Leg 25, Delaware City to Still Pond (Day 42)

0330 Couldn't sleep so just got up.  I was very ready for Tim the Dock Master as he sleepily walked down the dock toward me. "Are you ready?" he said, the engines were running and the lines rigged for "flipping" the boat around to face the current. He had me off within 5 minutes going out of the harbor. Very professional crew and no expectation of tips, unlike Cape May. They just do it because it is part of their service, and they care.

It took me about 45 minutes to go back out of the harbor, around the point, enter the C&D Canal officially, and come parallel with the old channel. Traffic was slow and didn't see any other boats for miles.

FIRST BRIDGE ON C&D CANAL
EARLY MORNING

SECOND AND THIRD BRIDGES

Approaching the railroad bridge I did see a trawler heading the other way. The clouds were touching the highest bridges as you can see in some of the pictures.  

RAILROAD BRIDGE
NOTE CLOUDS OBSCURING THE TOP OF BRIDGE

They were doing a rail inspection so the bridge dropped just as I approached. No warning but I could see it slowly coming down. I called on VHF 13 to see what was going on. The Bridge Master said it would be about 10 minutes or so. 

BRIDGE ALMOST DOWN

GOING UP!  I AM ON MY WAY

I held in the river slowly edging toward the bridge but had to turn at the final point.  Just as I did the bridge began to go up so I turned around and headed down to the Chesapeake. Still not much traffic even though it was Labor Day!  

CHESAPEAKE CITY
CHESAPEAKE END OF C&D CANAL

POLLUTION CONTROL VESSEL

FINALLY SOME TRAFFIC! A TUG PUSHING A BARGE
NOTE BOW WAVE

Once I got into the upper Chesapeake the traffic started up and then there were fisherman and power boats everywhere.  However they were not too bad.  It was hot and humid like every day has been for the past few days.

THIS LARGE CAT APPROACHED ME AND WENT IN FRONT, THEN HE TOOK A PICTURE OF ME WHILE I TOOK A PICTURE OF HIM!

I followed the ship channel for the most part until I got closer to Still Pond which is just an anchorage. I then cut the corner and immediately started running into markers for crab pots. Took a few pictures of the crabbers at work.  

CHESAPEAKE CRAB BOAT

THE HAZARD
THOUSANDS OF THESE ARE SCATTERED ALL OVER!

As I approached the anchorage I could see it was very crowded but almost right away boats started streaming out (power boats). By the time I anchored at least 10 boats left. I found an easy place to drop the hook in the outer anchorage and as soon as I was settled I put down the swim ladder and took two or three dives in to cool off, even though water temp was 89 F!  It was dead calm all day so the swim felt good even if it was a little salty. 

THE ANCHORAGE AREA

I checked out the motors and found that they both needed to be lowered some.  The starboard motor I thought was kicking water up into the well due to the rubber gasket being tilted down, but that turned out to not be the case.  Instead, it is the prop that was kicking up water into the well because it was not down far enough. The new engines present a problem with this since they can't be lowered as far as the older motors.

PEACEFUL EVENING, BUT HOT!

Had steak, potato, hot bread, and wine for dinner.  Hit the sack early.

Stats for the day:  34.44 NM charted, 39.97 NM logged, difference is mostly due to current.  WT 88.8 F! Total Log 8255.8 NM