Baltimore to Cape May

Leaving Annapolis for the 29 miles to Baltimore, we were passed by this small cruise ship, which (or its sister) had also passed us when we were leaving Charleston and Yorktown. A nice way to see this part of the nation—they drive by night while you sleep and you tour by day.

 Then we passed under the bridge across the Bay from Kent Island to Annapolis -- views east then west.

 I had walked across this bridge with Janet and John and viewed the start of the Annapolis to New York leg of the Volvo Around the World Race from it in 2006.

The wind was from the northwest and we were able to sail north into the entrance to the Patapsco River, at one head of which is Baltimore’s inner harbor. We were not able to stay in the shipping channel because the wind was too close to north to permit this, nor did we need to because the water at both sides was plenty deep for us. As the morning wore on the wind clocked around more to the west, one degree at a time, letting us steer closer to where we wanted to go. But once at the Patapsco, the wind was in our face so we turned on the engine for the rest of the trip. We showered in the cockpit, underway, with the sunlight to dry us and keep us warm.

Baltimore is an industrial town.

 We passed Fort McHenry, the defense of which, in the War of 1812, was the subject of “The Star Spangled Banner”.

We tied up to the same municipal dock where I had met four friends who helped me bring ILENE home for the first time in mid June 2006, Bruce, Jim, KC, and Ricky. It is a nice municipal dock—no water, electric or services but cheap and centrally located. So scenic that a wedding photographer chose our dock as the site to shoot his wedding party, with ILENE in the background, lower left.

 Upon arrival, about 1, we got busy cleaning madly for the arrival of our guest, Bennett, on whose boat “Defiance”, I had sailed last summer in the Club Cruise.  He recently has both fixed Defiance up and purchased a time share in “On Eagles Wings” a classic boat sailed in the Virgin Islands. The nastiest job for me involved the forward holding tank. Let’s just say that the source of a bad odor in ILENE has been eradicated. But the inner harbor is polluted to stinky so that it was hard to tell, at first.

When Bennett arrived from the train station, about 7, he wanted to partake of Baltimore’s favorite crustacean: steamed crabs with Old Bay Spice. We looked for Obrycki’s, where I had done the same menu in 2006 but that venerable house is alas defunct. Mo’s now is the place within walking distance of the waterfront for crab; a dozen good sized ones were dumped on out paper topped table.

Next day we headed for the marina on our starboard side in the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal, the same one at which I had stayed in 2006. But its entrance had silted in making it too shallow for us, the marina reported when we called. We had our sails up but the wind was light, so we had the engine on too. This is the biggest thing that passed us in the narrow confines of the canal and you can see that our sail is not doing any work.

 Five miles further than that marina, and on the port side,  was the Summit North Marina in the village of Bear ,Delaware, 48.1 miles from Baltimore. It is larger, deeper and caters to a more mature clientele. Its Latin themed restaurant, Aqua-Sol, serves not only boaters, who are there in the summer, but local residents, year round.  Our dinner was quite excellent, with a menu designed to resemble Miami’s South Beach’s flavors. We had dinner inside and then went out to the patio for dessert and coffee, where the live music was good and designed for dancing.  It was the closest we came to "partying" on this whole journey!

Next morning the alarm was set for 5 am and we got underway at 5:20, but were delayed by a lowered railroad bridge for about 15 minutes. We had 63.4 miles to our destination at Cape May, NJ. Here are two pretty and high bridges across the canal.

Once out in the Delaware we had very favorable tide most of the way and were motor sailing at 8 knots when passing the Salem Nuclear Plant:

Bennett at the helm which he took for most of the passage down the Delaware.

Delaware Bay had a lot of big boats and one yelled at us by VHF to stay out of the channel.  If ILENE’s mast was less than 55 feet high, we could have avoided the always potentially dangerous waters off capes by cutting through Cape May via a canal between Delaware Bay and the Atlantic. But we don’t fit so we had to round the Cape. At the entrance to Delaware Bay from the Atlantic we passed through Prissywick channel, very close to the beach with its lighthouse to the north

 and Prissywick Shoal to our south We did so easily in essentially calm wind and with the excellent aid of InavX.

Once in the harbor I almost ran us aground looking for the entrance to Utsch’s Marina, where I had stayed on “Aria” with Jim in the late 90’s and again on ILENE in 2006. But at the last minute, sensing that we not right, I put her into reverse before the depth sounder started screaming “It’s only seven feet deep here stupid!” and we went in the proper way.

The town and beachfront of Cape May are perhaps a mile and a half walk from the marina. We went there to gawk at the architecture

and had a lovely and excellent dinner at Ticia’s.  Next day we sat on the beach which costs a $5 per day admission, plus the cost of a chair rental. Having traveled 112.5 miles in three days from Annapolis, we planned for the last leg home.