Flashback: hot, humid and calm - our last stretch

Habibi entering the C&D Canal

After winning the battle against the stinging flies (and the Coast Guard - but that's another story...) in the Delaware Bay we faced our very last anchoring maneuver behind Reedy Island in the Delaware River.

I was a bit nervous behind the helm as in order to reach the anchorage you have to pass through a gap in a dyke. And if this wasn't enough fun, the gap was quite narrow, the dyke submerged and on top of that the current ran with around 2.5 knots! Thinking of our friends Chris and Steve on Scott-Free who'd successfully done it before I pulled myself together, gave full throttle and steered Habibi through the gap without any problems. But the challenge wasn't over yet... we had to drop anchor in a racing current! Luckily there was no other boat in the anchorage and we had plenty of room to maneuver. Having done that, we had to make sure the anchor was well set as the current would change at some point during the night and turn the boat in the opposite direction. All went well and we spent a quiet last night at anchor.

THE GAP (photo credit by "Cruisin' with John and Deb" blogspot)

The next morning we raised the anchor at the first light, slipped through THE GAP into the Delaware River and headed North for about four miles.

Then we turned West into the C&D (Chesapeake and Delaware) Canal. Once again we had calculated the tide right and were slightly pushed through the 14 miles of water towards the Chesapeake Bay. Where was everybody?! Also here we didn't encounter a single boat. It was so calm - the water was like a mirror.

Being middle of July with the sun rising the temperatures did rise too. We saw many diseased fish floating by and wondered if this had anything to do with the high water temperatures? The water isn't very deep and is therefore able to heat up quickly.

Approaching the end of the C&D Canal and entering the Chesapeake Bay we started to pass a few boats heading the other direction. We guessed it was more the time to head North than South as we did.

It was so dead calm we didn't bother to pull out a sail and motored all the way. And we even opened the hatches what we usually never did while underway. But as there was no wind and no waves there was no chance water would splash over the deck. It was even safe to sit in the cockpit with the laptop on the knees...

We were actually a bit disappointed - this was supposed to be our last sailing trip and there was no "sailing" at all!