Saturday, June 7, 2008

Up the Del-Mar coast to NYC

We left Norfolk on Thursday, June 5, went across the entrance to the Chesapeak, inside the Bay Bridge Tunnel to Cape Charles, a fine place! Entered the Virginia Inside Passage (VIP) at low water, -0.5' with a rising tide behind us. About 3 miles in ran into some 3.5' water, anchored the boat, relaxed for two hours waiting for water to rise, lifted anchor and proceeded to Anchorage for the night.

Yesterday, Friday June 6, continued up VIP through a rising tide. Found many DANGER signs indicating very skinny water. Locals also planted sticks in the bottom to help us strangers get through. Got near Wachapreague Inlet the water was falling and under +2', so we elected to go outside up to Chincoteaque where we have tied up to the town dock. On the way in to Chincoteaque passed this permanent day marker which had been distroyed and now marked with a temporary marker.








Chincoteaque has completed nice transient docks with power and water, available for 24 hours for $1.00 per foot. One of the local police officers comes down from the police station to collect your money and welcome you to town. After getting checked in, we took the Pony Express trolley for a ride around town for a fare of $.25 each. We went past the park they use to auction off the wild horses from Assateaque Island once each year. The proceeds from the sale go to the Chincoteaque police who actually own the horses.

On Saturday we went 34 miles through the shallow Chincoteaque Bay, leading a rising tide all the way through by 1 1/2 hours. Even so we passed through some skinny water of only 4 1/2'. Near the north end of the lake we crossed an abondoned crab trap and picked it up and wrapped around out starboard prop. After spending 3 hours under the boat with a wire cutter the crab trap now litters the bottom just south of the Ocean City inlet. We were anchored behind the north end of Assateaque Island where several wild horses were grazing.

Sunday June 8 we traveled another 44 miles to Lewes, Delaware, the first settlement in Delaware, where we were able to get off the boat to walk to the town Museum and down the main street.

Monday, June 9 took us accross the Delaware River to Cape May, NJ. Tomorrow my sister Mary and her husband Jack Wolfe arrive on their trawler BAOWOLFE, from St. Michael's, MD. We will travel together for the next few days up to New York City.

We left on Wednesday morning, heading north on the outside towards Manasasquan, a midway harbor between Cape May and New York City, a trip of 100 miles. Today, Thursday June 12, we motored through New York city and up the Hudson River to Tarrytown, where we will spend two nights, doing some historic sightseeing on Friday.

1 comment:

david santos said...

Great work, my friend, great work.
Happy week