From Annapolis we decided to make the longest day sail on our trip, a 66 NM run up Chesapeake Bay, through C&D Canal, then anchor on the northern end of Delaware Bay for the night.

We motor-sailed through Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) connects the tops of the Chesapeake Bay (Maryland) and the Delaware Bay (which is bordered by Delaware and New Jersey).

After going through the C&D Canal, we stopped and anchored for the night at Reedy Point which is near the eastern end of the canal, in the state of Delaware. This was the worst night of our entire trip where the current was so strong the 3 ft waves were coming at our boat sideways for the first 3 hours until the wind died around midnight allowing us to get some rest.

Next morning we weigh anchor towards Cape May via Delaware Bay. Delaware bay is a bay that is wide open to the full energy of the ocean. Taking all that energy and combine it with the wakes from enormous commercial ships, crosswinds and strong tides — the bay ends up being a very uncomfortable body of water but we managed to endure passing through our least favorite body of water and settled at a marina in Cape May.

Next leg is the New Jersey coast – for cruisers traveling the Atlantic coast of New Jersey, there are two very different routes from which to choose, or from which one can mix-‘n-match as weather conditions changes.  Between Cape May and New York Harbor, cruisers can either travel offshore in the coastal Atlantic Ocean or take an “alternate” ICW route that runs the shallow bays and rivers lying inside the coastal barrier islands of the New Jersey coast.

We were in the hurry to get home and we have no interest in running the New Jersey ICW. Since Mother Nature is being kind to us, we decided to make good distance by going outside in 3 legs, from Cape May to Atlantic City to Barnegat Bay then to Brooklyn NY.

New Jersey gets a bad rap. The coast of NJ is very pretty and rivals any east coast beaches we’ve ever seen. Sailing to Cape May was uneventful except seeing the usual hustle and bustle of the commercial fishing fleet and extremely busy USCG activities. They really kept us on our toes.

The beautiful sail we had from Cape May to Atlantic City was perfect until my disgruntled firstmate Claudia was panicking below deck and yelling “I can’t find my nail polish. I need to paint my finger nails to play BlackJack”. I shook my head, shrugged my shoulders and gave her a “I can’t help you” look and continue piloting our way to Atlantic City. Apparently all women playing BlackJack paint their finger nails to look respectable when they tap their hands on the tables to signal the dealer. BTW, Claudia did find her nail polish and flawlessly painted her fingers underway in 2-3 foot seas, pretty astonishing in my opinion.

We spent 2 days in Atlantic City exploring the famous boardwalk but not before Claudia declared $200 victory over the Golden Nugget casino then moving onto Barnegat Bay. We had a bad experience coming into Barnegat inlet last fall so we were a bit nervous this time. The Southwestly made the entrance very easy and we dropped anchor and spent a restful night before heading into Brooklyn NY the following day for a long 55 NM run.

Three more states to go – NY, CT and RI.