We are learning that sailing requires patience. Back in the days of sail, when motoring was not a possibility, crews regularly “hove to” for weeks on end waiting for favorable conditions for entering a harbor. We are now experiencing our own version, waiting for reasonable weather to sail up the Delaware Bay to the C&D Canal to enter the Chesapeake Bay.
We’ve been ready to go at 5:00 am each of the past three days but each morning the weather has been uncooperative. Yesterday we woke to severe thunderstorms and heavy rain. This morning we decided to abandon our departure plans due to gale warnings and 40 mile-per-hour wind gusts on the Delaware Bay. We were glad we did when a couple of boats pulled into our marina and the crews told us about the extreme conditions they had experienced. Doubly so when we heard about a 56 foot boat that ran aground and sank last night off Barnaget Light.
Luckily, we are marooned at the world’s nicest marina, in an area with great restaurants and services and a lot of fun activities. So far we’ve visited the zoo and the nature center, taken a trolley tour of historic Cape May and toured a restored Victorian house. And perhaps at 5:00 am tomorrow we actually will leave. And not too soon, since our 90-degree summer-like days have been replaced by crisp cool fall weather and we feel the need to continue making our way south before the snow falls.
We’ve been ready to go at 5:00 am each of the past three days but each morning the weather has been uncooperative. Yesterday we woke to severe thunderstorms and heavy rain. This morning we decided to abandon our departure plans due to gale warnings and 40 mile-per-hour wind gusts on the Delaware Bay. We were glad we did when a couple of boats pulled into our marina and the crews told us about the extreme conditions they had experienced. Doubly so when we heard about a 56 foot boat that ran aground and sank last night off Barnaget Light.
Luckily, we are marooned at the world’s nicest marina, in an area with great restaurants and services and a lot of fun activities. So far we’ve visited the zoo and the nature center, taken a trolley tour of historic Cape May and toured a restored Victorian house. And perhaps at 5:00 am tomorrow we actually will leave. And not too soon, since our 90-degree summer-like days have been replaced by crisp cool fall weather and we feel the need to continue making our way south before the snow falls.
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