08/17/2008 Baltimore to Maurice River

08/17/2008 We left early Monday morning from the inner harbor. We wanted to beat out any traffic in the harbor and river. We motored back down to the bay and headed north. It started out a light air day so we kept motoring for about five miles until the wind picked up. We had a nice following breeze so we flew the spinnaker the rest of the day jibing back and forth across the bay. We really are moving at a pace to say we are in No Rush. We made to John cabin’s Creek and stopped for the night.

With the assistance of the Eldridge Tide and Pilot Guide, I determined it would be best to hit the entrance of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal at 6:00AM to get a favorable current through the canal. With that in mind, we needed to leave at 5:00AM. We motored under a full moon to the canal and entered it at the planned time. We had a 1 to 1.5 kt current pushing us through. We made it to the Delaware side at 8:00AM, 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

From there, I had not really planned anything. We decided that with the clear weather we would head down the Delaware Bay to a Cohansey River. When we started we had light winds and a favorable tide. As the morning went on the tide swung against us and the wind was non-existent. We passed a nuclear power plant three times, once under sail going forward, a second time under sail going backwards and a third time going forward under motor. We motored until after lunch and the wind picked up. We were having such a good time we decided to push on even further and passed the Cohansey and head to the Maurice River. As the day went on, the winds picked up to true 20kts with an incoming tide and wind against the tide. (For those of you in Colorado, the air pressure at sea level is a lot heavier than in Colorado. 20kts at sea level is 25 to 28kts in Colorado.) We put in a double reef on the main and were still hitting 8-9knots of boat speed generating 29kts of apparent wind speed. I have to say it was a little nerve racking for the boat owner today pushing the boat as we were. Greg helped keep pushing forward and I know I need to push the boat in the heavier weather to determine how she will react and also how to use the systems on the boat, such as reefing the main. I will need to learn how to do this by myself when I am sailing alone. The other thing I didn’t mention was that we were mostly in shallow water. It was sort of like sailing in the Bahamas, but without being able to see the bottom. We were mostly in 6-12 feet of water. We made it into the Maurice River about 7:00PM and anchored for the night on a nice river. It was a long day starting at 5:00AM and the weather we came upon. The Maurice is an Oyster center. I am not sure of the condition of the business of oystering, but the area was fairly run down.