow with the trawler but would move back as close as possible to the pontoon boat behind them. Once their boat was moved back I paced off the distance between then and the trawler... 20 paces @ 3 feet per pace... about 60 feet... enough space.
We headed back to the SAILS and were soon underway back to the town dock. Winds were still steady at 25 knots but would actually assist us in docking pushing us toward the dock. We were successful and docked between the two boats with about 3 feet of space between us and the other two boats... seems my paces are closer to 2.5 feet each rather than 3 feet... :)
Thank god they had recently dredged the area... we would of never been able to move around like this at our last visit here in December 2017... we barely had 5 feet of water then... I never saw less that 10 feet in all of our circling about and it was low tide.
We arrived to Chesapeake City at 1500 and were finally docked at the town dock at 1615. Location 39°31.630'N, 075°48.666'W. Traveled today for 9 hours covering 62.18 nautical miles averaging 6.9 knots.
Soon after docking our friends Jim and Kathy Fisher arrived. We had a great visit catching up with them and we discovered a great little pub that we never had come across in all of our stops here in Chesapeake City... "Hole in the Wall" located under the Bayard House Restaurant... it was great.
We will be staying here in Chesapeake City while this weather moves over us... supposed to rain and winds continue to blow over 25 knots for the next couple of days.
Posted at 6:02 PM