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 CODA : High winds in Maryland 

14 October 2024

Army Corps of Engineers Mooring Basin, Chesapeake City,  Maryland 

The mooring basin during the night.

Marc- Today was a day to hunker down as they say.  The forecast below called for 25 knot winds gusting to 30.  The harbor filled with additional boats jammed in when there was a very light breeze.  As soon as the sun came up so did the wind and boats left in droves mostly due to dragging anchors.  Unfortunately a 45 foot Powerboat anchored right ahead of me with about 25 foot clearance.  When the winds picked up he dragged towards me 10 feet and my anchor line started to slip on the windlass.  I had a visitor,s Michael andAnita from California, from a neighboring catamaran visiting at the time and he helped me move to a better spot in the harbor.  The last 4 hours have been a scene of boats coming and going and dragging.  I small sailboat dragged into Michael and Anita's catamaran while and ended up staying rafted up since another sailboat grabbed the spot where the small sailboat had been.  Then a big Beneteau drifted into another boat and reset.  One boat drifted really close to the rocky shore before being solidly anchored.  After the fleet settled into place Michael and Anita picked me up and we went to lunch in the very nice sandwich shop downtown.  While returning in the dinghy from downtown a second sailboat drifted towards the Michael and Anita's catamaran.  His last rescue of the day was finding my hat that blew off during a gust.

The scary forecast.

65 foot schooner to the left of Coda.

Dinghy behind Coda.

Michael and Anita's catamaran with the first drifter alongside.  The sailboat on the right was the second boat to drift over to the catamaran and Michael went aboard to help the solo sailor reset.

A second catamaran that drifted near shore.

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 CODA : FIrst day in MaryLand 

12 October 2024

Army Corps of Engineers Mooring Basin, Chesapeake City,  Maryland

Marc-  There was a bit of excitement on the way over here today.  Equinox caught a crabtrap in its propeller and had to be towed by Boat US to Delaware City.  The incident took place at the same location in front of the Nuclear Power Plant where Michael's boat broke a timing belt in 2021.  THere may be a "devil's triangle" here in Delaware Bay.  The sailing had been fantastic today from the mouth of the Cohansey River.  I did make it to the canal to catch the Ebb tidal current westbound and raced along at 8 knots at 2500 rpm with 0 wind assist.  Being Sunday there were the usual sport-fishing boats throwing large wakes and making no effort to slow when passing.  They did slow at Chesapeake CIty since the Army Corps of Engineer Police were stationed at the entrance to their basin.

View of the basin from CODA. There is a free dock by the brick buildings 

but most of the dock is reserved for a ferry.

Site on Delaware Bay were things go wrong while boating.

My happy place.

My first stop.

My second stop.

There a re lots of shops and restaurants here.

Even a tiny wedding Chapel.

There are two dinghy docks here but this one was blocked by the huge raft up of go fast cigarette boats.

The Maryland flag is under the US flag.  Maryland was founded in 1632 for English 

Catholics fleeing persecution in Europe.  Mary was the French born queen of England 

and wife of King Charles I of England.

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  CODA : Last day in New Jersey

12 October 2024

Cohansey River, Greenwich,  New Jersey 

Chart of the mouth of the Cohansey River (the red triangle is where CODA and 4 other boats are anchored in a very tranquil setting).

Marc-  I left Cape May on my solo trip up Delaware Bay with some Canadian friends,  Olivier and Lori, I made on sailing vessel Equinox.  We both had mast height issues getting through the two Cape May canal issues but it was easy when the height boards indicated 55 feet 1 hour and 15 minutes after low tide.  Our next challege was getting out of the western end of the canal while a very large and fast Lewes-Cape May ferry was coming to its New Jersey landing.  We both made it out in the Bay without issue.  Waves were 4 feet in the Bay with 15 knot winds from the South.  Fortunately I unfurled the genoa 1/2 way and off we went at 7 knots. This lasted only 1/4 of the way up Delaware Bay and the wind changed to Southwest and diminished significantly.  The waves also dropped to under 1 foot.  We ended up motoring with a favorable current to the Cohansey River at 8 knots.  The entrance to the River is not properly charted making it a real adventure in ignoring most charts and following the directions.  I did find that the Sonar charts from Navionics were spot on (see photo above).  These are crowd-sourced charts.  

Equinox anchored nearby after the first bend in the river.

Sunset with the crew of Equinox coming over for dinner.

Sunrise on the Cohansey River.

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 CODA : Last day in Cape May 

11 October 2024

Utsch's Marina, Cape May,  New Jersey 

This cottage is all decked out for Halloween!

Marc-  I continued my walks around the town today stopping again for a few items at the ACME supermarket and mostly just admiring all the cottages (they would be full sized homes anywhere else).

I have made plans to leave for the Cohansey River Anchorage in Delaware Bay tomorrow morning with a very nice Canadian couple from Gatineau, Quebec (homeport:  Kingston, Ontario).  Lorraine and Olivier own a 36 foot Catalina sailboat named Equinox VI.  They are traveling to the Bahamas.  

Another Cape May cottage with great details.

This character was in the front lawn of the above cottage (Steph is this a scarecrow doing a cartwheel?).

Even simple designs are well done here.

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CODA : A day in Cape May 

10 October 2024

Utsch's Marina, Cape May,  New Jersey 

Another beautiful Cape May cottage.

Marc- Today started off with seeing Michael off at the bus station here in town.  He is taking a few days off to go back home.  The Acme supermarket was across from the bus station so I picked up a few items.  Did I say the bus station was a 45 minute walk (exercise is good).  I walked back to the boat on a different route and saw smaller but just as interesting homes.  The remainder of the day as spent doing repairs to the auto-pilot, a few other boat chores, and planning for my next segment of the cruise.  This requires a good review of the future weather and state of Bay currents.  Delaware Bay can be very nasty if you are in a wind against tidal current situation.  The solution became clear that by breaking the next segment into two days I could make it work.  Another key step is planning to get under the two Cape May bridges that are supposed to be 55 feet at high tide.

Come back soon Michael.

Cool house.

If you look carefully at the height board you will see only a 52 foot clearance 

(this is at high tide).  NOAA reports that tides are elevated due to Hurricane Milton 

now hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic. CODA's mast is 53.5 feet and needs a little more clearance.

 

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CODA : A short but intense travel day to Cape May 

9 October 2024

Utsch's Marina, Cape May,  New Jersey  

Marc-  Today was a repeat of yesterday in smaller scale but more intensity.  We left Atlantic City under blue sunny skies with a favorable west wind of 10 knots.  Sails up and off we go.  My weather app. warned of the winds turning to the southwest and going to 10-15 knots on this 5 hour trip.  The last three hours were solid 20 knot winds from the southwest (on the nose so to speak) with 4-5 foot waves and an occasional 6 foot wave tossed in.  Three sailboats left left Atlantic City at about the same time and we watched each other.  Everyone dropped their sails the last hour for a mad dash to the Cape May Inlet as the wind and waves increased.  We came in second and were late in getting into a spot anchoring by the Coast Guard Station.  We went up to the Marina where we stayed in 2020 and docked.  This may have been a blessing with the wind due to increase overnight affecting the anchorage more that in this marina.  Michael is leaving for a few days so I will await a good weather window for heading out. Nice place to be stuck.

Cape May has beautiful homes.

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CODA : A long travel day to Atlantic City 

8 October 2024

Farley State Marina, Atlantic City,  New Jersey 

Atlantic City as seen approaching from the Atlantic Ocean.

Marc- Today was our longest travel day- 13 hours- departure at 06:30 before dawn and arrival at 19:00 after dusk.  It all started out a bit turbulent with 15 knot headwinds and a contrary current from Atlantic Highlands to around Sandy Hook.  Everything started to look better once the sun came over the horizon and the incoming tide gave us a favorable current heading south along the coast for the next 6 hours.  The Northwest winds meant we could raise our sails and no seas since we stayed about 1 mile from the beach.  We did some 5 foot really long swells.  They were barely noticeable until they came crashing down on the beach as large cresting waves.  The wind diminished after we passed the Manasquan Inlet making us motorsailers.  In fact by the time we passed Egg Harbor we had dropped the sails and crashed into headwinds and 4 foot waves until reaching Atlantic City.  The was one surprising boat elevated on large pipes off of the Egg Harbor Inlet.  I could not really make out what this was all about until next to it and then noticed a floating pipe some 500 feet away somehow connected to this dredger contraption.  I made an immediate turn to port when I saw both the boat and the pipe since I realized that CODA was about to pass between them.  There was no advance notice.  After making my detour the VHF came alive with a message to not worry about the dredging pipe.  We received  help from the many sailors docked here when we came in after dark not knowing how to find our slip.  Most of these people are delivery captains on really big boats.  We met them again at dinner in Michael Patrick's Pub.

The last two hours of our approach to Atlantic City was more like this photo: drenched in salt spray.

CODA at night.