Delaware Bay made a mess of our boat!

August 31: Reedy Island



We left Cape May on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. Again, up at the crack of dawn. We raised the sails and all seemed fine as we went the short distance down the coast to scoot under the tip of NJ and head toward Delaware Bay. Suddenly, the wind kicked up to 24 knots just as we were crossing the Cape May shoal. What a ride! I was literally hanging on to the steering wheel for dear life! Bill was busy adjusting the sails and running down into the cabin to continously check the chart plotter on our computer to make sure we did not wander out of the channel and run aground on the numerous shallow shoals around us. The waves were enormous! We'd ride up one then crash down, with water coming all the way back into the cockpit. At one point, I was standing in water up to my ankles! We've been through some storms on Lake Erie, but this was a doozy! The forecasters had said we'd have light winds of 5 - 7 knots. NOT!!!



The high winds continued their fury for about two and a half hours then suddenly it was over. The sun came out and the seas calmed down like nothing had ever happened. Bill said, "Hey, who turned off the switch?" The inside of our boat looked like it had a bad case of the flu. Books, hats, magazines, were "thrown up" all over the place. We picked things up, made some lunch and relaxed...thankful that we'd made it through ok.



Of course, with the calmer seas came calmer winds so once again, we were motoring across Delaware Bay. We made it all the way across (it was over a 30 mile trip) and up the Delaware River to Reedy Island, which provided a very safe anchorage for the evening. I tried to get in the water to relax but severly underestimated the power of an outgoing tide! The tides in this area are 6 feet, so you can imagine how much water runs through as the tide is going out. I ended up just hanging on to the swim ladder and the current pulled me out like I was swimming. (Lazy girls way of getting some laps in, eh?) It felt good to cool off and take a shower off the back of the boat.



Tomorrow, we go through the C&D canal to enter the Chesapeake!