Day 10 Chesapeake City, MD on the C&D Canal

Are we there yet????????

Today Jane woke feeling better than yesterday but not great. After checking the weather we decided that we had to leave today to go up the Delaware or we would be stuck for another 2-3 days. All we had to get through was going around the point of Cape May. Well.....there are shoals extending WAY OUT beyond the point and it was about an extra 5-6 nautical miles to our trip. There is a great canal from Cape May into Delaware Bay but the bridges are only 55' high. We need 59-60 to be on the safe side. So leaving Cape May the winds East 15-20k and waves were 5-6' breaking close together. It wasn't pleasant at all. Pretzel was zipped inside her carry case, tied to the radar arch, wrapped in a down bag, Jane was bundled beside Peter holding on with a death grip, praying, and Peter was hand steering through the waves. He is the hero in this story!!!! Anyway once in Delaware Bay the conditions were suppose to improve but actually didn't for the first 5 hours. We were in a better angle to the waves and had our storm sail out to stabilize us but the wind stayed strong. We saw about 7 other sailboats going along our route-in fact we passed out 4 of them (it's always a race when other boats are nearby) and even passed out a large barge being pushed by a tug!!!! We had the current with us and averaged 7-8k for speed. Where Delaware Bay narrows and you can see land on both sides it becomes the Delaware River, or so the charts say. Once passing the Salem Nuclear Power Plant we knew the end was in sight. Only 5 miles to the C&D Canal. This canal is 13 miles long and connects the Delaware River with Chesapeake Bay. We entered the canal with only 10 miles to go.....about 1.5 hours. No waves, no wind, but it started to rain #*@# it!!! We pulled into this little anchorage along the canal at mile 10 and dropped the hook (anchor) at 7PM. It was a very long 10 hour day. Peter made dinner and then Jane went to bed. We'll see what tomorrow brings! We think today was the last time being in the open ocean. From now on we should be in the intracoastal waterway. It wasn't hard to tell....the canal water definitely doesn't look like ocean water. (Turned off that salt water flush toilet!!)

Hey...does this look familiar?? It's on the C&D canal!!