June 22 - 24 2009 Rock Creek to Cape May

June 22-24, 2009 -- Glen Burnie, MD to Cape May, NJ

After leaving Pathfinder tied up at the Maryland Yacht Club for 12 days while we conducted some business and drove a car from Sarasota, we prepared for the final week of our journey. Given the timing with the end of the school year for our grandchildren, it made sense for Marianne to drive the 7 hours to Newport with the car loaded for the summer, open up our place in Newport, and have fun taking care of our granddaughters for several days before the July 4th weekend while Chris would take 6 days to travel the same distance single-handed. We prefer to be together but with timing and family needs we thought this would make sense and Chris was looking forward to trying an extended single-hand experience.

The Maryland Yacht Club has a very reasonable rate for cruisers to leave their boat for a week or longer in a protected slip. We were very pleased with the location and the staff. We drove up from Sarasota with a loaded car and stayed overnight aboard before Marianne jumped in the car for the 7 hour drive to Newport.

Chris left the slip and headed to the top of the Chesapeake where the C+D Canal begins. This canal cuts across the upper edge of the eastern shore of the Chesapeake connecting to the Delaware River.

There is a small anchorage just off the canal after this bridge at Chesapeake City that is very protected from the sometimes rough water on the Delaware River or the Chesapeake Bay.



Chris dropped anchor right at the #2 in the picture on the right (this comes from the ActiveCaptain website) and worked out on the treadmill then cooked up a "bachelor" dinner of grilled Spam (we had many cans left over from the backup supplies we loaded on board before the Bahamas)

The next morning Chris got an early started out of the anchorage for the eight hour run through the canal and down the Delaware River to the southern tip of New Jersey and Cape May.

Leaving the anchorage I was immediately reminded that this canal is a commercial shipping lane by the huge tanker coming towards Pathfinder-- size does matter! I moved over to the side and gave plenty of room!

The Delaware river was calm and the eight hours passed quickly. I only saw a few boats on the river including the pretty schooner in this picture. There were some large ships further up river and I watched them   on the AIS link on my computer to make sure I stayed out of their way!





One of the most interesting sights was the steam rising from the nuclear power plant along the shoreline.


At the beginning of the Delaware River sits Cape May NJ. This picture shows the entrance to the canal from the river leading to a protected harbor where I tied up once again at Utches Marina, filled the fuel tank for the long trip to New York harbor, worked out on the treadmill, cooked another grilled Spam dinner (actually pretty good!) and settled in early in anticipation of a long day tomorrow.