Canterbury Sails by Chasseur: Working our Way to Delaware Bay

September 26 - 28, 2012 Wednesday - Saturday

Wednesday was a day of rest and wait. The wind and waves were outrageous on the Atlantic. Tuesday night survivors stayed put. Most of the sailors were "aching". We watched a sailboat struggling to come in the Absecon Inlet Wednesday afternoon, their hull would disappear in the waves. They tied up on our dock. Terry encountered the captain of this sailboat in the restroom. He was waiting for his laundry to finish, lying down on the shower bench, moaning. It was hard work for all of us - no matter what the age.
The author here has been corrected by many other sailors on our Tuesday night experience. Apparently we were in 6-8 foot waves Tuesday night, not the 4-5 foot waves we reported in our previous blog. The dark hid the demons, Suzanne was glad she did not know any better.
Wednesday we took a shuttle to the famous Atlantic City "boardwalk" with friends Ron and Jane Campbell, to say we walked it, checked out the inside of a few casinos (no gambling) and went back to our boats. We met Ron and Jane back in Atlantic Highlands/Sandy Hook, NJ. They have become our "weather" buddies for trip planning, sharing weather reports and weather sites. Ron and Jane are traveling on a Hatteras 36 - so are always ahead of us.
We left Atlantic City on Thursday after a storm went through in the morning. The storm left us with a favorable wind and the Ocean was calm. We had to go, it was just 30 nm to Cape May. It was a blissful transit with a visit from dophins in the earlier part of the day. Thursday night we had dinner with Ron and Jane at the "Lobster House". We sadly departed ways as they will be moving ahead much faster.
Our next goal was to get off the Delaware Bay as quickly as possible. To transit the "Bay" we had to take into account many variables to successfully complete it...no North wind component, flood tides and current, moon affect on the tides. The Delaware Bay has a river running down the middle to the Atlantic. It is a "natural" shipping channel. The current exceeds 4 kts, "Chasseur" travels at 5 kts. We had to study for and wait for the most favorable conditions. The prize is the C&D Canal (Chesapeake & Delaware), but we need to get there at about flood tide to maximize our travel. There is a lot planning and actual work for this transit.
Experienced mariners gave us advise to stay as far outside the Delaware Bay's channel that our depth sounder would allow and where we could still avoid crab pots. This would minimize the river's current against us. This worked well for us. We sailed a good part of Friday with a light wind coming from the south and waves 1 foot. We stopped in Cohansey River, a winding and deep river, for the night.
Saturday morning Terry woke Suzanne with "we're shoving off, make ready for sail!". We departed against the river's tide and entered the Delaware Bay with a northwest wind. We used the tide to help us, but we would have to pound through the waves until the tide turned. When the tide started to turn the waves did come down quite a bit. It's a "slippery" science out there! (ha ha). We had lots of company on this transit. Several sailboats had the same idea. The Annapolis Boat Show is next week and everyone is anxious to get there.
We stopped inside the C&D Canal at Summit North Marina for diesel and decided to stay. In time for cable TV coverage of MSU vs Ohio State, Terry relaxed with a beer in hand to catch up with his alma mater's football. GO GREEN!

We have now completed 1606 nautical miles.
We have been underway for 3 months.

"The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective."

Henry David Thoreau