As I write this, I am on passage from Baltimore to Essex, helping to bring a friend’s, new to him, 36′ Nordic tug. Oddly, as a boat owner for decades, this is the first time that I have helped someone else move a boat any distance and my first time on a powerboat.
I could get used to this. Lots of room.
My friend, and often crew member, George and I drove down to Baltimore on Wednesday evening and, after a bit of provisioning this morning, headed off to Chesapeake City, one of my favorite spots. George has helped me on the Caribbean run a number of times and has been a longtime sailor.
This week was a big one for him as the day before he closed on the sale of his old boat and now we are bringing his new boat up to CT.
He seems pretty happy to be at the helm although some of the systems are still a bit of a mystery to him. We won’t dwell on our runup on a mudbank shortly after leaving the slip. No, we won’t talk about that. Spoiler: We got off and George is still smiling.
Chesapeake City, located on the C&D canal, connects the upper Chesapeake with the Delaware River, it is a great staging place for a run down the river, up the NJ coast to NYC and then down the Sound to Essex.
As the weather isn’t looking all that for another day, we decided to spend two nights in Chesapeake City before heading down the river. The run down the River and up the NJ coast will be an overnight. It has been years since I have been up past NYC, through the East River so that will be fun.
In fact, the last time I was through there was with Brenda on our first run south in 2012. It was quite an experience knowing that we were heading away from home for many months and that our trip would take us all the way south to FL and the Bahamas.
Our son Chris was a grad student at Columbia at the time and raced us down the East River, all the way to the Battery.
We beat him and waved to him as we pointed the bow to the lower harbor and a bit bitter-sweet to head toward Sandy Hook and begin a new chapter afloat. I wrote about the experience in this post, Brenda’s tears and all.
At the time I had no idea how far our travels would take us. Neither did Brenda… But that’s another story as we gear up to head to the Mediterranean next spring.
Anyway, I have now been to Chesapeake City a number of times over the years and it is nice to be here again, this time with George. However, nothing will quite compare to that first visit with Brenda so many years ago. Since you asked about that visit, here is a link to a post about that first visit in this post.
Last night we anchored in the basin, newly dredged by the Army Corps. Last time I was here I ran Pandora aground when we rounded the point to enter the basin with our 6’6″ draft. It’s a lot deeper now as the entire basin has been dredged this year.
This morning we pulled up to the free dock. Pretty nice spot.
The town was originally formed to support the canal, which was much more primitive at that time, only a few feet deep and the boats had to be towed through by mules who walked along on a path alongside the canal. It is much improved now. The downtown streets are lined with tiny homes, many with beautiful gardens.
I’ll bet that the owners of these homes had mixed emotions about the addition of this bridge that now looms over the canal. The good news is that the bridge opened up the town to many more visitors but it can’t be fun to have a huge bridge tower over your quaint little home, I’d think.
Tomorrow we will head out early and make our way, sadly against a foul tide, to the Delaware river for what will be our first overnight on George’s new boat. Our run will take us up to NYC and his first up the East River. George has crewed for me to the Caribbean a few times but always directly from Montauk south.
We visited the Canal Museum that tells the story of what is one of only two sea level canals, those without locks, in the US.
The most amazing thing about the canal is that it was originally dug by raw human labor including the most major work that was done during the depression when it was enlarged from a modest waterway to one that can handle many of the largest ships in the world today.
Before it was dug deep enough to avoid the need for locks, it required a way to pump in water to feed the locks and allow boats to be raised and lowered. The pump was steam powered and moved 1,000,000 gallons of water per hour. That’s amazing as the engines were only 125hp and each scoop of the wheel moved 20,000 gallons, enough to fill a swimming pool. A remarkable feat of Victorian engineering.
The pump no longer functions but is preserved in the museum.
The two engines and water wheel combined take up three rooms. This small model shows the two steam engines that power the water wheel. The photo above is the left pump.
Some of the specs for the engines that ran for over 80 years with only a single breakdown.
As you can imagine, it took a lot of people to service the canal, including dining and lodging, workers and visitors that were transiting the canal.
Many of the modest homes, Inns and shops are still here, lining the streets of the tiny downtown area.
One cuter than the next.
So, tomorrow at 06:00 we head out for our 65 mile run down to the mouth of the Delaware and the 110 miles up to the lower harbor of New York, at Sandy Hook.
That will be the first big trip for George and his new boat but this visit has been more of a trip down memory lane for me.
I like being here. A lot has happened since that visit…
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