Our missing week and trip to Cape May

This post goes back a week or two in time to finish the discussion of our trip from Oxford.

We were finally able to get out of Oxford, MD on Saturday afternoon the 18th about noon and made it to Worton Creek about 1900. We had a very pleasant evening that was discussed in an earlier post.

The next morning we got up early and left Worton Creek at 0600 so we could catch the tide beginning to flow eastward in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and into the Delaware River. We had to slow for about an hour enroute as the canal was closed due to fog. But, it eventually burned off and we were able to enter and transit the canal with the current. Being early on a Sunday morning there was little traffic and we were running about 9-9.5 kts.

We got to the River end of the canal and out of nowhere a powerboat that had lost its engine drifted in front of us and I didn't see it coming. We hit it. The powerboater called the Coast Guard and we waited for the authorities to arrive. After they arrived and began their investigation we returned to Summit North Marina which was about 7 miles back on the canal to assess the damage. The other boat was towed back to its home port in New Jersey.

Having hit the boat with probably the hardest point of our boat we had minimal damage. Some gelcoat scratches, our 73# Rocna anchor was bent, the bow roller was bent and the bow pulpit was bent slightly.

I inquired at the Marina about local services that could do the repair work and contacted our insurance company. The marina provided the name of an onsite firm who came by and then proposed to do an extensive amount of unnecessary work. So after consulting with our insurance company I proceeded to do the work myself. So for the rest of the week we got busy and got the work completed.

Some scenes going down the Delaware.

We were then able to leave Summit North one week after we were forced to land there. So in order to catch the optimum current flows we planned to leave at 0600 about an hour before the end of the incoming tide which would give us good support in the canal and then with the out going tide we would get a good lift down the River to Cape May.

The trip down the River went quickly and we reached the ocean about 1300. But we had several miles to go fighting currents and then we got to the channel that was filled with sport boats, jet skis and fishing boats both coming in and gong out. Inside the channel there were several dredges working that helped make the channel even more confusing as many of the small craft zoomed around.

We found our way into the Utsch's Marina where we were going to spend the night but first refuel.We finally got into our slip and secured before 1500. A nine-hour run from tie-up to tie-up.

Amekaya in Summit North after the repairs were completed.

After cleaning up we went for a walk in town and then later grabbed dinner across the street and prepared for our departure to Block Island the next morning.  So here we were with 5 days to travel over 400 nm to make the rendezvous. We made it in 4 with an overnight stop in Block Island.

Now back to our adventures in Maine.