Monday, November 28, 2016

liberty island to solomons, md.

Guess who is woefully behind? Yup. I'll pick up from NYC for now but I know we owe you a whole laundry list of posts just about the Erie Canal too. 

Where were we? Ah yes. We departed the anchorage south of the Statue of Liberty later than we intended. We needed to get diesel and the closest place was back toward manhattan and so we set out that direction. We topped off both the water and fuel tanks and then headed toward the mouth of New York harbor. It is the busiest waterway we have seen yet. Barges, fast ferries, fishing boats, pleasure boats, and freighters dotted the horizon around us. It was a tense time and thankfully Fozel slept through most of it. We rounded Sandy Hook, NJ around dusk and thus began our first overnight passage with Fozel. I laid down with him and snoozed a bit while Josh took the first watch and then stood a nice long stretch while Josh got some long overdue rest. During the night we watched the blinking lights of the cities, including Atlantic City. This was our first dip into the Atlantic Ocean aboard Interlude and it was under the best of conditions. The waves were smooth and the wind was light. All in all, a wonderful first night at sea. Fozel awoke at his normal time, and we carried on with our day as usual. We pulled into Cape May, NJ in the late afternoon and anchored during low tide, with just a few feet more than our draft below us (our draft is 6 feet and low tide was just over 8 feet of water). Josh struck out in the kayak while Lucas and I napped. Another boat we had encountered at Hop o' Nose also arrived, Herricanne, a Canadian boat hailing from Montreal. They dinghied over and we shared a glass of wine and some trip planning advice. They are bound for Martinique! 

Before the sun was up, josh and I crept out of bed to begin our route across the Cape May canal. There are a few tight bridges so we opted to go with the low tide and current through them. By breakfast time we were heading up Delaware Bay to the C & D canal. Since it was late afternoon by the time we reached the canal, we opted to pull into a tiny marina in Delaware city. We needed showers and some time on land. We stayed 2 nights. There we saw some familiar faces aboard Salty Paws, a tiny little power boat from Maine. They had stayed in the same marina as us in NYC and we had briefly chatted there. Molly and Bill are also Bahamas bound but I suspect we will eat their dust as the last time we heard from them they were already in Charleston. The following day we again tried to beat the sun. This time fog thwarted us. We stayed out later than anticipated that morning. We still had plenty of daylight and it was a nice passage. There was a plethora of commercial traffic but the channel is amply wide and we stayed out of their way with no problem. The C & D canal dumped us into the Elk River which is at the north end of the Chesapeake Bay. Annapolis, here we come. Josh did a little sleuthing and found a nice protected area on the east side of the Chesapeake called Worton Creek. There for 6 or so other boats moored there. Lucas and I went for a kayak ride as the sun went down and again ran into our pals Molly and Bill. Early the next morning, Friday, we motored to Annapolis and tried to get one of the Naval Academy buoys in Weems Creek but no luck. They are only used by the Academy sailing team if the threat of a hurricane is imminent. When we arrived I walked to get groceries and the boys played at a local school playground. The next morning, Josh met up with his former sailing coach for coffee. Later in the day we cleaned and played and then on Sunday, bright and early we departed. That afternoon we pulled into Calvert Marina in Solomon, MD. We took the courtesy car to pick up a few more grocery items (mostly snacks and treats that were way overpriced in Annapolis). And that night we took the dinghy across the river where the marina was to have some Maryland seafood. Josh had the crab cakes and I opted for the fried seafood platter. There were crab balls (basically crab cakes) that were deeelicious! We did a few loads of laundry and showered up, as it had been since Delaware City since our last washings. After leaving Solomon, Virginia was in our sights. 


Check back in a few days when I have decent wifi for photos in this post.

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