Virginia to New Jersey

This has been such a busy week.....We traveled 100 miles one day from Tangier to Rock Hall, MD, where we were weathered in again...but had a fun time with two other sets of boaters who were with us on the "free" dock! Meanwhile, I have been having trouble with my new AT&T "hotspot" that supposedly allows me to have internet whenever my phone has a good signal....finally got that straightened out today...hence, the blog continues!!!

This is a picture of the float on a crab trap....some floats are white, even black...and are not very visible in any kind of wave. It your prop hits it, the line wraps around, the heavy trap lifts up...and you have a serious problem! Many are connected along a long line, with the floats about 50 feet apart. 

At the top eastern neck of the Chesapeake, we were reminded of very dear friends...the Arnolds and the Pearces...when we looked at our chart! It is a lovely area as the next picture demonstrates.

The terrain is very different from flat Tangier Island.

In the northeastern part of Chesapeake Bay, we entered the C and D Canal, that goes east and west to connect Chesapeake Bay with Delaware Bay. It's 12 miles long and was first proposed by Dutch mapmaker Augustine Hermann in 1661. It won Benjamin Franklin's support in 1788. Finally opening in 1829, with four locks and teams of 6 mules pulling the towboats through. It reduced the water route between Philadelphia and Baltimore by nearly 300 miles.  Luckily, it has been modified, and there are no longer any locks. Cargo ships and military vessels share the water with pleasure craft like Snow Cat.

Here is one of those transport ships...but this was taken on Delaware Bay. We were so fortunate to have small waves, as we traveled the 60 miles from Delaware City, Delaware, down to Cape May, New Jersey. We have heard horror stories about conditions of wind and currents here, but we picked our "weather window" and headed south on Saturday. All was good....

Delaware Bay has large lighthouses and fog horns just like the Chesapeake.

At the lower right corner of Delaware Bay, we entered the Cape May canal, passing the car ferries that my parents used to take from Cape May, NJ, to Lewes, DE, as they drove to Florida each winter. They always passed through the Jersey shore, visiting my mother's relatives along the way. In fact, coming up the Jersey coast, on the inside of the barrier islands, has been a trip down memory lane for me. My mother just loved Cape May with its lovely architecture. We even ate at her favourite restaurant, The Lobster House. 

This former church is for sale...It is on the corner of Lafayette and Franklin in Cape May. Would love to look up the asking price!

 If you look real close, you will see us in the mirror, in the lovely hotel in the beautifully restored Congress Hall.

Another lovely home...

This made me think of our irises....

and the beautiful colours of spring! 

This week has been very windy and rainy. We stopped in Ocean City yesterday to visit my cousin Ruth, husband John  and some of their family. And it was here...today...that we had to put Lacey to sleep. She stopped eating and could barely walk. We were both with her...and she went so peacefully. Don and I are naturally very upset...but tomorrow we will leave and continue our travels north. 

The inside waterway is very shallow, and we have to be SO careful. Only shallow-draft boats can venture here. Even the channels have shoaled, and hopefully towards higher tide, we will get through to Atlantic City and then on to the Manasquan Inlet area. From here, all boats have to go out in the ocean for a 26 mile trip to Sandy Hook, NJ. Wednesday is the first day this week that may be calm enough for ocean travel...or maybe Thursday. The waves are forecast to be about 4 feet (down from 7), but they should be 7-8 seconds apart, which should be good. When living on the water, our safety depends so much more on the weather than when we are land-lubbers. In a few days, I hope to be posting a picture of the Statue of Liberty as we enter New York Harbor!!!! Stay tuned...