We left the town dock in Chesapeake City around 7:00 AM; there was no sign that our neighbors had risen, so to get out of our tight parking space, we temporarily pulled the boat forward into some of the area reserved for the party boat before releasing our lines. With a little help from the bow thruster, Captain Mark deftly slipped out of our parking spot.
We finished the trip up the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal, intentionally travelling with the favorable tidal current. With the help of the current, there were times we were exceeding 9 knots, which is very fast for our old single diesel engine boat.
Even as fast as we were moving (for our RV of the waterways), there where other power boats passing us at incredible speeds. At one point, we were passed by a monster-sized, fast-moving power boat that left a wake so intense that we rocked side to side more violently than we ever had before. In the morning, we always make a “sweep” of the cabin to make sure everything is latched and nothing will fall or break while we are in motion…. well, this time, it wasn’t enough, and we had plastic dishware bouncing around the cabin (luckily Captain Mark had insisted we remove all the glass that was in the boat when we bought it). There was another large boat behind us that abruptly slowed down and made a slow pass on our port side. We suspected he had seen what the previous guy had done to us and felt a bit of pity. We’ve observed that we see less “southern hospitality” since leaving the Carolinas and Virginia. Down there, the boat captains always radioed when they were passing, even if they were passing too fast and swamped us. LOL
In only two hours we were at the end of the canal and found our anchorage at the intersection of the canal and the Delaware River. The plan was to drop anchor for several hours until the tidal current changed, so that we could again ride a favorable current south to the halfway point on the Delaware River.
Captain Mark set about removing some obsolete wiring in the control panel while Sidekick Sue prepared for her HOA Board meeting. Even though the area was desolate, the cell signal was strong, and the timing worked out perfectly so that she could Zoom into her HOA Board meeting to discuss ongoing projects back in our complex in NH without shouting over the rumbling of the engine. The meeting started at 2:00 PM and by 3:00, Captain Mark was ready to go to catch the current. Sidekick Sue did her best to power through the rest of the agenda, and finally motioned for an adjournment at 3:30 while Captain Mark stood with his finger on the ignition. LOL
We had three hours of motoring with the current before reaching our anchorage for the night. There was not much to see along this part of the Delaware River. The land on both shores looked very swampy so there were hardly any towns, homes or buildings. At one point we passed what looked to be a nuclear power plant (later research showed it was the Salem Nuclear Power Plant in Salem County, NJ). We stayed just outside the ship channel as there were huge transport ships passing us, and they come up behind us very quickly.
Our anchorage was slightly up the Cohansey River, a tributary to the Delaware that is one the NJ side of the river. It was very desolate and empty. We were surrounded by swamp, but the water was very deep, which strangely conflicted with the information on the marine charts. There was a marina further up the river, so our theory is that the river was dredged to build the marina, but somehow the nautical charts were never updated. When reading reviews on the anchorage before we arrived, we saw that other boaters had commented on the unexpected depths as well.
Because we were not near any roads, there was nowhere to go ashore to get our Fitbit steps for the day. Sidekick Sue was happy to take a day off, but Captain Mark decided to go out for a dinghy row to explore. He discovered the area was ripe with horse flies and small biting black flies, some of which came back into the boat with him. So, we spent a quiet night catching up on reading, social media, and bills while slapping at little biting bugs, which seemed to dissipate as the temperature got cooler.
A check of the weather revealed that an intense weather system was coming. And sure enough, around 8:00, we had a wild storm that rocked the boat and gave us a free light show. We were glad to be in a somewhat protected area with no other boats around for our first real trial through a bad thunderstorm. Sidekick Sue retired for the night after the radar showed the worst of the storm had passed. Always the hero, Captain Mark stayed up until the storm completely subsided around midnight and all seemed well except for a few leaks on our 30+ year old boat that always drip when it rains. At some point, we will need to replace some of the old teak decks with fiberglass because they are leaking, but that is a project for when we have the boat out of the water.
