Continuing North – Virginia to a New Jersey weekend!

Monday, 13 May – Deltaville to Fairport – 29 mi.

 A little cooler, 58 degrees.  Although we planned to head north late this morning, we were told that UPS does not normally deliver to Deltaville before 4 PM, and we did not want to leave without the chart plotter chip. We thought we would spend another night in Deltaville. But the package came at 12:30 PM. We tested it; it worked; and, by 1 PM we were on our way. A little over 20 miles north, approaching the Smith Point lighthouse, just south of where the Potomac River flows into the bay, the water got rougher. Soon

we were in 3-4 ft seas.  We heard that the Potomac crossing was the roughest part, so we felt uncomfortable continuing north. We spun around and headed up the Great Wicomico River and up Cockrell Creek to find refuge in the tiny Fairport Marina. We were the only transient trawler there. They closed at 3 PM, but Paige said she lived next door and would open up for us. There was a restaurant that was open from 11-3, so it was closed. We stated to get some fuel, but the diesel pump was so slow, we got tired of holding the pump handle, filling up to only 60% - enough to get to Solomons the next day.  We had food, so we enjoyed a quiet dinner at sunset, alone at the dock. We heard from SeaGlide, and they were anchored in nearby Mill Creek. Freewheelin went to explore Urbana, up the Rappahannock River from Deltaville.  Cockrell creek is home to a fishing fleet and a fish processing factory.

Tuesday, 14 May – Fairport to Solomons – 40 mi.

Blue sky, clear, calm, 56 degrees.  We got underway about 8 AM. As we entered the bay, we saw SeaGlide pulling out of Mill Creek ahead of us. But they turned around to return to their anchorage to look for their cat. The seas were much calmer, about 1 ft. And we were relieved to find 1-2 ft seas crossing the mouth of the Potomac – supposedly the roughest part expected for the day.  SeaGlide found their cat and were about two hours behind us, also headed to Solomons, but to another anchorage. We heard from Freewheelin, and they had come down the Rappahannock into the bay, so they were about five hours behind us. Our approach to the Patuxent River was a little choppier, but still much better than yesterday’s rock and roll at Smith Point.  We docked at Solomons Island, MD at the

Spring Cove Marina. Nice facility, clean showers, in a pleasant tree-covered setting. We washed two days of salt water crust off the boat. “A clean boat is a happy boat,” Capt Bob used to say. The marina offers free shuttles to the grocery store, so we took advantage of that to stock up. Charli caught my cold, so we picked up some chicken noodle soup makings for dinner.  A Scottish couple docked beside us. They came over to apologize in advance for leaving at 6 AM tomorrow, on their way back to Canada from the Bahamas. Their boat, Teaghlach, means family. It was a family boat, making a home for their sons on their honeymoons in the Bahamas.  We told
them we heard that the winds were picking up tomorrow, and there was a small boat advisory. We were debating whether to leave in the morning.

Wednesday, 15 May – Spring Cove Marina.

Warmer, 64 degrees. Clear skies turned cloudy soon, couple rain drops, then really nice again. Woke up early to check the marine weather forecast. There appeared to be a morning travel window possible before the winds got too wild. But any notion of leaving at dawn was nixed by Al’s breaking his toe on

the bedroom door. Our Scottish neighbors also stayed in port, heeding our warning about the winds. Later we found out that Freewheelin left at 6:30 AM, hugging the shoreline for some shelter and heading north to Annapolis with rollers at his stern.  With some
ice, some tape, and some Advil, Al was able to walk and even bike a bit. We explored the maritime museum: climbed up a real lighthouse that was moved to the museum, saw a paleontologist removing whale bones from casts, viewed a snake head fish that was invading the local waters, and met up with John and Barbara from GO, and
enjoyed the crab cake
at Kingfisher’s with them. The town was named after Isaac Solomon, a Baltimore businessman, who set up a cannery and housing for his workers. Tobacco and oysters (vs
fishing), then ship building drove the economy after the Civil War. (Amazing what you pick up at museums.)  We found Jeff and Grace from SeaGlide doing laundry and trip planning in the marina’s clubhouse. Nice to bump in to them again.

Thursday, 16 May – Solomons, MD to Summit North Marina, DE – 101 mi.

Having missed yesterday morning’s window of calm winds, we made up for it today. So did our Scottish neighbors. Charli’s weather research said seas would be calm today and rough tomorrow, so we decided to leapfrog Annapolis (since we missed Charli’s friend Tef last night) and go for the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, catching up a day toward seeing our son AJ and his family in New Jersey for the weekend. Although it took us 10 hours, it was a pleasure to be at sea on such a beautiful day. We cruised past the
Calvert Cliffs,

the Chesapeake Bay bridge,
lots of sail boats, and huge cargo ships, all in seas less than a foot and in 80 degrees – truly a pleasure.  The canal has a traffic light at the east end which, when flashing red, indicates that barges and BIG boats are headed west. We had a flashing green and did not run into any commercial traffic. We did see some
interesting bridges, including one for a natural gas pipeline.
Chesapeake City was the canal’s focus,
so the markers all were all “red, right, returning” towards the town - they flipped from red-on-right to green-on-right at mid canal. We docked at the last marina on the canal – Summit North – and relaxed at the nice Cuban restaurant Aqua Sol for dinner.

Friday, 17 May – Summit North, DE to Cape May, NJ – 62 mi.

Another bluebird day – blue sky, calm, 59 degrees, which went up to the 70’s. We started early at high tide (as advised) to go downstream on the Delaware River into the bay.  At this point, we were really grateful for Capt Alan Lloyd’s Great Loop Navigation Notes. The “magenta line” we were following up the ICW ended in Norfolk. Now we were in open seas and had to set bearings and waypoints for navigation. Lloyd’s notes were very helpful in finding the lighthouses and markers along the way.  We did encounter 1-2 foot seas in the last part of Delaware Bay, but not enough to add stress to the enjoyable cruise.

We passed ferries taking cars and passengers from Cape May to Delaware. We docked at Utsch’s Marina at the end of the Cape May Canal. This was the first marina to give us a bottle of wine and some biscotti upon checking in. We biked to the beach and found a street corner that reminded us of our home town - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
We explored the Victorian neighborhoods in town (Cape May is the
oldest beach resort town in the US). Like Boulder’s Pearl St and Burlington’s Church St, Cape May also has a pavered street (Ocean
St) with a pedestrian shopping area. The creamsickle ice cream cone
was delicious. Later, we enjoyed a great meal at the Lobster House just a short walk from the marina. We were “good tired” at the end of the day.

Saturday, 18 May – Cape May to Atlantic City – 42 mi.

Relatively calm. We got an early start to beat the increasing wind speeds off the coast. We headed out the Cape May inlet and north along the shore. Seas were about 1-2 ft – not bad.  We enjoyed
seeing the beach towns from the water.

Wildwood’s Great White roller coaster and Ferris wheel were visible. Ocean City, Stone Harbor, Avalon all have their own character and skyline, and we could soon see Atlantic City’s casinos in the distance.  The guys who spent the night next door to us in the marina were right beside us most of the way.  Lots of dolphins were around, some playing in our wake. Some sailboats were taking advantage of the winds picking up toward midday. We docked at the Farley State Marina just a few slips from the Golden Nugget Casino.  And we have access to their fourth floor pool and hot tub!  AJ, Erika, Eli and Winnie, Zach, Kate, Avery and Bob came over to see the boat, helped us wash it and have lunch.
 They gave us a ride to the beach house in Brigantine, we were surprised to see Denis, Michael and Steph there. Then, courtesy of Bob and Eileen (Erika's parents), we spent the weekend celebrating Erika’s and AJ's birthdays. It was really nice to see them all again.