Blue Moon Sails Away: Farewell New England and on to Cape May and the Chesapeake

We would have liked to stay a bit longer in New England. We really regret not having the time to see Nantucket but with Hurricane Dorian approaching the East Coast it was time to jump on a good weather window and head south, quickly! We spent a long day getting from Martha's Vineyard to Block Island. Rode out a squall there then went offshore to Cape May. It was about 33 hours but we covered over 200 miles so worth the trip. On the really plus side, I made a long stretch of mostly downwind sailing without feeling the least bit seasick. This was a first for me, ever so I am thrilled. Overall the long leg was fast and we were able to make way under sail alone for about a third of it and motor sailed the rest. We tucked into the same anchorage at Cape May and left early the next morning to catch favorable currents through the Cape May Canal and up the Delaware River. We had hoped to make it to the mouth of the C&D Canal by nightfall but had such great currents and wind that we made it 82 miles in 11 hours. A new time/distance record for us. We managed to get tucked in behind a bluff close to the mouth of the Sassafras River and get settled just before another big blow. We are so grateful for so many things working in our favor!

Saying good-bye to Block Island as we pass the Coast Guard station at the opening to
Salt Pond. We had a day to spend on the island and decided to walk to the highest point
which we had missed n our last stop. We walked all over where the map showed the point to be
but never found the spot. We finally met a local who explained it was on private property. Oh well,
another nice walk on Block Island.

The sea was amazingly calm considering there was a storm to the south and a
Hurricane Erin had just passed to the north. Swells from Erin had affected us
on the way to Block but had settled out by this point.

From Cape May (no pictures we arrived late and left early) we took the
shortcut through the canal to get to the Delaware River. You can tell a lot of
traffic uses the canal and at high speeds. The shoreline on both sides was
hardened against wake damage with these contraptions of rocks and
chicken wire.

Into the Delaware River. This was more vast than we expected.
At times we were in the middle of the river and could not see land.
We knew it was there just over the horizon.

This nuclear power plan was closer to the C&D canal. Remember
when we thought nuclear was going to solve all our energy problems
until we found some really nasty sides like waste disposal ,
meltdowns and tsunamis.

Into the next canal, the C&D.

The canal is a very busy spot. It shortens the passage from the upper Chesapeake to the Delaware and
points north by hundreds of miles.

The old tow path along the canal has been turned into a paved bike
path. We were passing though on Labor Day so we saw lots of
riders taking advantage of a perfect day to ride.