Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Monday October 13, 2008
Parting is such sweet sorrow,
No words were ever truer. Seeing the kids again and sharing time with Elyssa had been a wonderful interlude. They had a long journey ahead of them so ate breakfast with us and headed out. Dick and I had to be out of the Marina by 11:00 a.m. And since low tide was around then it seemed a great opportunity to pass under the 55 foot bridges into the Cape May Canal to the Delaware Bay.
When we got to the bridge the tide had brought us down to 58 feet clearance so that was a go. When we had been at Cape May we had meet two families from Nova Scotia and Albert and Merna had decided
to join us for the journey up the Delaware Bay. We had a great wind and sunny weather and motor sailed up the Bay. The current was assisting us part way and when it came time to decide where to anchor we decided to keep going all the way up threw the C D canal that joined the Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake. The canal was light and all the bridges were beautiful. We passed by the opening to the Canal originally but Captain realized in time and we headed in. The cruising books did not give much information for anchorages in Delaware Bay due to currents but when we got to Chesapeake City
we found a beautiful basin. Even though it was crowded we laid our claim to a spot and kept a vigilance all night to see that we did not hit anyone. We were exhausted and even if we got a little sleep it would be better than none.
Tuesday October 14, 2008
Woke up and made breakfast and took a tally of where we were. Few minor engine maintenance things like draining the 25 hour old fluid from the brand new transmission. We had made a long passage the day before and our water heater was overheating and releasing water into the bilged. Dick had brought a new Alternator with him and decided it was time to install. The folks we had left Cape May with had opted to stay in the Cohansey River for the night and arrive in the morning. Albert gave Dick a lift in his dinghy to go and look for parts to install the Alternator, and pick up Swifter Sweet cigars for Albert.
Chesapeake City is an artsy village with no necessities of life so Dick had to walk about two miles for the bread and cigars and the motor part were not available. First Mate decided to stay on board and have an afternoon nap. When Albert and Dick came back in the dinghy we joined them on board Tip Toe and during the time I had been sleeping another couple Peter and Heather (good friends and companions of Albert) can come in and were rafted off. Our first cockpit party in the Chesapeake lasted until around 9:00 pm. We had toured the boats and learned lots if stories. When we returned to Grace C Dick had to put the old Alternator back in so we can have lights for the night.