We left Chesapeake City this morning at 0500... winds and seas permitting destination Atlantic City, NJ. Early departure to get as much favorable current down Delaware Bay to Cape may, NJ.

As expected we had current against us going out the C&D Canal running between 5 and 6 knots... hit the end of the canal and turned into the Delaware River and current started pushing us 9 knots plus... carried this boost for maybe an hour and it slowly started slowing down as we approached Cape May... eventually slowing back to 6 knots. Once we enter the Cape May Canal we got our boost back running 7.5 to 7.8 knots all the way through the canal and out the Cape May Inlet to the Atlantic Ocean.

The seas had been fairly calm all day... we hit the Atlantic and the wave switch turned on... 4 to 6 foot swells with a short period out of the SSW... producing a lot of pitching and rolling... not an uncomfortable ride but every now and then that rogue wave hit us and you had to hang on.... Good thing was we continued to carry our boost from current running 7.5 to 8 knots all the way to Atlantic City.

We arrived at approximately 1930 and docked at Gardner Basin Marina. Our location for the night at N39°22.569’, W074°25.279’. We traveled today for 14 hours and 30 minutes covering 99.7 nautical miles averaging 6.9 knots.

Another layover day in Chesapeake City... last night we thought the wind was going to blow us and the dock away... gusts over 50 knots and steady winds over 25 knots... was a noisy night.

Woke this morning and still have 20-25kt winds with gusts around 35 knots... bright and sunny though.

Tested my muffler repair and all seems to be good... no leaks. Ran engine till it reached operating temp and then ran it at cruising RPM for about 15 minutes... No Leaks! We are good to go... now all we need is a weather window to go up the Jersey Shore... Forecast today...

NW Winds 25 to 30 knots, becoming West 10 to 15 knots with gusts to 25 knots. Seas 6 to 7 ft.... not going anywhere today...

Another day in Chesapeake City, MD... 0930 left via our rental car to Annapolis to pick up the new raw water pump for port engine... it was due to arrive via overnight air shipment around 1100... arrived back to Chesapeake City at 1330.

Susan returned the rental car to Enterprise in Elkton, MD while I installed the raw water pump....

A note if you are ever in Chesapeake City... there is no Uber service... Susan had to take a cab service back and it was a long wait for the cab to arrive... appears there is only one cab and driver for the area.

Had just finished installing the raw water pump when Susan got back... went to the pilot house and started the engine... checked to see if we had water flow out the exhaust... All good. Returned to engine room to check pump and hoses for any leaks... walked into engine room to see the bilge with about 3 inches of water in it... YIKES! I saw immediately where it was coming from... the joint between the exhaust hose and the muffler was gushing out water... I killed the engine with the emergency kill switch on the engine.

I inspected the area where I saw the water leaking out,,, the hose clamps were loose... I tightened them and restarted the engine... NO GOOD! SHUT DOWN... I removed the exhaust hose from the muffler... I discovered the 3" diameter connection was burnt looking and deformed... it had melted... evidently the exhaust without any water flow had been hot enough to melt the mufflers connection....

What to do ? I immediately went to the my computer to see if I could locate a new Vetus WaterLock P75 muffler... every place I found online that had them was closed... not open again till Monday... CRAP!

Plan B... got out my heat gun and softened the muffler connection and reformed it the best I could... used a lot of high temp gasket maker and reinstalled the exhaust hose... hopefully this will stop it from leaking... will still need to get a new muffler but hopefully the repair will get us back to Stamford.

Giving it all night to let the gasket maker dry and cure... will start the engine in the morning and fingers crossed it's fixed.