Hello Chesapeake!

It’s always hard to leave New York City, and this time was no different. It felt like we just got there, but we needed to move again, and fast. Hurricane Ian was wreaking havoc in the Caribbean and was taking aim at Florida. It may seem that Florida is far away from New York, but storms as large as Ian can impact hundreds of miles and cause dangerous wind and sea conditions. The forecasts were showing deteriorating conditions over the next few days, so we needed to get going.

Our next port was Cape May, on the southern tip of New Jersey, just before the Delaware Bay and approximately an 18-hour sail from New York. We do not love doing overnighters, but sometimes they are necessary and Cape May was an overnighter. Careful timing of departures and arrivals is critical for safety and comfort and can be a delicate balancing act. Currents caused by rising and falling tides can be your best friend or worst enemy, and it’s rarely a good idea to enter unknown harbours in the dark. Cape May is a popular stopping point for cruising boats arriving from the North and the anchorage is often crowded, making a nighttime arrival an especially bad idea.

Despite loving New York, bobbing on an anchor in a busy harbour with crazy currents is not a lot of fun; however, beach days are fun! Luckily for us there are miles of gorgeous beach between NYC and Cape May, so we got out of NY harbour, sailed 2 hours and dropped the anchor in front of Sandy Hook, NJ. The three of us went ashore and enjoyed a couple hours of collecting shells and feeling the sand between our toes, and one of us was quite impressed with the seemingly unlimited litter box possibilities.

With near-ideal sailing conditions and a strong off-shore breeze, we followed the well-lit New Jersey coastline all night long, reaching Cape May just after daybreak. We entered the long, sheltered bay and saw about a dozen sailboats at anchor, most of them displaying Canadian flags from their sterns – the cruisers have arrived.
The town of Cape May is quite a hike from the public dock, but the best antidote to overnighter grogginess is a long walk. Cape May claims to be the first sea resort town in America, and it clearly remains a resort town, with many homes displaying “for rent” signs. The cute downtown core is full of shops offering typical beachwear, souvenirs, saltwater taffy, fudge as well as a good number of bars and restaurants. Cape May is designated a National Landmark city because of the nearly 600 Victorian homes that are characterized by charming verandas, intricate ornamentation, and lovely, formal gardens.

The next day was September 28, the day Ian made landfall in Florida, after devastating Puerto Rico and Cuba. We checked the NOAA website and Predict Wind app almost hourly to determine the safest place to hide out as Ian moved north. To complicate things further, our next move would take us back into the Atlantic for about 10 miles (2 hours), then up Delaware Bay and River, bodies of water that have greater than 2 knots of current that switch direction with the tides. We had to find the “sweet spot” – the time when the current and winds were with us and not against us. The magic time was 9am the next day with a 5pm arrival…and again, best laid plans…

As we lifted the anchor on schedule and began our departure, we were hailed by an incoming sailboat and warned to turn back – it was one of several boats that departed a few hours earlier and was returning due to extremely rough sea conditions. We dropped the anchor again and returned to our forecasting tools. Forecasts, while not perfect, are fairly accurate; however, hurricanes can be unpredictable. The new forecast said a 4pm departure was ideal, putting us in Chesapeake City in the middle of the night. This is not ideal, but we had local knowledge that Chesapeake City had an easily accessible, calm harbour with good holding for the anchoring – we had to take the chance because Ian was marching north and Cape May would not be safe to ride-out this storm.

This semi-overnighter turned out to be one of the most pleasant sails we’ve had in a long time. As we turned into Delaware Bay, the current and wind moved behind us, pushing us along at a very fast and comfortable clip. We shared the channel with massive ocean-going container ships, who occasionally hailed us to request we make room for them to pass safely. They were always polite, and we happily complied. We arrived in Chesapeake City at 2 am, finding it exactly as promised – open and calm with a good thick mud bottom to securely hold the anchor. We slept very well the rest of the night.

The next morning brought more unsettling forecasts. Ian was coming our way, and despite no longer being classified a hurricane, he was still a dangerous storm. We needed to dig in deep – we needed a “hurricane hole”. We pulled up the anchor and headed to the Sassafras River, just off Chesapeake Bay, to a marina 10 miles inland. Here we would spend the next 3 days waiting out gale-force winds and torrential rains, but we were safely tied to a dock, with a full fridge, watching DVDs and Netflix. When the winds settled a bit, we were happy to move on to our next destination, Baltimore, Maryland. The sail was still intense with “small craft advisory” warnings, but we’ve been in worse conditions, and we had another hard-date in the calendar – October 5 for me to catch a flight to Cleveland to spend time with family.

Baltimore Harbour is an interesting place. It’s clear we are not in Lake Ontario anymore…. it is filled with enormous vessels, miliary ships and ocean-freighters loaded to the sky with shipping containers. Baltimore Harbour is industrial, very industrial, with shipbuilders, factories and a coal-fired power plant; however, the deeper we traveled into the harbour, the commercial ships gave way to recreational boats including many mega yachts.

We didn’t know really what to expect from Baltimore, as we’d heard it had a nice waterfront, but was a city strife with crime, but it turned out to be quite beautiful. I can confirm that Baltimore does in fact have a beautiful waterfront, with lots of green space, museums, restaurants and shops all close by, as well as the fabulous National Aquarium, where we spent a few hours on a rainy day. A free water taxi runs from 8-8, taking passengers across the harbour every 15 minutes. People were friendly and many offered advice on restaurants and fun things to do while visiting. Our time in Baltimore was short, and rainy, but we thoroughly enjoyed this city.

The next stop was Annapolis for the US Sailboat Show, a must-do for any boater, and a two-week hiatus for Allen to do some boat projects and for me to have some family time.