Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m jumping ahead but we’re behind in our blog posts and I honestly don’t think I’m leaving much out by “skipping” ahead. Prior to our departure from NYC Melissa and I spent our usual hours and hours going through the possible routes, weather forecasts and emotional temperature check of the family before finalizing our route and departure date. Originally we had planned to leave Jersey City and go directly to Cape May, NJ. After an exhausting week in NYC we clearly weren’t up for that and we really wanted to visit a great friend in Sandy Hook, NJ. So off we went on Saturday morning from Jersey City to Sandy Hook, a transit of just 19 miles (~3 hours) for an awesome day at the beach with a coworker of 18 years. Chris was my broker for my entire career and it was so much fun to visit with him and his family. We had an amazing time and so enjoyed his new beach house. Clearly I was paying too much brokerage!

The next day was a day off for us as we prepped for our big hop from Sandy Hook to Atlantic City. We had considered going on Sunday but the forecast was for strong winds from the S and SE, suboptimal for our heading. We had decided on Atlantic City simply because it was at the edge of our ability for a day’s passage. With the days getting shorter and shorter with sunlight it limited the amount of time we could sail without departing or arriving in darkness, something that we aren’t keen to do when arriving to a new, unknown, harbor. So our plan was to spend Sunday slowing down, catching our breath and doing some laundry. We also had another courtesy call with Mike and Donna, CCA members who’ve been offering sage advice since February. It’s been wonderful receiving help from so many and Mike and Donna have been standouts.

With a 12 hour passage ahead of us and the desire to be to Atlantic City before the fuel dock closed at 5 p.m. we were forced to make a very early departure at 4 a.m. on Monday morning. All night we heard the wind building and when our alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. Melissa and I had barely slept and were both concerned about the conditions. I took the dog for a walk and was buffeted by 20 knots winds. What I could see of the bay wasn’t comforting as clearly there was a steep chop with breaking waves. The idea of trying to extricate ourselves from our tight slip (in a 20 knot cross wind), a really tricky harbor entrance/exit and an unknown sea state once offshore, in the pitch black, was a bit too much for us. When I returned to the boat we had our Go/No Go meeting and we both agreed it was a No Go. While this seems like an easy decision it wasn’t because of the forecast for the rest of the week. We only had a window about about 24-36 hours to make it south and into the protection of Delaware Bay before big southerly winds came up for days (this in fact happened and there were a bunch of boats stuck up in NE waiting to get south).

Melissa came up with a great alternative which had us leaving 12 hours later and bypassing Atlantic City altogether. We’d instead sail overnight directly to Cape May, NJ, a passage of approximately 17 hours. And that’s exactly what we did. We left exactly 12 hours later, at 4 p.m. and had an easy passage to Cape May. While doing an overnight isn’t exactly easy, it allows us to make huge progress while the kids sleep. We’d done a number of these while on Lake Ontario and they’re our preferred option for getting some miles in. The trip wasn’t without incident as we had, by far, the worst Flypocalypse ever. Shortly after 6 p.m. the wind died and biting flies descended upon us in droves. It. Was. Awful. Bo, tired of being bit, went below for most of the night until he got seasick and puked all over the cabin below. Good times.

Our arrival in Cape May was rather momentous for the family however as we had our first dolphin sighting! This was a big deal and brightened everyone’s spirits. We pulled up to the fuel dock knackered, smelly and with many bites and fly carcasses littering the cockpit. What a sight we must have been. Amongst many crewed super yachts and gorgeous boats the Clampetts roll up in their Marine RV to Cape May having knocked off their first overnight passage of the trip. But we had done it. We had taken lemons and made lemonade and had now gotten a day ahead of schedule. Melissa and I were proud of how we navigated the previous morning’s set back, happy we did a No Go and ready to tackle the rest of the delivery to Annapolis.

Rather than collapsing in to bed Melissa found a river of energy and whipped the family in to shape for a day of exploring Cape May. We walked the 2 miles in to town and had a lovely lunch and did some exploring of a town I was completely unfamiliar with. It was an unexpected lovely day.

For those that know the NJ and Delaware coasts well you know there’s not much there and offers few places to stop. Prior to our week in NYC we had planned to go from Jersey City to Cape May to Norfolk in 2 big hops. Instead we decided to take the Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D) Canal which allowed for multiple, smaller hops. Yes it was a longer distance but we have the time. So from Cape May we left the next day to sail up Delaware Bay. This was a passage of 10 hours and we had a fantastic sail in ~20 knots for about half the day. We anchored just south of the entrance to spend the night and time our transit through the canal with a fair current early the next morning.

With the C&D sorted the next morning we decided to make the day a shorter one and dropped anchor in the Sassafras River of the Chesapeake. Melissa and I had a wonderful sense of accomplishment as we felt like we had entered in to a new phase of our trip. We were now in a new region and plan to be in the Chesapeake for the next 5 weeks. It’s also been really fun to see the migration south begin. We’re running in to the same boats and finding ourselves, now, with more and more boats heading the same way on the same schedule. Hopefully this means more kid boats!

The next morning was another early departure to grab a fair current to Annapolis. We managed to SOG at 9 knots for about 6 hours and made great time to Annapolis, grabbed fuel, water and a pump out and were anchored by 3 p.m. in Weems Creek. What joy we felt! We had made it to Annapolis and had only left NYC 4 days prior. While hardly a speedy record we felt pretty good about it. And we had so much to look forward to for the weekend.

The weekend was spent catching up with one of my closest friends, Krysia. We met while in College, she at the USCGA, me at Conn, and have somehow managed to foster a close friendship over the past 25 years. It had been 3 years since our last vacation together and it was great to spend time together. Our families have become rather close, somehow, over great distances, and we look forward to more time together in the coming weeks.

After having a really difficult day of boat schooling on Monday, Tuesday was headed down a similar path. We decided to get off the boat and head in to town for a tour of the US Naval Academy. This was an awesome experience. What a stunning campus, filled with fantastic architecture and incredible history. The entire family loved it. While the boy’s schooling doesn’t look “normal” I have to believe they’re learning some really great stuff.

Our plans for the rest of our time here in the Chesapeake are evolving. We’ve now spent almost a full week in Annapolis, barely seen a thing, and it feels absolutely fantastic to not move around. Constantly moving around is hard. It makes boat schooling much more challenging. It seems to prompt homesickness in every family member when we leave an anchorage we like and relocate somewhere new. It makes us yearn for some stability. We were forced to leave Weems Creek yesterday to pump out and have now grabbed a mooring ball in Spa Creek. If you look on a map you can see we’re now really well positioned to access all of the amenities of Annapolis. Also, it felt really great to spend 5 nights at anchor in the charming Weems Creek. Not moving feels good! We had planned to depart on Tuesday to make our way down to the Potomac and up to Washington DC. Then we pushed that to tomorrow. Now we’re certain that we’ll be in Annapolis for the weekend and are considering alternate means of transit to DC while Atlas stays in Annapolis. We’re tired. Happy, really really happy. But tired. A few weeks of getting in to some sort of routine just sounds really appealing to us right now.