Delaware Bay Punishment

 Hello fellow sailors,

As usual I have lagged behind in keeping this little missive up to date. I am anchored in Cape May, after a rollicking sail down the Delaware yesterday. And of course there have been other adventures since emerging from the depths of the swamp.

Sometimes it feels like low grade combat when sailing alone. I started yesterday morning at 5:30 only to find I was hard aground in the basin at Chesapeake City. A quick look at the tide tables made me realize I should just wait, and the tide would float me off. At about 7, I became impatient, and ran out a kedge anchor in the dinghy. No success. It refused to set, and resulted in a large load of putrid mud being deposited on my deck. Twenty buckets of water later and things looked better. A few more minutes passed, and I motored off. I just needed a bit more patience. The C&D canal was no problem. The current was with me and I was through in short order. Coming out of the canal is like being catapulted into an active firing range. There were 2 large ships, one northbound, one south. They were passing right at the intersection I was being thrust into. The wind was out of the north, 20-25, opposing the current, and the river was a mass of whitecaps. A tug and barge combo was anchored outside of the channel, and another barge was visible downriver, but headed my way. Adding to my stress level was the fact that my Navionics navigation app had been out of commission for several days, something I was none too happy about. Since I wanted to avoid getting creamed by a 50,000 ton ship I decided to hold off on hoisting sail until conditions were more favorable. Using my paper charts I stayed in shallow water until the massive piles of steel had lumbered away from the area. I was fighting a strong tide which kept my speed low. The motion was excessive, and my autopilot was acting a bit wonky, needing close supervision. I hoisted the jib and saw a dramatic improvement in speed. Shutting the engine down I made my way past the nuclear power plant on the New Jersey side. 

But wait, another sailboat appeared on the other side of the river , also headed south. And they were sporting a main AND a jib. Clearly, the red flag had been waved, and a race was on. Getting my main up whilst being thrashed in the waves was not pretty, but I did it. And the tide finally began to turn. Sadly, the other boat was clearly faster. It was about a mile away and I never got a good look at it. As the tide strengthened my speed rose to a peak of 9.2 knots. 2 of those knots were due to current. I may have achieved higher but I had my hands full as the boat surged thru the waves. I am finding that the autopilot has a tough time in heavy downwind conditions. All of this time I am recording my position, avoiding other ships, and generally getting beaten around. After several hours I met a really huge tug towing a massive barge with containers piled high. The initial wake didn't seem bad, but the subsequent hills of water were something else. There was a loud snap as a pin in one of my preventer shackles broke. The preventer keeps the mainsail from jibing, and potentially removing Charlie's head from its foundation. So I dropped the main. This involved scrambling around and securing the sail as the boat careened from side to side. The autopilot steered while I replaced the broken pin. I was too beat to rehoist it. Things were looking good and I was 5 miles from Cape May. I was running directly downwind, with the jib jibing back and forth when suddenly there was a blast of wind, from directly ahead! Not in the forecast at all. So now I was faced with a new wind, directly on the nose, and the tide was now contrary as well. I gave up and turned on the motor. I wanted to get into Cape May before dark and I did, just barely. I anchored in a questionable spot, and sure enough, at 1:30AM, I was aground. Same way I began the day! No harm done. Flat calm. Soft mud. 

Hope to head north along the Jersey shore tomorrow!

Best to all, Charlie