Mill Creek - at anchor, day 2

The shoreline provides oportunities for pet relief

Instead of going from here to Deltaville and then on to Hampton we decided to just stay an extra day here and move on to Hampton on Sunday. It's a 57 Nm trip but we can make it in 8 hours or so. The winds were predicted to be 10 to 15 with gusts to 20 and waves of 2 to 3 feet so we just stayed put. Sunday is supposed to be calmer with 5 to 10 kts of winds and waves of 1 to 2 feet.  Besides, this is a very pleasant anchorage with lots of room and great protection. We were the only one in our cove and Hoolie relief is nearby on a deserted beach.

Meanwhile I had fun with waterworks. I had a leaking fitting and I had been in a marine store and bought every fitting they had - but they didn't have a 3/8 inch female hose connection. Guess which fitting I needed?! So I rummaged around and found a plastic hose connector of the right type and cobbled the connection together. I will need to replace the fitting the first chance I get with a solid brass connection. It's amazing the variety of connections and hoses you may need while underway.

We are all alone in our cove

We'll leave around 8:00 am or so and should be in Hampton by 3:30 pm at Downtown Hampton Public Piers. We heard that the Virginia Cut was just opened but the Dismal Swamp was still closed due to high water. There always seems to be something although I can't complain about the weather. It's much better than last year when it was so cold and rainy.

Mill Creek - at anchor

The anchorage has only a few modest homes nearby - it's a  beautiful setting

I had a lifeline give way when a fender got caught between the boat and a piling. I went to see Zahniser's Yachting Center in Solomons for a fix in the spring this year but they didn't have the right part in stock. I visited several places on the way north but I found it remarkably difficult to find the exact, right parts for the repair. Giving up, I brought the assembly back with me south to Zahniser and went for the complete replacement which they completed in 1/2 hour. I have to say that they are very good! They did what they promised and at a reasonable price.

When I reinstalled the lifeline I checked the other lifelines on the boat and to my chagrin, three were missing retaining rings. They could have failed at any time with at least the loss of the end fittings not to mention perhaps putting me overboard if I was leaning against them at the time. So my advice is to check your lifelines to be sure all the fittings have ring retainers in place. It's not something you think of everyday, I certainly didn't.

There's six boats in the anchorage but there's plenty of room

The ride across the mouth of the Potomac will go down as the calmest ever for us. The wind was out of the north at 5 mph with little current, just a perfect passage. We're anchored in Mill Creek and will probably be here Saturday too. NOAA has a small craft advisory issued for Saturday with winds of 10 to 15 and gusts to 20 kts but on Sunday everything is supposed to calm down to 5 to 10 kts out of the north so we plan on reaching Hampton Sunday afternoon. At the moment the ICW is closed on both the Virginia Cut and the Dismal Swamp route due to high water. Hopefully it will subside by Wednesday, our projected departure date from Hampton. There always seems to be something happening on the ICW!

Solomons Island - at anchor by the Holiday Inn

Peaceful anchorage, no crowds

Grib once again was correct. We had a following wind of about 10 kts all the way to the Solomons. We stopped by for fuel at our usual place, the Solomons Island Yacht Club. There was a spot on the dock but it was between a large powerboat and and other boat down the dock. Ann placed Fleetwing into the slot and we refueled. Getting out of tight quarters was another matter. We had a wind pushing us into the dock and we would normally counter that by doing our usual bow in maneuver (see ICW Tips) and backing out. However, the powerboat was much wider than us and I was concerned that we could clear the boat. Adding to the problem was the close spacing of the pilings which interfered with our bow pulpit preventing getting a good angle for reverse. So with that we did the alternate  technique of tying a line from the aft cleat to a mid cleat on the dock and putting the boat into reverse with a large fender between us and the dock. The bow swung out and when it reached 30 degrees or so, Ann put the boat in forward and we escaped the dock.

Douglas and Victoria Peterson

We anchored in our usual spot by the Holiday Inn who has a dinghy dock for pet relief. We were invited over by Douglas and Victoria Peterson for wine on their Catalina 445 so of course we took advantage of the offer and arrived around 4:30. As you expect we traded boating stories and headed back to Fleetwing later on.

Another beautiful sunset along the way south

We are the only boat in the anchorage tonight and we're headed for the Mill Creek anchorage on Friday. We plan on being at Hampton Sunday through Tuesday where we will rent a car and provision. The weather so far has been great for traveling south.

Rhode River - at anchor

Flat Island usually used for pet relief (with pickup)

We're the beneficiaries of some very nice weather for going south. The temperatures are in the 70's and the winds are out of the north but no more than 10 kts. We will ride the weather down to Hampton, VA where we will spend a few days and provision. Boat projects are going well. I got the TV antenna to work and in the anchorage we have 68 channels to chose from. With the flat land of the area and the ICW, that's pretty typical.

A new sign was posted

We left this morning at 7:00 to have enough depth to exit the anchorage area. There's a neck of slightly deeper water you have to find (see yesterday's chart) on the way out. After that you just hug the east bulkhead within 10 ft for 8.l MLW. By the way, yesterday's chart of the Chesapeake City anchorage is corrected to MLW. When you chose to compile a chart, you're asked the nearest tide station and the programs automatically corrects all readings to MLW and outputs a chart. It's amazing what modern software and hardware can do. I used Navionics software to do the chart and it's been uploaded to their website for use by anyone with a Navionics app. It should appear under the "Sonar Chart" option. It may take a week to be refined by Navionics but then it should be available to anyone.

Another great sunset

We plan on moving on to Solomons Island on Thursday and anchor by the Holiday Inn. They have a $2/day dinghy dock that we like to use and a completely protected anchorage in 10 ft of water. There's a Food Lion about a mile east and a West Marine about 1/4 mile west. There's also a ton of fast food places and a BBQ place that's not bad. We've got to take advantage of the good weather for going south.

Chesapeake City - at anchor

As we exited the canal, we surely wanted to stay away from the main channel for the best current

We went to bed Monday night not encouraged by the weather report of thunderstorms all day long but when I got up at 5:00 am the forecast had completely changed. Now there was no rain predicted and light winds out of the northeast, ideal for going up the Delaware Bay. We made it out of Utsch's Marina at a dead low tide and saw 5.1 MLW on the way out by the bulkhead entrance. That's enough for our 4 ft 9 in keel. Since we were at low tide, the bridge height was plenty at 57.5 ft for our 55.3 ft mast.

Here's a chart of the anchorage I made this afternoon

We've traversed the bay about a dozen times and have found that the ideal time to leave Cape May is on a rising tide just after a low with either no wind or wind from the south. The current in the bay will be turning to give you a boost to Chesapeake City. However, you don't want to immediately go over to the main channel. Anyone who has experience with tides on a river will realize that the current reverses first on the sides of the channel before the middle. So I kept east of the main channel until the power plant for a 0.5 to 1.0 kt boost all the way. The current in the main channel didn't kick in until Reedy Point. As we approached the entrance to the canal we found slack water and it gradually turned in our favor the rest of the way to Chesapeake City. We left Cape May at 6:00 am were anchored by 2:10 pm. By the way, don't ever allow yourself to  be caught in a wind against current situation on Delaware Bay if the wind is above 15 kts. It is not just rough, it's life threatening. The 2 to 3 kt current will produce standing waves that are very short and will break over your bow and down the length of the boat as your bow plunges into green water.

One of the two ACOE boats docked in the anchorage

Our next challenge was in getting through the shallow entrance to Chesapeake City anchorage. The free town docks are no longer used, take one at any time. Of course there's only two feet of water there but if you withstand that, then they are a great bargain. You enter the anchorage by hugging the east bulkhead within 10 ft (not 20 or greater!) for 8 MLW. As you exit the bulkhead, you'll see a white house off your port bow and you can head for that in a gradual turn and a 4.1 MLW passage for about 200 ft.  When abreast of the two ACOE boats at their docks,, turn sharply to port and pass both boats within 20 ft. After you pass the last boat of the two, you are then in the deep water of the anchorage, 8 to 12 ft everywhere, see the chart I made this afternoon for a sounding of the anchorage. All readings are at MLW.

ACOE draft gauge. This is why there's a 4.1 MLW channel!

A fine day capped off by a beautiful sunset

The afternoon enjoyment was watching a small sailboat trying to take a town dock, no dice, too shallow! We're headed for Rhode River on Wednesday with a 7:00 am start to have enough tide to exit the anchorage.

Cape May - Still here

We had our 58 ft at low tide today

Oh hum, still in Cape May. Today was nothing but heavy rain, all day long. Our plan is to leave the dock at 6:00 am to make it through the Cape May Canal bridges at low tide. That depends on what kind of day Tuesday turns out to be. If it's like today, we'll sit out yet another day. If it's only drizzle or a light rain, we'll leave. I had at least four inches of rain in the dinghy (lots of bailing). Looking at the radar, there appears to be no letup in the downpour. We've seen all we want to see of Cape May, it's time to move but not in a downpour.

The downside of trailing a dinghy

Meanwhile, I walked out to check the bridge height at low tide and saw 58 ft as expected, even the heavy rains didn't affect the height so we'll have plenty of clearance even with 2 ft of tide. We moved over to a face dock since we only had 2 ft 6 inches at low tide where we were at. When speaking with the dockhand he said that dock was not dredged but the ones on either side were and offered to move us over. We opt'ed for the face dock, easy to get out of by ourselves in the early morning hours. You can follow us on Spot tomorrow to see if we actually left or not.

We have 62 Nm to go for Chesapeake City so we would really like a nice day but that's balanced against being here so long. I've done enough boat projects!

Cape May - we visit Wildwoods

I can't imagine the scene here at the peak of the summer season

We're sitting in the mud here at low tide with a reading of 2.8 ft and I have a 4 ft 9 in keel. The guy next door has 4.5 ft at low tide so not all the slips are the same, I guess I happened to get a shallow one. Since we want to leave at 6:00 am on Tuesday morning which is right at low tide, we'll move to a face dock for deeper water on Monday when the tide is high.

I repaired the connections to the main VHF so now we have two working radios. Most of the day I was doing routes that incorporated the ACOE waypoints into my Garmin 492 chartplotter. So who ever is at the helm will see the ACOE waypoints come up automatically without having to switch over to the specific route through a shallow spot. All of this information is available for anyone willing to learn how to use GPX routes. It's nothing more than a computer file that contains waypoint and a route that any navigation program can download and display. You can download to an app on your iPad which includes the Garmin Mobile app, Navimatics Charts and Tides, Aqua Map USA and several others with the exception of the otherwise excellent Navionics iPad app which does not accept route downloads in any format per their help desk input.

They have some very original blue palm trees here, never saw their like anywhere in Florida

Downloading and installing a GPX route is easy. Just follow the directions on the blog site under "ICW Tips" in the page "GPX Routes". As the surveys and information changes, this page will be kept up to date. Look for the route with the highest number at the end (e.g., "2" or "3", etc.) for the latest file. It's easier and less error prone than trying to enter the waypoints manually.

We explored Wildwoods today, it's just up the beach from Cape May. We've always taken a condo at Ocean City, NJ during the summer with our kids but I was interested in seeing what Wildwoods looked like. For one thing it's much more built up, many three and four story highrises right on the beach. You don't see that in Ocean City with their maximum of three stories and mostly two story houses. It's well kept but it's got to be very crowded in the summer with all the multiple story hotels right on the water. We'll take Ocean City.

We have one more day here before moving on. Tuesday looks good for getting under the 55 ft bridges and into Chesapeake City which we'll try at a 2 ft and rising tide. The path from the entrance to the deeper water in the eastern part of the anchorage is shoaled in but we ought to be able to shimmy in with a 2 ft tide. On Monday it's thunderstorms followed by showers on Tuesday but with light winds which is good for us going north on Delaware Bay.