Cape May
Up the Chesapeake and down Delaware Bay. It has been said that the
Delaware is 55 miles long but feels like 400. Because of the bad winds and extreme currents after we came out of the C & D Canal, we holed up the first night at Reedy Island in rain, lightning & thunder. The next day we only went 30 miles to the Cohauncey River. We anchored in a bend in the river with the current ripping past, not in little wavelets but so swift it made flat whirlpools. It was a beautiful spot with a bald eagle keeping a sober eye on us from his perch on the shore. The first night thunder storms were the forecast which was not unusual, but the gust front that hit us was. 60 knots is as high as our anemometer will go & we watched in awe as it hit the top. We were laying with the current because it was so swift, so the wind gusts hit us and maintained as wind & current battled for supremacy. Everything flew around the cabin because we were still in anchoring mode which doesn't usually get this dramatic. I was speechlessly, believe it or not, hanging on. There really was no danger to life and limb because the mud banks were right there, in fact, looking pretty close. The worst that could happen would be Gracie in the mud, but CQR, our anchor, held. I cannot figure out the physics of that little thing; our new anchor chain which we just put on in Hampton, did its job. After what seemed an interminable amount of time, the anemometer dropped to 40. Jerry said he didn't think he had ever been so happy to see 40 knots of wind.
We are now sitting in a marina in Cape May waiting for good weather to make an overnight to New York. Supposedly, they have lots of mooring balls at the 79th st. yacht basin. Time is getting short. It looks like Monday will finally be a sailing day.
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- June 21, 2003