2 month itinerary from Chesapeake north?

[dlj]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I did a specific trip just to see the Chesapeake. In, of itself, it's also a great place to cruise in my opinion. Countless places to anchor, many places to visit, good sailing, etc, etc.
I had an excellent time there. I enjoyed Maine, but I think the Chesapeake is every bit as nice and diverse.
No lobster pots. Crab pots...sure....but not thick with them...
If I had only 2 months...hands down...it would be the Chessie for me.

Love your perspective! I may indeed spend this coming sailing season just enjoying the Chesapeake. It's one of the primary reasons I brought my boat here this past fall. I do want to sail Maine, but perhaps that's for another year.

There's another thread here where someone just posted the below...

Originally Posted by SaltyMetals

David (#97) invited me to quote the full passage from Wind in the Willows on the subject of "messaging about in boats.

The occasion is when Rat invites Mole to his house and in order to get there Rat rows him along in one of those classic boats with the wide seat at the stern and comfy cushions. The passage is as follows:

“Believe me, my young friend”, says Water Rat to Mole as Rat sculled smartly down the river with Mole relaxing in the back seat, “there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,” he went on dreamily, “messing – about – in – boats; messing about in boats, or with boats. In or out of them it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you have done it there is always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much better not.” Mole waggled his toes in sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh of full contentment, and leant back in the soft cushions. “What a Day I am having!”

Andrew

I subscribe to the above...

dj

[bensolomon]

Rick,

The passage from Cape May to block is great, and relatively easy.

But let's back up for a bit. I have done this trip multiple times, most recently two summers ago. Home base is Rock Hall. No need to white knuckle it...slow it down and enjoy. Here is what I do when going this way.

Get an Eldridge, for sure. Also, use 5 knots as your overall average speed when calculating time to travel. You'll be surprised, but 5 knots will be your average.

Back to the strategy: Go Annapolis to the Bohemia and anchor for the night that will be 10 hours. Catch the first morning tide out of the C&D and ride this as long as you can down the Delaware. You will be on the Delaware for about 75 NM (15 hrs). As you get towards Cape May, DO NOT cut the corners near Prissy Wicks shoal. You'll touch bottom. Stay on for an extra nautical mile or two before you come to port. I like to rest in Absecon (Atlantic City). You can rest in Cape May, as well. I recommend Canyon club. They have always been great to me, and they have fuel and pump out at the skip if you need either. Same with Absecon. From Absecon or Cape May shoot directly to Block. It's an easy overnight. Also drag a lure while sailing and catch some king mackerel or a small tuna.

From block, go to Newport, and then Newport to cuttyhunk. Cuttyhunk to the cape cod canal and upfield.

I usually go to mystic, then visit greenport, go to the Kontokosta vineyard and winery, then head to Newport, then block, then upfield.

It will be fun. I recommend taking your bimini down for a while during the Atlantic portion to see the stars and the comets. It's spectacular!!

[earnric]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

I kind of think that time of year you can still get cold and blustery conditions (I hate spring here). Also, August is the worst time for fog in Maine.

If it were me I'd do July-September.

Actually, the absolute best time to sail in New England is hands down mid-Sept to mid-Oct. Still warm (60s-70s in coastal waters), even hot sometimes. Places are still open, but the summer traffic is way down. Great sailing; those northwest gales haven't started yet, and the August thunderstorms are gone. If there's no tropical storm action, you get the best weather. Also, for swimmers, the water is really cold in June (50s), still warm in Oct. (60s)

And you start to get the prevailing northwesterlies to blow you back down.

Whereas they who depart Maine in August are beating the whole way back in that prevailing southwesterly.

That's just me. YMMV.

I wish I could wait, but I teach here at USNA so I have to be back by early Aug...

R

[earnric]

Originally Posted by bensolomon

Rick,

The passage from Cape May to block is great, and relatively easy.

But let's back up for a bit. I have done this trip multiple times, most recently two summers ago. Home base is Rock Hall. No need to white knuckle it...slow it down and enjoy. Here is what I do when going this way.

Get an Eldridge, for sure. Also, use 5 knots as your overall average speed when calculating time to travel. You'll be surprised, but 5 knots will be your average.

Back to the strategy: Go Annapolis to the Bohemia and anchor for the night that will be 10 hours. Catch the first morning tide out of the C&D and ride this as long as you can down the Delaware. You will be on the Delaware for about 75 NM (15 hrs). As you get towards Cape May, DO NOT cut the corners near Prissy Wicks shoal. You'll touch bottom. Stay on for an extra nautical mile or two before you come to port. I like to rest in Absecon (Atlantic City). You can rest in Cape May, as well. I recommend Canyon club. They have always been great to me, and they have fuel and pump out at the skip if you need either. Same with Absecon. From Absecon or Cape May shoot directly to Block. It's an easy overnight. Also drag a lure while sailing and catch some king mackerel or a small tuna.

From block, go to Newport, and then Newport to cuttyhunk. Cuttyhunk to the cape cod canal and upfield.

I usually go to mystic, then visit greenport, go to the Kontokosta vineyard and winery, then head to Newport, then block, then upfield.

It will be fun. I recommend taking your bimini down for a while during the Atlantic portion to see the stars and the comets. It's spectacular!!

Hey Ben thanks so much! I'm gonna take these notes and do some plotting (of these locations!). This is really great -- I was thinking of stopping near Ready Island in Delaware Bay, so I'll have to look up Bohemia ... but I'd rather follow the advice of folks who have done it before than try to pick my own stops.

How about Lewes instead of Cape May?? ... stopping on the south side. Any thoughts there?

Cheers!

Rick

[dlj]

Originally Posted by earnric

How about Lewes instead of Cape May?? ... stopping on the south side. Any thoughts there?

Cheers!

Rick

Rick,

Decent anchorage right behind the breakwater in front of Lewes...

(I don't seem to be able to paste an image into here)

dj

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by dlj

Isn't the fundamental problem, as always, time? Having enough time to do these things. Sailing is a time hog. I feel that's why a lot of folk turn to power boats.

Most like to sail when the weather is decent; avoid storms, avoid crazy weather. Well, I guess that's also time related. I remember when I used to go out into the storms and see just how much I could handle. I broke a lot of things, a few times thought I was going to die, you know, the real adrenaline rush kinds of things. But now with the time that's passed, I no longer want to do that crazy stuff. Glad I did it when I did. If I have to deal with it now, I will...

I agree that sailing in mid-Sept to mid-Oct is a great time frame to sail the North East, but once you hit October, you start getting dicey weather. Sure, when you get the right weather window, you are in beautiful sailing weather. I just ran from the North Fork to the Chesapeake last year at the beginning of October. I had started looking for a good weather window in September. One never came up. I finally just took the best option as I had to go: as they say - time was running out (there's that time thing). So I picked the best option and had a decent trip until part way down the Jersey coast and then (as predicted) the weather just turned against me. So the whole bottom half of the Jersey shore and up the Delaware was .... well... just brutal.

So the ideal is to have all the time you need/want. Our current working lives don't allow this. (I am looking forward to retirement.) The difficulty is starting on the Chesapeake, running up to Maine, enjoying the trip between here and there and then getting back to the Chesapeake. You have the sailing time up, the sailing time back, and you want to have the time to enjoy that spectacular sailing region (Where does that region begin? Northern Jersey? Where does it end? Well, I submit it doesn't, you can just keep going until you finally hit Finland, or thereabouts). For sure the sailing up and back is an enoyable thing, but for me at least, the seeing, enjoying, spending the time (dang there it is again) to enjoy where I've sailed to is equally important.

So realistic sailing time from the Chesapeake to Maine; I figure about two weeks round trip with waiting a bit for weather conditions. then you need time to enjoy. Now that is a difficult time prediciton. Really, I'd like to take a month, or more. But even if you limit that to two weeks, you are looking at a 1 month trip. I don't see how you can do it for less. So starting mid to late June seems about right to me.

I'd love to hear others' opinions.

dj

This is a great perspective, and yeah, I can think like that because I am retired. OP, harken to the wisdom of DJ!

Last October was the best October in a while, but July was the worst July I've ever seen out there. 55 and fog when there wasn't rain.

[earnric]

Sounds like my 6 weeks is about right then! Assuming I can do up and back in about 2 wks...

Oh did I mention I want to spend 2-3 days in P-town

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by earnric

Sounds like my 6 weeks is about right then! Assuming I can do up and back in about 2 wks...

Oh did I mention I want to spend 2-3 days in P-town

My favorite place. I'm there all the time. Plus you can anchor for any wind direction (though it sometimes changes over night.)

[earnric]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

My favorite place. I'm there all the time. Plus you can anchor for any wind direction (though it sometimes changes over night.)

That's great to hear! We love P-town as well, but haven't been up there for a few years now.

I hear the moorings and a slip are crazy expensive... Hopefully there's room in the anchorage during late June/July!

[dlj]

Originally Posted by earnric

That's great to hear! We love P-town as well, but haven't been up there for a few years now.

I hear the moorings and a slip are crazy expensive... Hopefully there's room in the anchorage during late June/July!

Just a FYI - looks like your inbox here is full, can't send you messages anymore. You'll need to delete messages to be able to use PM option here.

dj

[donradcliffe]

Just remember Maine is called DownEast, because its downwind in the prevailing summer winds. We usually stayed until early September when the first (cold) northerlies start. The islands shut down after Labor Day when the summer help goes back to school. The season is short without a heater on the boat--June 15 to September 15.

Let the weather, not time, dictate your trip and everyone will enjoy it more. You may have 2-3 days of good sailing winds, then have to hole up for 2-3 days.

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by earnric

That's great to hear! We love P-town as well, but haven't been up there for a few years now.

I hear the moorings and a slip are crazy expensive... Hopefully there's room in the anchorage during late June/July!

Yeah, Provincetown Marina wants $2 per foot a peak season; Flyers is less expensive; I moored a 41-footer there for $76 a night last summer. They are in the West End, a walk from the center, and don't have the facilities of the Marina, but what are we doing here? This is Provincetown!

We at the DMF Sailing experience have always found anchorage... under Long Point in a westerly puts you a long ride in a dinghy from town, although during waking hours, Flyers runs a launch that'll come out and get you.

West of Flyers' mooring field there is also an anchorage; you just have to be careful about that wreck...

For easterlies, there's plenty of room east of the breakwater.... You just don't want it to veer while you're anchored there.

[earnric]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

Yeah, Provincetown Marina wants $2 per foot a peak season; Flyers is less expensive; I moored a 41-footer there for $76 a night last summer. They are in the West End, a walk from the center, and don't have the facilities of the Marina, but what are we doing here? This is Provincetown!

We at the DMF Sailing experience have always found anchorage... under Long Point in a westerly puts you a long ride in a dinghy from town, although during waking hours, Flyers runs a launch that'll come out and get you.

West of Flyers' mooring field there is also an anchorage; you just have to be careful about that wreck...

For easterlies, there's plenty of room east of the breakwater.... You just don't want it to veer while you're anchored there.

This is great! Thanks for the info on P-town.

[bensolomon]

Rick,

Delaware bay is a messy piece of water. It's relatively shallow and there's a lot of water that funnels into Delaware Bay from the Atlantic and then narrows as it goes up to Delaware river. Consequently, the water slops back and forth like a bathtub. I would not cross to lewes nd I would stay closer to the Jersey side.

Like I said previously, catch the East going current out of the C&D when you leave the Bohemia and you'll be able to ride that down at least halfway into the Delaware River where it will matter most. As you get closer to Delaware bay, the current lessons because the funnel opens up. It will be less impactful on your course. I personally do not anchor in the delaware. I stay on and make the Delaware a whole leg onto itself. Once you round prissy wick shoal then you have a decision to make. Either go to Cape may, or stay on and go in Atlantic City, or, if the wind is favorable head to block island.

Atlantic City is the last true all weather, usable port on the Jersey coast for bailout. This is the point at which New Jersey coastline bends Northwest and you are heading north east. If you get into trouble between Atlantic City and block island, shinnecock Bay on the south side of Long Island is a usable inlet and anchorage. If you are tired, pull into shinnecock and take a break.

Also, as you enter the c&D canal, hail C&D control on channel 13 and find out what kind of shipping traffic is coming through. They will want to keep track of you, as well.

I have a Garmin in reach that I use when going out into the ocean. It has been amazingly helpful for me not only to have my family track me, but also enables me to communicate with weather routers. I always contract with weather routing Incorporated when making this passage. I found them to be very helpful and they can communicate with me via the Garmin which is Bluetooth connected to my cell phone so that I can send and receive text messages freely.

My personal email is:
benrsolomon@aol.com

Email me if I can be of any help.

Ben

[earnric]

Hey Ben, thanks very much! More good info.

I got a Garmin In-reach as well, but haven't used it yet. I thought it was just good for short text messages. You can get weather data to your phone over that link?

I'll take you advice and plan on bypassing Lewes... What do you think of the Egg inlet for a stop before Atlantic city?