Sassafras River to Reedy Island

Hi everyone,

Today we motored out of Chesapeake Bay via the Chesapeake & Delaware (C&D) Canal.  Twas a long motor in calm conditions.  It's good to be on the Delaware River but we look forward to escaping it and moving northward toward New York.

Here are the usual plots...

Track

Arrival Track

Graphs

Last night's sunset was pretty spectacular.  This morning we awoke to a dead calm.  As we motored out of the river we found a little breeze and managed to sail under yankee only for half an hour.  The tide was running against us and the breeze died so the motor went on again.

Wednesday Sunset

Departing the River

One of many Osprey nests

The contrary tide eased gradually and by the time we reached the canal it was with us.  Along the way we weaved around small logs and other debris.  The debris included many dead fish - quite large ones.

Once in the canal it was an easy motor eastward towards the Delaware River.  There are several bridges but all are around 130' tall - plenty of head room for us.  It was a warm and sunny day.  We were overtaken by a few motor boats and one tug/barge.  Only two boats - yachts - passed the other way.

On exiting the canal into the Delaware River we turned S and entered the shallow area which leads to a protected anchorage W of Reedy Island.  The Navionics SonarChart shows the depths very well.  Given we're expecting an E wind the protection of Reedy Island is a good option.  And it got us a couple of miles south too.

Navionics SonarChart

View SW from anchorage

View S from anchorage

The tide was slack when we arrived at the anchorage.  Within an hour we had 1.3 knots of north-flowing tidal current.

Here's hoping we don't get 'beaten up' by tomorrow's E wind.  It's predicted to be 15G25 from ENE swinging E.  We'll catch the S flowing tide but it turns earlier the further down river one goes so we'll only get 4-5 hours of favourable tide.  50nm to either Cape May Canal or Cape Henlopen.

Trust all's well where you are!