Chesapeake City Bridge over C & D (Chesapeake & Delaware) canal marking mile "0" the northern start of the Chesapeake Bay
Tom taking a break from driving
An unusual looking light house on Delaware Bay
One of the many freighters in the Atlantic shipping channel.
We left Chesapeake City early ( 6:20) on Monday as we knew it would be a long day on the water. (7.5 hours) Fortunately, Delaware Bay was some of the calmest water we’ve been on. I t seems unreal that we went through the state of Delaware but we didn’t set foot on land. I’m still counting it as a state visited!
The Utsch’s Marina in Cape May greeted us with a nice gift basket. It is not the easiest marina to get into since you have shallow water approaching a very narrow entrance. We were lucky it wasn’t windy. About a month ago we went aground near Wilmington, NC and we’ve felt a vibration ever since. The weather does not look good for several days to go out in the Atlantic Ocean, so we took advantage of the down time and had the boat pulled for an under hull inspection. We hoped to find something as simple as a crab-pot line wrapped around the shaft. Well no crab-pot lines, and it appears to be no damaged prop, however, the shaft bent is bent and a new one has to be made and installed. For non boaters, this is a time consuming, expensive repair.
It is approaching Memorial Day week-end making matters more difficult. So with the boat sitting in the lifting slings we had to make a decision, put the boat back in the water and limp along with a slight vibration, or bite the bullet and start the repair process. With the shaft out of the boat, it can’t be put back in the water until the new shaft is installed, so we are living on the boat in the boat yard "On the Hard" We have a 20 amp circuit so we have to manage our electric load accordingly. I hope it doesn’t get to the predicted 90 degrees since we won’t have air! If you remember, we do have some experience with this situation!
These problems are common place on this journey and we are only one of many that have gone through this. It should take about a week for the whole turn around. In the meantime there are about a dozen loopers here waiting for weather improvements, so we are having fun with them, some old friends and some we have met for the first time here. This is a nice community, think we will rent a car for the week-end and enjoy the area
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