Happy Daze looked in good shape, only missing one of her exterior sunscreens due to high winds while we were gone. We had the Bluewater yard replace the main engine water impeller before our our arrival as a preventative maintenance measure (we already had the dinghy motor impeller fail, and one in the generator!). All seemed good until we found out our batteries were dead, dead, dead. A visit from the yard's electrician and we discovered a switch left in wrong position and a charger controller that did not reset automatically. An evening of worry, but all seemed well the next day (fingers crossed).
We eased out into the waters of lower Chesapeake that are filled with naval craft.
And of course there are the commercial container ships:
But also a few hardy souls who brave the contested waters with pieces of canvas:
We found two lovely anchorages on our way up. The first was very secluded up a side river, with no one else around. We dingy-ed several miles inland on flat water with lots of greenery. The second was more popular, but after the sun went down everything got quiet and peaceful.
We stopped over in Delaware City for a bit of history and enjoyed a fine meal at Crabby Dicks with new fellow Loopers we met at the dock.
We stayed over a day in Delaware City due to high winds and rain forecasts. Enjoyed a walk around town and catching up on email. Even found a working blacksmith shop.
The cruise down Delaware Bay was tolerable, but not fun. Nothing much to see and waves on our beam that made us rock around. After going through the canal to Cape May and about to exit through the inlet to the ocean we came along side a very boisterous marching group.
The weather was good so we continued on to Atlantic City where we pulled in to find a small bay to anchor for the night. A long 90 mile day, but felt it important to take advantage of the weather when we could. The bay was surrounded by condos, but they all appeared empty. Maybe they were all at the amusement parks we saw along the shore on the way in?
Weather looked good the next day so we pushed on to NY. We had 3-4 ft roller swells mostly from behind us, so the ride was not too bad. About 100 miles and we did most of it at 20 mph.
In this leg, we completed the upper ICW by traveling 400 miles in 5 days, plus one lay-over day. It was only due to good weather that allowed this. We met other Loopers who had waited several days to do the Delaware Bay or outside NJ.
