Chesapeake City, MD (Day 009)

From Cape May, NJ to Chesapeake City, MD

Distance = 72.4 Miles
Time = 14:05
Average Speed = 5.1 mph

Weather: Mostly cloudy, overcast in showers, few spots of sun between showers; temp range mid 60s to high 70s; wind out of the E @ 10 knots diminishing to 0 in the canal.

Comment: Consider these song lyrics:
Even a Gray Day
By Tom Paxton

Even a gray day,
With a cold wind,
Train late again
Even a gray day,
Is a good day now!

Today was gray! The sky was gray, the water was gray, and the clouds were gray. We were covered in a blanket of gray for most of the day. We can’t say whether or not the train was late, but the boat was certainly late. Blue sky and sun hid most of the day, but we did catch a glimpse of them once or twice.

While motor-sailing in the Delaware Bay and river, the current allowed us to maintain a decent speed for the first thirty miles. The last thirty were a different story. The foul current started to really slow us down as we approached Ship John Shoal Light. It got progressively worse as we made our way to the C&D Canal.

There was very little traffic on the Delaware today. We saw a couple of tugs and barges and one ship, and about five pleasure boats.

We entered the canal and quickly found a 2.5 knot foul current. Our speed dropped to 4mph and then to 3 mph. It was slow going. The slow speed, gray, very gray, day and long hours, made the trip nothing more than tolerable. It wasn’t one of our most enjoyable days afloat. It doesn’t make the top 500! Of course, we’ve had worse, much worse, so we’re grateful to finally be able to stop and relax. Tomorrow will probably be another gray day, but it will be much shorter and there will be things ashore and afloat to look at.

This night in the canal was very dark, due to the low, heavy cloud cover. The canal sides are well lit. It takes some concentration to pick out the lights of oncoming traffic. We were able to stay well clear of the two tugs/barges that passed us in addition to a few power boats without too much difficulty.

We anchored in Engineers Cove at Chesapeake City at 2020 hours, after an elapsed time of 14.1 hours on the water. We attended to chores, skipped dinner and hit the sack by 2130 hours.

We’ll be back at it tomorrow!

That’s our SUNSHINE Story for today!