We stayed an extra day in Chesapeake City in order to visit with great friends Cathy and Jim Fisher. They drove over from the Baltimore area and we had a great day catching up over lunch.

Departed from Atlantic City this morning at 0500... cold 36 degrees but very little wind... exiting via Absecon Inlet back to the Atlantic Ocean... skies were clear with what appeared like a quarter moon... other than the cold it was quite nice.

Once out to the Atlantic we had picked up 10-15 kts of wind out of the northwest producing a 1 to 2 foot flollowing seas. Not as smooth as yesterday but still very nice ride.

We left at 0500 to arrive in Cape May approximately 2 hours after low tide... I had made anote about this in the cruising guide that said this would provide a favorable curretn all the way to Chesapeake City... writing this as we cruise up the Delaware Bay... Currently 10 miles northwest of the Cape may Canal and have seen nothing under 7.5 knots... still have 50 nautical miles to Chesapeake City... fingers crossed the boost in speed holds up.

The boost in speed held up all the way to the C&D Canal and then we hit a little current against us... not bad and within a few minutes we had a slight boost... need to change my note to leave about a half hour later from Atlantic City... then we would of hit the C&D Canal and continued with our boost... Leave Cape May 2 hours after low tide and carry a favorable current all the way.

We arrived to Chesapeake City were securely docked at the town docks at 1745. Our position tonight is N39°31.635', W075°48.667'. We traveled today for 12 hours and 40 minutes covering 99.4 nautical miles averaging 7.8 knots.

First day of our trip from Stamford, Connecticut to Savannah, GA... well, actually we left Stamford, CT yesterday on 11/30 and cruised across Long Island Sound to Oyster Bay, NY... towing my towboat back to Oyster Bay and afterwards having dinner with Mitch and Donna Kramer which is always a pleasure.

We planned to depart from Oyster Bay at 0400 in order to transit the East River and Hell Gate with a favorable current.... However, we ran a little late and did not get away from the dock until 0420... The early departure time was to have a favorable current through the East River, Hell Gate and out NY Harbor to the Atlantic Ocean. We arrived at Hell Gate just after peak ebb tide and had a 4 knot current pushing us along... saw a maximum of 11.7 knots.

We passed under the Verrazano Bridge and into the Atlantic to find calm seas... virtually flat calm... it was awesome. Forecast was for seas 2 foot or less so was expecting some type of wave or swell... but we had nothing.

The Jersey shore was the same... filled with fishing boats from small center consoles to 100-foot charter boats. I steered to go around the congested areas to avoid any confrontations with the fishermen... they are a bit territorial and get really upset when you pass close to them.

Over the summer I added a VHF radio to SAILS. My old VHF was still working but the microphone cord was in poor shape... spliced a few times to keep it working... anyway, installed a Simrad RS35... has a wireless remote mic/control and AIS receiver. I also installed a new Brookhouse iMuxST WiFi multiplexer. It broadcasts all the NMEA data over a WiFI signal. Before this I had my laptop connected via serial cable. With this update I now have AIS data showing up on the laptop’s Coastal Explorer charts.... VERY COOL! I had never really experienced AIS before this... now I’m really thinking about adding a full AIS transmit and receive.

We arrived to Atlantic City and were securely docked at Gardner’s Basin at 2100. Our position tonight is N39°22.580', W074°25.276'. We traveled today for 16 hours and 40 minutes covering 122.2 nautical miles averaging 7.3 knots.