The first time we tried to leave Cape May the Delaware Bay was too rough. It was 2 to 3 from one direction with a 4 foot cross sea that made for very uncomfortable conditions. So we quickly made the decision to return and went right back to our old slip in Utch's Marina. We spent the day doing school instead of bashing our way through those seas and had a nice afternoon on the beach and a pizza dinner. We got a great treat when our friends on the sailboat Moxsun arrived and were in a slip only 2 boats down. We met them first in Sylvan Beach, NY (just after Lake Onieda on the Erie Canal) and easily made friends. We keep meeting them and we enjoy their company. We did much of the Erie together, saw them on the Hudson, and in Atlantic Highlands. Their boat is a great cruising ketch (an Endaevor 43) and touring it, it made me realize just how much we need a sailboat!

The next day Moxsun left early for the outside route (at 65 feet their main mast is too tall for the canal) and we slept in. Around 9, I called them on the radio to see what the ocean was like. They said it was calm and smooth. So we left for the canal, crossed it, and found the Delaware like glass. We throttled up and settled back for our longest travelling day of the entire trip so far - over 70 miles. With a good current and great conditions we made 15 to 16 mph most of the day. Around 1:30 we arrived at Chesapeake City public dock just off the C&D Canal. We tied up. The kids did school in the park. Another boat that we have been seeing for the past week arrived and rafted to us. They are a Canadian wooden trawler built in the 1960s. Michelle and Louise were nice enough to give me a tour. A little later space on the dock opened up and they moved from us. Around 6 PM Moxsun arrived and rafted to us. It was funny to me to see a 43 foot sailboat that weighs 40,000 lbs tied to Indiscipline. Moxsun is much bigger. As thunderstorms were expected, we tied up very securely with lots of fenders and then had a dinner party in the cockpit for all. It was a lot of fun. A local man stopped to talk and gave us all many tips on the Chesapeake. Early the next morning, he stopped by to give me his old cruising guide with many valuable sketch maps of the anchorages. Meeting people and making new friends is the great reward of this lifestyle.

Moxsun was solidly aground when they left and we watched their deep keel dredge a new channel from the dock to the channel. When we left we were slightly aground too but it is just very soft mud. The local had advised us to go to Wharton Creek, so we headed off the next morning. Moxsun was going to the Annapolis Sail Boat Show. We passed them along the way. Heavy fog descended so they came into Wharton Creek too, for the night. With a 6 foot draft and the creek only carries 7 feet at high tide, they had to leave early in the morning. Sad to think we may never see them again, unless by chance we meet up in the Bahamas. Strong thunderstorms did not arrive as predicted until the next evening, and following them, came the cold.

The next day we had very strong winds. Wharton Creek is indeed a "hurricane hole" and the winds were fairly calm at the dock, but blowing about 30 knots right on our nose when heading out into the Bay. It was one of those days where we have to decide to go or stay. This time we decided to go. The waves were 2 to 3 and not bad, but with the strong wind right on the nose we were taking a lot of spray. It turned out to be the roughest passage of our trip so far, even, in fact, taking heavy spray right over the top of the flybridge. A couple of windows were open slightly below and the one in the head leaks so when we arrived, things were wet down there. Especially Amy's bed. Indiscipline handled the sea conditions with ease, however, and it was really an easy ride except for the spray.

It was really blowing in Baltimore and I was a little nervous about docking but it was a down wind slip and basically all I had to do was cut the engines with the boat perpendicular to the slip in the fairway and let the wind blow us in. Baltimore is really a lot of fun as you can pay your $5 for the water taxi and that is an all day pass, and they will take you just about anywhere in the city. We have enjoyed the Inner Harbor and the festival at Fells Point. There is good shopping here and we have restocked the galley. There are lots of tall ships here getting ready for an Op Sail 2000 schooner race next weekend.

We planned to go to Annapolis but now it is the Power Boat Show and it is just too crowded and expensive so we are crossing the Bay to the Eastern shore, then heading down to Soloman's Maryland, prior to beginning the run up the Potomac up to Washington DC. We should be leaving Norfolk just about Nov. 1 as planned.

The cold weather we complained about while we were in Baltimore is gone and we are having delightful days in the high 70's for touring all of Washington DC. Our way of life seems to have changed slightly, as we find ourselves settling down for 5 or more days at one place before moving on in an intense few days of travel. We left Baltimore for Solomons, MD. travelling via Kent Narrows where we spent the night. We settled down in Solomons for a long rest, to catch up on school work, and for repairs. Calvert Marina was one of the nicest places we have stayed for the entire trip and we were sorry to leave after our 5 days there. You can dinghy to get just about anything you need, the marina lent us there car for a big store trip and to buy 8 gallons of oil for the engines. Amy and Heidi played for days on end in the warm Indian Summer sun. They made camps and bows and arrows from razor grass and I've never seen them have so much fun.

Our stove part was there when we arrived and the new stove was installed in a few hours. I also fixed the fresh water pump, the backflow valve on the toilet, sewed up some flybridge canvas repairs, and did an oil change on the main engines (we will have to get to the generator next time). All our engine zincs were in good shape. Karen's help was invaluable without question. I will have to find time to adjust the stuffing boxes and fix a leak in the bathroom window sometime. I would like to personally thank the Wellcraft designers for putting the stuffing boxes under the fuel tanks with 6 inches of clearance.

We met some nice people: Mark on Winnie-The-Pooh, George and Lisa on Last Mistake (a great Krogen Manatee 36), and a nice sailing couple bound for the Virgin Islands in a single long offshore passage onboard Jolly Moon. Meanwhile we planned our up the Potomac.

We reached Washington after a 60 mile day for a stop in Colonial Beach, followed by a 75 mile day ending up at the Capitol Yacht Club. Next time we will take Ken's advice and stay elsewhere. Colonial Beach is a little rundown. But a nice man working on his boat gave us some fishing tips and we had a great time catching and releasing after midnight when the tide turned. We are still not sure what we caught however! Karen fondly remembers me catching the overhead powerline with a spectacular cast.

In all those miles we almost never saw a boat on the river - and never another pleasure boat headed up river! I guess it's a little late in the season, but really, you couldn't ask for better weather than we are having right now. The river was calm but we fought a moderate current most of the way. This is a great friendly place just off the Mall. It's only a 5 minute walk to the museums. We are all learning a lot and this has to be about the most inexpensive way to visit Washington.

We are staying here for 6 days and after that I don't know. We will visit Mount Vernon by water as we leave, head down river, stopping somewhere for a night on the hook up a creek, and probably finding a marina on the Virginia shore near Smith Point. We have now covered well over 2000 miles since leaving Port Washington, and still having fun. We have talked and decided to change from going every day to try what we are doing now. This is giving us more time to live and enjoy our destinations. Of course, spending a month in the Chesapeake and visiting Washington was always part of our plan and everything is going right on schedule. Our next major leg will start around Nov 1 when we enter the Dismal Swamp Canal bound for Carol and Keith's place in Southport, NC.

We really enjoyed our voyage up the Potomac to Washington DC and had a great time at the museums. On the trip down we anchored out a couple of times. The Virginia back creeks are especially calm and beautiful this time of the year. If we can sneak by the last 50 miles of The Bay we will enter the Atlantic ICW nearly on our original schedule.