Chesapeake City and Delaware City

Chesapeake City and Delaware City

 On Thursday we arrived at Chesapeake City, a very small little town that doesn’t have much going on. 

It is almost at the southern end of the C&D canal which stands for Chesapeake Delaware canal which connects the Chesapeake Bay to Delaware Bay. The canal was the brain child of a guy named Augustine Herman all the way back in the 1700’s. Although construction did not begin until the 1800’s it is still a major shipping channel.

They had to develop a way to maintain the water level in the canal, so they built this pump house that lifted over a million gallons of water a height of 18’ with a steam engine. 

The canal originally had locks, but they were removed in the late 1800s after they dug the canal deeper and added the pump. It is amazing the ingenuity back then that solved so many problems with so few resources. The canal carries a current on the ebb or flood of over 2.5 mph. 

There is a great restaurant and Tiki Bar called the Chesapeake Inn. They have live music Wednesday-Sunday. 

Delaware City

On Friday, we delayed our departure from Chesapeake City to take advantage of the favorable tide. And favorable it was. Next Chapter cruised at 12 mph for the long 17-mile cruise to Delaware City. 

The ship in the picture was really a lot bigger than it appears, as we contended with her in the what suddenly seemed like a very narrow canal. The closer she got, the smaller the canal seemed to get. 

One of the problems you run into when you have a lot of current pushing the boat is the amount of water going across the rudders is reduced there by reducing your steering, which causes the captain’s lower sphincter to tighten significantly when in close quarters with a big ship. 

What was also neat about cruising the C&D Canal is that we went under a bridge on Route 1 that we have driven over a number of times heading to Maine. Steve knows all about that! Not the one pictured but the one with the large yellow cables that come down from two large poles in the center. 

Delaware City is another one of those very small towns with not much there. However, taking your boat into the marina and experiencing the dock master, Tim, is worth the trip. First off, you have to pull in a narrow shoaled inlet from the north and enter a very narrow creek with a lot of current. You do not enter the creek without permission from Tim, the dock master! He will yell at you and tell you to go back out and wait to be called. Then, once you get in and get your assignment, you approach the dock.  Have your lines ready! When you hand over the lines to Tim and his assistant, they take control of your vessel. Once they have the lines, he will tell you, “Hands off the controls.” They then proceed to spin your boat around in the current with nothing but the lines from the dock. It is both fascinating and hair-raising all at the same time.  

Every day at 4 p.m., Tim gives a weather briefing in the chaotic office/marine parts store. Everyone gathers around and listens carefully. It’s clear that Tim is a pro at what he does. He goes over a bunch of forecasting models and also looks back at what happened the day before. We were lucky that our forecast was good for the morning, but we still had to wake up at 5 a.m. and leave at 5:30. The currents in Delaware Bay can run as fast as 4 mph, so weather is only part of the equation. Current timing is even more important. So, we had a bit of a delay. The weather forecast wasn’t quite right early in the morning, so Tim suggested we wait and see what the actual conditions were. Then, at 6 a.m., we were given the green light to start our engines and get ready to leave. 

As organized as the docking on the front side was, it was the same on departure. One by one, Tim launched each boat back into the canal. We had over a dozen Looper boats in our flotilla that morning, all heading down the Bay. Luck would be on our side as we had a beautiful 63-mile cruise to Cape May. We had favorable currents for the first 4.5 hours of our 6.5-hour planned cruise. Next Chapter actually reached 13 mph for a few brief periods. A new record for her. We reached the entrance to Cape May Channel with only one more hurdle to clear. The Ferry! We were instructed that if the ferry was at the terminal, not to cross her stern as the prop wash would push us up onto the shoal right across the channel. When the ferry is unloading, they keep the props turning to keep her pressed tightly against the dock so the cars can safely unload. The good news was the cars were already unloaded and the engines turned off. We made it safely to Utsche’s Marina and enjoyed a well-deserved early beer. 

So I will remember walking with fellow loopers, Chris and Kim, Dave and Cathy, to get some dinner at Cathy’s Crab House. The road we had to cross was relatively busy, so we crossed the road at the crosswalk. Turns out people in this town don’t like slowing down to allow folks to cross the street. We got “yelled” at by a driver for trying to cross the road. Turns out it’s safer to cruise in shallow, narrow waters than cross the road in Delaware City. Dinner was great, conversation easy, but crossing the road downright terrifying.