Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Annapolis, MD
The Delaware Bay is possibly the worst body of water in the whole wide world! In all my research of this trip, I have only heard of one couple who had “a great day of sailing” on the bay. I was dreading its fifty-five miles of shallow, choppy, and busy water. I apparently forgot to inform Vanessa of the treachery of this leg of the journey. She thought we were done with the rough stuff after the New Jersey Shore. I knew, but didn’t want to think about it – I just wanted to get it over with. Again, we were looking at weather issues. Bands of storms continued to march across the area, with limited windows of opportunity in between. Friday morning, we left the tranquility of Cape May Harbor, and began our trek up the Bay.
As we came out of the Cape May Canal, we found the Delaware Bay completely calm. We even spotted our first pod of dolphins swimming next to the canal inlet. We thought, “Gee, dolphins. It must be an omen and this won’t be so bad.” Wrong again. It didn’t take the southeast winds more than twenty minutes to develop and whip the shallow waters into a nasty four to six foot chop. Add in the half-a-dozen freighters transversing the bay and it was all very stressful. We decided to pull in to the Cohansey River, on the New Jersey shore, for some late afternoon shelter. And the river stunk. I mean, it smelled really bad. It runs through the grassy, low-land, tidal flats of the bay and smelled like swamp. Because of the topography, there was no protection from the intense winds, and we didn’t sleep much.
Delaware Bay Nuclear Power Plant
Up early, we dreaded the rest of the trip, but I was determined to get it over with. We left the Cohansey, returned to the bay, only to find it in a much better state than we’d left it. The winds, while even stronger than the previous day, were out of the west, so the seas where manageable. Plus, with winds steady at twenty to twenty five knots, gusting to thirty, we screamed up the bay. Other than fast sailing, it was a completely uninteresting trip. The only thing to see is the nuclear power plant on the New Jersey coast. Every one talks about it; every one puts up photographs of it on their web sites. So, here’s the obligatory New Jersey/Delaware Bay-nuclear-power-plant-photo for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy it, as there are no other photos of the Delaware Bay.
Entrance to the C&D Canal
After fifty-five grueling miles, we made it to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, fondly known as the C&D. Fourteen miles across, the C&D connects the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays and provides a short-cut for shipping out of the Northern Chesapeake via the Delaware (the Chesapeake is 207 miles long, compared to the Delaware’s 55 miles).
The Chesapeake’s greatest feature we’ve discovered is its idilic anchorages. Our first day, the Chesapeake Bay welcomed us with 30 knot winds on the nose and huge seas. However, we’ve become use to these weather conditions, and it didn’t really phase us. Until, that is, we completely buried the bow in a wave and had the propeller up blowing air! We decided to head for shelter. Just off the Sassafras River, we found a little place called Turner Creek. Once inside this perfect little place, you couldn’t even tell it was blowing out there. The water was perfectly still. Bald eagles flew over head. We just sat there, amazed at the beauty, and fished.
As a matter of fact, Vanessa has taken to fishing regularly while underway. Even in the worst weather conditions, you can find her sitting on deck, trolling with a line and a lure. Too bad she can’t catch anything. In Cape May, she bought a variety of lures, uses them all the time, but the fish are on to her strategy and avoid her completely. I think it is the way she handles the reel. Or, maybe she doesn’t hold her mouth just right – myself, a big believer that proper mouth english helps in any serious job. But, no matter if she is using the wrong bait, holding her mouth wrong, or isn’t dressed appropriately as a fisherman, fish stay away and our plates have yet to be graced with anything but a side a rice pilaf – no main course.
But that’s okay. After all, this is the Chesapeake, the place where every port has docks over flowing with the fresh catch of the day. Here, you can’t go into a restaurant with out getting a side of crab cakes, right? Would you believe we haven’t found one decent (i.e. cheap!) sea food place around! We still have yet to find a dive joint with an all-you-can-eat, caught-just-ten-minutes-ago crab special. We were under the impression that crabs crawl right out of the bay and into your pot. We were considering keeping a pot of water boiling on board, just so we’d be ready when they climb onto the boat. We, of course, have been duped by the crab people. The sea food joints around here are expensive, hoity-toity, yacht-club type places you have to where your blazer with pocket hanky to and spend a $25 for two little crab cakes (that’s $12.50 a cake!). Man, those crabs are expensive! We wonder why. I mean, we are out there, driving over those little crab pots in the bay all day long. With that many pots, some body’s gotta be catchin’ something.
Annapolis, MD
So, we’ve sailed a third of the way down the bay, so far. Yesterday, we pulled into Annapolis, MD for a little look around. We really like it here. First of all, Annapolis calls itself the “Sailing Capitol of America.” Not boating capitol. Not cruising capitol. This town lives and breaths sailing. I have never seen so many sailboat masts in one place in my whole life, not even on the west coast, where there is some pretty good sailing. Every marina slip has a sailboat in it and the open areas of the harbor are packed with visiting sailboats (including ours) swinging at anchor. Annapolis has everything! Most of the sailing magazines are published here. You can’t walk down the street with out seeing some sort of marine chandlery or boat broker. It is all about sailing before anything else.
Memorial to Alex Haley and Kunta Kinte
While it is nice to have great access to such terrific resources, like Fawcett Boat Supplies (billing itself as “the most complete yacht chandlery on the East Coast” – and it was nice), we decided to delve a little deeper into old Annapolis. Old is right. There are two things, other than sailboats, that we noticed instantly about Annapolis: The buildings here are very old and this is the nicest state capitol we’ve ever visited. The rumor we heard is that Annapolis has the greatest concentration of of still-standing buildings from the 1700’s of any town in the United States. We believe it. All these old buildings along cobble-stone streets are now trendy little shops. Walking around here is a pleasure. Plus, the State of Maryland buildings blend in, and help add to the charm. I’ve never been to a state capitol as nice, safe, and beautiful as Annapolis.
Gate #1 at the Academy
We saw people walking around in period colonial costumes. All the historic buildings are proudly marked with their “circa” date. Even though it is a little trendy, Annapolis seems to appreciate its history, no matter how good or bad. Right in the focal point of the city, at the town docks, is a monument to Alex Haley and his ancestor Kunta Kinte, of Roots fame. It was through these docks the author’s ancestors, along with many others, where imported and sold by the slave trade in this country.
Mercury Space Capsule, Freedom 7, on Display at the U.S. Naval Academy
Annapolis is also the home to the United States Naval Academy. Since we didn’t stop at West Point on the Hudson, we decided to take a stroll and visit the Academy. A beautiful campus, the Academy was bustling with cadet activity. We cleared through security and entered the “Visitor’s Center” for the nickel tour. I was surprised to see Navy Alumn, Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 module on display. In the Mercury Program, Alan Shepard piloted Freedom 7 to become the first American in Space back in the late sixties. Very cool!
Even more cool, while in the local hardware store, Vanessa discovered a crab trap for $13.00! She figures for thirteen dollars, we’ll have all-we-can-eat crab for the rest of our time in the Chesapeake! What a bargain! Now, if she can just get the little bastards into the trap. So far, tonight, she had better luck fishing!
We’ve been getting a lot of requests for more pictures of Binga. So, to close, here’s some shots of the Bingster in recent action:
 Bing in Boots |
 Bathtime Binga |
 Holloween Bing |
– Steve