As we travel down the Delaware River, I’m sitting here thinking about a main topic for this post. We haven’t really seen much of interest in the last couple days, so I have no history lessons for you. I didn’t take photos of the great fish sandwiches we had for lunch at Crabby Dick’s, so I don’t have that to share. What I will tell you about is current.
Current as in the power of water to either help push you along or to screw with you and make a trip much longer than needed. Current as in the power of water to overpower your diesels or to aid you in maneuvering onto or off of a dock. Yes, the last couple days for us has been about-current.
While cruising through Fla., Ga., and the Carolinas we learned how important it is to monitor the tides. In many spots along the lower AICW, low tide can put you aground in no time and so we always timed our departures to hit the shoaling areas at the highest tide possible. Wind and waves are always checked before heading out to make sure our ride will be relatively comfortable and not too rolly. With the northern part of the Chesapeake, current has become our focus. Not that we didn’t pay attention to current before. We have always been aware of the roll current played in our Speed Over Ground (SOG); it would give and take and we just accepted that. But as the Chesapeake’s neck narrows on its northern end and the Atlantic Ocean sucks the bay waters through the narrow C & D canal and down the Delaware River, the current becomes significant.
As we planned this leg of our journey, we took a good look at the current in the C&D canal. We had been told to enter the canal on a rising tide and ride a 2 knot current to the Delaware River. Heeding that advise, we hit the entrance to the canal just as the tide reversed and sang a happy song as we watched our typical speed of 7 knots increase to 9 knots as we bopped along. Turning up the Delaware and into the Delaware City Marina, this favorable current was now on our nose and the tide was out.
We both held our breath as we watched our depth sounder read off a little over 5’ as we slid up the narrow canal and got tied off.
The harbormaster at Delaware City Marina, named Tim, is known for giving a 5pm Captain’s Briefing. Basically he goes over the predicted winds and currents for the Delaware River and takes a count of which boats want to tackle the next day’s conditions on the Delaware River. This river is not just any old river, it is the notorious Delaware River. We have heard many say it was the worst or one of the worst stretches of water on their trip. The conditions may start out OK and turn nasty quickly. There are no bail out marinas along this stretch, so once you’re in, you either continue on or turn around. Tim walked the group through the predicted river conditions starting at 6am in the northern area where we were and continuing south in the afternoon to Cape May. Light winds were in the forecast for us and the entire group agreed that today would be a great day to run down the Delaware River. Some of these boaters had been waiting since Saturday to get a favorable forecast.
I have to detour a bit here. My topic is current and I need to get back to that. I mentioned the strong current in the channel leading to the marina. Well, not all boats heading to the Delaware River stay at the marina. Some like prefer an anchorage off Reedy Island, just a little ways down the Delaware. There is a long jetty that protects the area from ship wakes. We have friends that have anchored there a few times with no problems. Yesterday afternoon some unfortunate boaters were not so lucky. Six people aboard a Hatteras had to abandon ship after their boat was caught by the current and ended up on the rocky jetty. Harbormaster, Tim, was part of an effort to get a line on the Hatteras to claim salvage rights. A couple days ago, the AGLCA forum had an entry from someone who also ended up on the rocks and there was a link to a blog by a cruiser who lost his Nordhaven there a couple years ago because he did not see the jetty at high tide. Glad we chose the marina.
Current also played a very strong role as all the boaters prepared to leave at 6am. Tim warned us that we would be leaving in a strong current that would be going the opposite direction we had coming in. Most of the other boats had been “turned” by Tim before we got there. Their bow was pointing into the current and Tim would take their mid ship line, let the current pull the bow out into the channel and then send them on their way. We had to be “turned” first. Tim told the story of a boater who did not heed his advise the day before and got caught in the current, ending up in the trees on the opposite side and then coming back across the channel and hitting another boat. We would do it Tim’s way. We were tied off on our starboard side. Tim asked for a port bow line which he cleated off to the dock. The current then pushed our stern away from the dock while Tim pulled our bow around using the port line. We were now “turned” in the right direction and were off.
Here’s a few pics to keep you interested.
So now we’re heading to Cape May and will do some deep looking at the off shore conditions to decide when we leave. We’d love to spend a couple days in Cape May, but tomorrow may be our window to head off shore NJ. We’ll let you know when we decide.
Wait!! I have to leave you with a teaser. I already have a title for my next post. It will be called “What’s that alarm for?!?!?” That ought to get you back. 🙂