Around the Delmarva Peninsula, Part 3

While we were in Cape Charles we docked at the Cape Charles Town Marina. The marina is quite nice and has new docks and a new bath house. It is convenient to downtown and there is a good restaurant right beside the marina. George and I ate an early dinner at the restaurant, The Shanty, and walked back to the boat. As we walked on the dock we met some of our dock mates, 2 couples in separate boats who had sailed to Cape Charles from across the bay. They were all really nice and we had to tear ourselves away in order to get to bed early. We enjoyed another very restful night of sleep. The next morning were up early and again and heading out to the bay at 6:40 am. There was very little wind predicted so we intended to motor all the way home. More good practice for us to tolerate motoring.

In the southern part of the bay we saw several large fishing vessels. They were all painted identical colors of blue and white. We couldn't tell how they were catching fish and have no idea what fish they were trying to catch.

We planned to motor very close to the channel in hopes of avoiding the numerous crab traps that are often outside of the channel. Eventually we encountered crab traps that appeared to be set inside the channel. We did see large ships coming down the bay and passing us going up the bay. There were never very close to us so we didn't have to work to avoid them.

The bay was very calm and the temperature was in the mid-seventies. We felt the warmest we had been all week long. I was wearing a mere three layers of clothing instead of seven!

We enjoyed watching the pelicans flying and then making a huge splash in the water as they attempted to catch fish. We saw more dolphins. Then, at around 5 pm when we were near the Hooper Island Light, George spotted a whale right in front of the boat! It came to the surface, blew out its' blow hole, then went below the surface. Shortly after that another whale came right up to the side of the boat. We both agree it was the coolest thing we saw during the entire trip. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of them.

It was dark by the time we reached the Choptank River. Since the river was familiar territory for us it was fairly easy to navigate even though only about half the buoys were lighted. Although we had a full moon, the clouds were getting thicker. By the time we reached Cambridge we couldn't see the unlighted buoys in the channel at all. George stood on the bow with a spotlight to illuminate them. We pulled into our slip just after midnight and we were happy to be home.

Our Impressions

• The trip was way beyond our comfort zones. We feel quite a sense of accomplishment for having achieved it.
• Night sailing for me was not as terrifying as I remembered. The moonlight did help a lot. George thought navigating at night was not as difficult as he thought it would be.
• Lack of sleep is still a major issue for me when sailing overnight.
• George and I worked really well together, in spite of the sleep deprivation.
• A full cockpit enclosure is a great idea in cool and or rainy weather.
• We were happy with our provisioning. We had frozen three 2-portion casseroles to heat in the oven for dinners when we were sailing. We had a bag full of snacks clipped into the cockpit. Raw vegetables, hard boiled eggs and prosciutto-wrapped cheese were welcome snacks in the middle of the night.

Statistics

Cambridge to Cape May: 28 hours,176 nautical miles

Cape May to Cape Charles: 27 hours,175 nautical miles

Cape Charles to Cambridge: 17.5 hours, 107 nautical miles

Total distance: 458 nautical miles

Pelicans on the buoy

 

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