Making Lemonade From Lemons .....

Ouch ! Crystal Blues suffered mightily in a collision at sea last month, just off the New Jersey coast and we've spent the past six weeks dealing with the aftermath of that incident. While we are physically OK, I can't say the same about our emotions.

The Ugly Duck

She was hit by an errant commercial trawler, the Ugly Duck, that approached from our port side and initially failed to give way. Yes we were under sail, however the guy at the trawler helm eventually decided to accelerate and turn to port, a bad mistake. So we turned to port to cross his stern, which would have been simple, except that 30 seconds later he changed his mind (panicked?) and turned hard to starboard as if to run down our port side. We again corrected, this time to starboard, but it was not to be - in the last few boat lengths the trawler straightened up and collided with our port bow. We had nowhere to go.

In fact they hit us three times - after the vessels fell apart from the first collision she accelerated into us again, and then again a third time - clearly nobody at the helm at that time. I believe the young guy in control panicked and abandoned the helm. It was a massive collision, and a lesser vessel would be at the bottom of the ocean now, however she took the hit and actually kept sailing until we dropped the sails.

The Mystical Secret Place For Good Old Boats

Chris Gasiorek Shows Me Through Wonderland

During our stay at Mystic Seaport Museum we met Chris Gasiorek, who is Vice President Of Watercraft Preservation And Programs. While his job title may be long winded, Chris is straight to the point when it comes to recognising boat lovers. He approached us onboard Crystal Blues one morning and offered a guided tour of the hidden collection - a massive converted factory, now housing hundreds of preserved boats, engines and machinery just across the street from the public museum site.

Beautiful Scenes At Every Turn

Mystic Seaport Museum was built on the site of two traditional shipyards. As time progressed and wooden ships were superseded, the shipyard owners built mills on the site, in substantial brick buildings.

One of those buildings now houses the museum's boat collection, an almost un-imaginable treasure trove of boats that date back as far as 1824. Whilst the majority are wooden, there are others made of fiberglass, aluminum and even tin.

The museum is dedicated to preserving the history of ships, boats and maritime culture, including boat building.

So the vibrant living seaport experience is one part of that, drawing over a quarter of a million visitors each year, teaching sailing skills and keeping traditional craft in service. Another part is harboring a collection of unique and special vessels - the collection now housed in the old mill building. They call it the Watercraft Hall, and it houses over 470 boats - we spent a few hours in there, and probably didn't see them all.

The museum also has a large curated library of nautical documents and artifacts, including scrimshaw, charts, ship drawings, scale models and images. Significantly, it is now custodian of the fantastic Rosenfeld Collection - nearly one million maritime photography pieces dating from 1881 thru 1992, with images held in various formats, from glass plates through to color transparencies. This collection also includes the cameras and equipment used by the Rosenfeld family over the years.

The Admiral Views The Collection With Chris Gasiorek

The Watercraft Hall is open to the public only four days each year, though I suspect that enthusiasts with a special interest could be accommodated at other times, by arrangement.

I understand that the museum gains about half its annual funding from gate proceeds - the entry fee for visiting the site. The balance comes from private donations, plus a contribution from sales through the museum store and online store. Seriously, this is an amazing site, where the art, craft and history of ships and the sea is not only celebrated, but preserved for future generations.  More power to them! If you love boats, add this place to your bucket list, and click below to see some more lovely images of the Watercraft Hall.

Dangerous AIS Targets? New Challenges To Safe Navigation

A Busy Waterway, However The AIS Fish Beacons Give Me Great Fears

Heading north around Cape Hatteras a few weeks back, we found ourselves facing a number of targets along our intended course - only some were more dangerous than others. That green target at top right of the image (36870200) was an American aircraft carrier performing incredibly tight turns and circles - but that wasn't the danger. Neither was the fast moving target to the left of our track (the track in black), which was the Captain Caden, a 21 meter fishing vessel out of Barnegat Bay.

FV Handful & Four Local AIS Beacons

The real danger was that tiny cluster of targets on our starboard side - the US flagged fishing vessel Handful, seen here with a cluster of AIS beacons around it (note : this image, and those that follow, is produced by replaying our voyage on our electronic nav system. The target shapes are different when in actual navigation mode). If we zoom in (at right), the picture becomes more clear - one primary AIS target, being the fishing vessel Handful itself, plus a cluster of four AIS fish net beacons floating around her. Fish net beacons, using AIS. Hmm. OK, read my lips. Say after me. This is not good....

The AIS system was devised and built as a safety system for vessels under management. It was not built as an identification system for unmanned, unpowered fish net and long line floats that do not ask questions and cannot correct their course. If the technology is used for net tracking, the targets should display with a clearly different icon or graphic on screen. But they do not. They look just like ships on screen.

The IMO (International Maritime Organisation) has published guidelines for the display of navigation related symbols on screen (read them here) and no fishing target beacons are included. The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation has published a draft paper (read it here) on marking of fishing gear, which acknowledges the illegal nature of AIS fishing beacons, but doesn't come down against them.

Thanks to Ben Ellison, author of the excellent PANBO marine electronics blog, I obtained the following information from a US Coast Guard website :

"18. Can I use AIS to mark nets, pots, traps, moorings, or as a race mark, etc.? There are no outright prohibitions to use AIS (i.e. AIS AtoN) as a marker (see Types of AIS and IALA Recommendation 1016 – Mobile Marine Aids to Navigation). However, it is not permissible to do so with equipment intended for use on vessels, (i.e. AIS Class A or B devices), for lifesaving (i.e. AIS SART, MOB AIS, EPIRB AIS), or with devices that are not FCC certified and licensed. See 47 CFR §§ 2.803, 2.805, 2.301, and 80.13 regarding licensing, station identity, and the prohibition to sell, market, or use radio devices that are not FCC authorized (search, Equipment Class: AIS)." It appears then that so long as these devices are FCC approved, they can be used at sea. But are they FCC approved?

So, what has gone wrong? Firstly, Chinese manufacturers have seized on an opportunity to use AIS electronic packages as fish net beacons, though without any approvals from relevant international AIS scheme managers. Secondly, US fisherman keen to track their nets (at  very low cost) have seized on these tools and deployed them, even though they are illegal under US law (my opinion). In fact you can't buy these readily in the USA - you have to order them online through Ali-Baba or one of the foreign web supply chains.

Above is the Ova fishing buoy beacon, sold out of China on the internet for not much over US$100.00, waterproof to 10 meters, and it comes pre-programmed with it's own MMSI number. Wait a minute - how did that happen? An MMSI number is supposed to be a Maritime Mobile Service Identifier - a number that identifies a vessel and an owner and tracks back to the national registration of the identified vessel.

Who ever heard of MMSI numbers being issued by the factory that built the product.... geez. They are supposed to be issued by the country of registration!

Then there are other brands and models - in fact there are so many models that there is an entire market place on the web where you can buy these (illegal) devices. Check out the page at this address. Many are shipped with software on disk plus a cable that allows the user to program the MMSI number - this is completely illegal under US FCC regulations.

Many fisherman, reading this story, will be wondering what the heck I'm complaining about - OK so it's illegal, but where is the harm? In fact it can be said that the fisherman are doing us a favor by identifying nets and floats that otherwise would be invisible to us at night. However until these beacons can be identified easily on screen as floating beacons (and not ships), then I believe that some dangerous situations are being created. Read on for the story on that ....

Rockets R Us

OK, so the 10.0 knot speed at the top of the screen possibly caught the eye of the boating folk, but that's what happens in the Gulf Stream heading north. However anyone familiar with my dim dark past will smile at the small print on the navigation screen, just ahead of us in this image .... rocket impact area? Yes, we are south east of Cape Canaveral, where Ley and I watched the Space-X launch late last year, and where I watched the last moon shot (Apollo 17) take off back in 1972. Memories can surface on the midnight watch.

Cuban Cruising - Sunsets & Thunderstorms

Cayo Largo Marina Sunset

Thunderstorm Formation

From the marina at Cayo Largo these thunderheads do look lovely. We were two days out from Cienfuegos and spent a couple of days in the small marina at Cayo Largo, before moving on westward again.

Our plans to explore the reefs and cayos changed rapidly when strong winds were forecast, so we changed tactics and course, heading instead to Havana after rounding Cape San Antonio at the extreme western tip of Cuba.

Around the cape, now heading north east, next afternoon the weather became decidedly dodgy, with thunderstorms forming right in front of us. These are things we like to avoid, as the accelerated winds and lightning they contain can be quite dangerous.

One in particular gave us grief for many hours - first came the the incredible cloud formation, followed by heavy rain nearby. We altered course, further offshore, monitoring the storm's movement on our radar as we traveled.

Then a fantastic waterspout formed, snaking across the ocean surface and sucking water furiously up into the clouds.

Waterspout On Starboard - We Last Saw One Of These In The South China Sea

This was not something we wanted over the top of us, so the radar tracking took on extra importance. Below is the basic radar image of the storm - note that the green rings on screen are each set 2 nautical miles apart, so the storm on our starboard side is only a mile or so away - that water spout was close.

Often we want a more informed view on screen, specially at night, so the radar image can be over-layed onto the electronic chart display, giving us a more detailed view of the navigation environment. In the image below the radar information is displaying in pink, whilst the vessel, it's track, course and heading can be seen on screen. These display systems are now common on many cruising boats - we all benefit from the improved safety information and situation awareness. And it helps to keep those nasty waterspouts away.

Low Flying In Skinny Water

Crystal Blues At Tilloo Cay Anchorage - Unusually Deep At 3.5 Meters

Welcome to the beauty of the Bahamas, where we are (finally) enjoying some warm weather and quiet days.  For blue water sailors, relaxing here requires some serious attitude adjustment - everywhere is just so damn shallow!

Skimming across the flats in 3 to 4 meters of water is exciting, feeling just like low flying. However it is stressful to someone who for years has had the shallow depth alarm set at 5 meters - heck the alarm would be sounding continuously here! Many harbors we simply cannot approach, our 2.1 meter depth being way over the available water depth.

At Grand Cay, where we cleared customs and immigration, we eased our way through the entrance channel with 10cm under the keel, to find an anchorage that was just over 3 meters deep. So we often anchor outside the harbors and the dinghy gets a real workout - we traveled 5 miles each way in the dink to visit beautiful Hope Town on Elbow Cay, which is surrounded by 1.0 to 1.5 meter sand banks.

Hope Town Harbor, Elbow Cay, Bahamas

Hope Town Light House

In Hope Town we toured the magnificent lighthouse, the last in the world still operating with an oil burning lamp and a clockwork rotational mechanism. With strong community support it is maintained in working condition, and is open to tourists six days a week.

One great positive - turtles are making a come back here, now protected by government legislation. We see them every day, and two days back saw nine in one small lagoon.

Over the past two weeks we've used the periods of nice weather (very few) to catch up on maintenance - cleaning the hull being the big job. Whilst the images may look sunny, it really isn't warm here in winter, most days between 20 and 25 degrees C. And the sea is cold - wet suits are essential.

Cold fronts regularly move off the US east coast, wind directions clock 360 degrees in as little as 36 hours. Frequent moves are called for to stay sheltered as the winds change direction.

Hope Town was our last "town" visit in the Abaco Islands - tomorrow we're heading south 50 nautical miles to the northern end of Eleuthera Island. A growing group of boats is swinging at anchor here at Lydyard Cay, ready to make the ocean jump to Eleuthera tomorrow.

Hull Cleaning At Tilloo Cay

A Quiet Achiever, Sailing Alone Around The World

Alexandra At Anchor In The BVI's

Every now and again you meet someone who manages to alter your perceptions, re-align your values and generally give your heart a good shake-up.

Back in 2015 we sailed South West from Chagos, to Rodrigues in the southern Indian Ocean, a strenuous 6 day passage that tested our capabilities. After a thorough bashing we finally raced in to the tiny harbor on the island of Rodrigues, on a day when even the local schools had been closed due to high wind strengths. Frankly, I've never been so happy to arrive anywhere.

Alexandra In Rodrigues

Next day, a small sailboat came in off that same angry ocean, with just one young man on board. It had no roller furling sails, not even an engine. There was no generator, no refrigeration, no fancy autopilot systems, no electric toilets and certainly few comforts below decks. The boat was simple, minimalist, in fact so basic I was shocked. It was not in great condition, but it got him there.

Sean D'Epagnier had just crossed the southern Indian Ocean in that boat, on his own, through some dreadful weather. Having no engine, he sculled his way into harbor with a single large sculling oar, settled in and lit a wood fire in a pot on deck, heating a meal of seafood he'd caught. Squid lay on the deck, drying in the sun - his means of preserving fish he caught by line or by diving.

There in Rodrigues we helped Shaun with some fasteners and glue, and a chunk of timber to make a new sculling oar. Then, over the next two years, we bumped into Sean a couple of times, first in the BVI's after crossing the Atlantic and then again in Charleston, South Carolina. Each time I looked at the approaching sailboat and instantly said to myself - that just has to be Sean.

He's an intriguing character, doing it his own way. By his own words he's interested in the weather, climate, mathematical algorithms and graphics. Very importantly, most cruising sailors already benefit from Sean's work - he's a member of the development team that produce Open CPN, the superb freeware chart plotting program (check it out here). So there is a lot more to Sean than initial appearances might suggest.  Behind this crusty and unusually tough adventurer are a million stories.

He purchased his boat, a Bristol 27 built in 1973, for $1,000. She's named Alexandra. Departing California in 2011, he crossed the Pacific and arrived in New Zealand in 2012. There he became the subject of a search by local authorities, as his family in the USA hadn't heard from him for some months - it turns out Sean was fine, busily working his way around the New Zealand coast. Of course he didn't understand the fuss.

Sean & Alexandra Arrive In Charleston SC

He had further trouble in New Zealand when the authorities would not let him depart without making certain repairs to Alexandra. However by 2014 he was in the Phillippines, then moved on through Indonesia and set out across the Indian Ocean in 2015.

Early that year he commented online about the cruising equipment that he considers essential - his list included spare sails, a sculling oar, a sailing kayak, a wood stove and squid lures. It's fair to say that most of these items are not on my list ...

I spoke with Dave Register, Senior Developer for the Open CPN platform, who commented on Sean's enthusiasm and breadth of ideas - Sean has contributed to many add-on modules for Open CPN.  I believe that Dave see's Sean as a committed ocean traveler, kind of hard to track down - in fact I think Dave was never quite sure where he was in the world. I think Sean's family probably feel the same way.

During that first connection in Rodrigues I realised that Sean was obviously very talented on the IT and software engineering side.  However when we met again in the BVI's I learned he was developing a prototype low-power electric autopilot, so he's clearly into hardware solutions as well.

My most enduring memory of Sean is watching him sail into the estuary in Charleston one morning, short tacking patiently up river against the outgoing tide. As he slowly slid past the dock I yelled out and made contact, and he asked if I knew where and how he could clear in to the country - his country - this was just so Sean. I was able to call the Customs and Immigration team for him, and I have little doubt that they are still wondering quite what they encountered that day. Should you see Alexandra coming into your anchorage, I suggest you reset your values and offer Sean the hand of cruising friendship - he's surely earned it.

I've recently heard that Sean has re-connected with his family here in the USA, however right now I'm not sure where exactly Sean is in this world. Then again I suspect that, just maybe, that's how he likes it. He's a special person - more power to him.

Sean, Cruising The World His Own Way

The Next Crystal Blues ?

Crystal Blue, Image Courtesy Rolls Royce

OK, so it's not very likely, but in their wisdom the guru's at Rolls Royce have named their new 62 meter concept super yacht Crystal Blue. The cheek of them. You can read the full story of this amazing design here, note that it's hybrid powered by LNG and batteries, and does't (normally) anchor anywhere - instead, the thrusters linked to a dynamic positioning system simply keep it in place. It's planned to be accompanied by a 42 meter "tender" that will carry the water toys and act as a refueling barge for the LNG. The best part is that it doesn't have a conventional bridge - instead the crew helm the boat from below decks, using a range of sensors and vision systems. Oh joy.

Navionics Is Sold To Garmin, Autonomous Ships Are Here Next Year

In sailing industry news, my most interesting events of the month are these ...

Autonomous Ships

The worlds first autonomous electric powered ship, Yara Berkland, will be in service on the Norwegian coast next year. Read all about it here. She will apparently replace 40,000 diesel truck journeys on southern Norway roads. And quite a few commercial seamen will not be required of course.

Garmin Acquires Navionics

The full release is here, but two days ago Garmin announced they had purchased Navionics. Now we may see the dangerous Sonar Chart issues finally fixed.

It will be interesting to see how Raymarine enjoy having to buy Navionics charts from their biggest hardware competitor.  Ouch, that must hurt.

Dodging Hurricane Jose, Ducking Under Bridges

At The NYAC Yacht Club - What Hurricane ? Who Is This Jose ?

Hurricane Jose wimped out on Long Island Sound, very fortunately for us. Planning for the worst, we headed for Pelham in New York. With the help of OCC Port Officer Thomas Delaney, we arranged a berth on the pontoons in the pond at the New York Athletic Club Yacht Club. There, in the best hurricane hole north of New York City, we rode out the barely 15 knot winds that Jose finally rent down upon us. It was a fortunate anti-climax.

Determined to head south quickly, chasing warmth and sunshine, we planned a passage off-shore from New York to the Delaware River, just as soon as Hurricane Jose had passed by. To access the ocean we needed to travel down the East River of Manhattan, only then we discovered it was closed for security reasons during the United Nations General Assembly session last week. What next ?

Urgent Boat Repairs In Rockland

After colliding with the rocky ledge some weeks back, we needed a place to haul the boat out of the water and make good the damage. Luckily we found just the place we needed in Rockland, Maine.

Journey's End Marina is well managed, clean and very well equipped. Besides marina berths they have a 55 metric tonne travel lift and hard stand areas, plus indoor storage for hundreds of boats and a complete range of repair and maintenance services.

Clad Welding The Damaged Area

Crystal Blues was efficiently lifted out of the water and blocked onto the hard stand among the many large sheds. Then, without us lifting a finger, they arranged for an engineer from their associated shipyard to inspect our damage and recommend a repair process. Given that Crystal Blues is a steel boat, this was a very welcome response.

Grinding Back

Our own local surveyor also inspected the damage. He agreed with the shipyard proposal so we proceeded with clad welding the dented keel and grinding back to a fair surface.

The shipyard also correctly insisted that we empty the keel fuel tank and test the bottom area of the keel for fuel leaks, using an electronic sniffer (that little operation added a few days to the job!). We also ground back the entire keel base and the sides of the keel for about four inches up from the base, as it was dinged and scratched up on the rocky ledge.

Then we sand blasted all the damaged areas and primed with 3 coats of our standard Jotun epoxy primer.  Obtaining the paint was a major effort - to speed the process we rented a car and drove south to New Jersey to collect it from the nearest distribution center, then drove back to Maine - 8 hours each way.

Epoxy Fairing Compound Going On

After priming the keel was faired with epoxy fillers - we mainly mix our own using West System epoxy and the purple colored phenolic micro-ballons. Then two final coats of Jotun primer before the joy of anti-fouling - three coats of Jotun Sea Force 90.

Keel Finished

At that point we lifted the boat and moved the keel blocks so we could start the process all over again, on the areas that were previously covered by the blocks.

Gori Propeller Service

Another week went by .... the weather in Maine was cooling rapidly, the thick duvet was on the bed and we were often rugged up in 4 layers of clothing.

While out of the water we also serviced our Gori folding propeller - it had served almost 4000 hours since 2005, without more than changing anodes and rubber stoppers, so we figured it was time.

That job turned out to be relatively easy - the hub and blade assembly came off the shaft hub quite easily and we stripped the assembly to replace the thrust washer under the crown gear. Putting it back together was simple, so long as all the parts were numbered... The plastic thrust washer wears over time, creating some sloppiness in the gearing, replacing it tightens up the whole assembly.

We polished the top-sides and made ready for the water, and finally the job was complete, 3 1/2 weeks after we hauled out. We were lucky we found a fantastic yard to work in, willing to let us do our own finishing work and to plan the project the way we wanted it done, while supporting us with their own team every step of the way.. Hat's off to Journey's End Marina in Rockland!

While the team at Journey's End Marine were exceptional, the real moral of this story is to never, ever, use or trust Navionics Sonar Charts!

Navionics Sonar Charts & The Missing Reef

Part Of The Keel Damage

Early on August 9 we departed Potts Harbour, heading for Booth Bay, Maine. Leaving the anchorage we collided with a submerged reef, bringing the mighty Crystal Blues to an instant stop from around 5 knots. Ouch. Our first computer assisted grounding!

Fact is, we were lucky.  The mast and rig stayed up, the hull was not breached and the damage could be repaired fairly simply. However a boat built less heavily would have been in severe trouble. The story that follows is intended to serve as a warning for others, to help prevent further accidents. So how did it happen ?

First off, I made the mistake of trusting Navionics Sonar Charts, which I'm unlikely to do again. Secondly, I failed to check any secondary navigation aids or references. So with more care I could have avoided the reef. Dodging lobster pots, early in the morning, I was busy at the helm and trusted the charts that had brought us into harbor the afternoon before. Never again...

It's ironic that I was actually looking at the charts (on the iPad) as we connected with the reef - when Ley stumbled up the companionway and I picked myself up off the wheel, we both looked at the chart on the iPad - it showed over 13 meters of water depth. Wrong. In fact very wrong.

Crystal Blues was at that point bobbing on the gentle swell, afloat, but occasionally colliding with the reef on the bottom of the swells and occasionally hitting something as she rocked from side to side. Not wanting to start the engine in unknown waters, we lowered the dinghy and towed her away to deep water using the outboard motor. We lifted the floor boards and inspected the bilges for damage or leaks, and then (more than a little shaken) proceeded to Booth Bay, where I dived on the boat and captured the image above.

Pulling Away From The Reef

So now, over three weeks later, we're hauled out of the water at Journey's End Marina in Rockland, Maine, working towards repairing and refinishing the keel. In the time since the accident both we and others have had time to look at the Navionics charts for the area in some detail, and the results are not good.

The Missing Reef

First of all, this problem has nothing to do with zoom levels on the screen. No matter how close in you zoom, that reef was not shown. So here is what we were viewing on screen right when the collision occurred :

With the wisdom of hindsight, it does look weird. The yellow line is our track, and it shows just over 13 meters where we came to a sudden stop. When we checked the standard Navionics chart (not the Sonar Chart version), a serious chart error became apparent :

You can see that this version shows a depth of 5.4 meters nearby, and the dark blue zone adds to the message that we shouldn't be there. However it gets worse, much worse.

The official government chart, above, shows a minimum depth on that reef of less than 1 meter. Yoiks ! So, not only the Navionics Sonar Charts were wrong, but also the "standard" Navionics charts.  How can this be ? How widespread is this problem ?

A Hostile Target Becomes A Gracious Host

Our Track In The Old Bahama Channel - Nordik Light Is The Green Target Close Behind Us

We first met Arthur Stroem and his crew on Nordik Light in the dark, 35nm north of the coast of Haiti, in the Old Bahama Channel. Nordik Light was following us on a moonless night, edging closer on a course that would bring her - well, a little to close for my liking.  So we altered course, but they followed and settled in behind us again, still getting closer....

There was other traffic around, and I wasn't so comfortable with this mystery boat getting closer in the dark, so I called them on VHF and suggested that they should alter course, away from us, or I would have to declare them a hostile target. This seemed to have the desired effect, and after a few words they altered course and passed us in the blackness.  We thought nothing more about the incident until we docked in Charleston, South Carolina, and there just across the dock was Nordik Light.  That morning Arthur and his crew came down to say hello and apologised for following us in the dark that night.  One thing lead to another and we ended up spending that week together, and Arthur invited us to his home town of Greenport on Long Island.

Lighthouse On The Approach Into Greenport

The Machine Going In

Which is how we found ourselves berthed safely in Greenport at Arthur's dock, doing essential maintenance and undertaking a slightly major washing machine replacement.

The days flowed into one another, the 220volt machinery was ordered (more on that here), delivered and installed and the engine serviced, and we were truly very comfortable in what was a beautiful and social maritime setting. Greenport is a very pretty town, compact and essentially maritime in nature.

Arthur and Valerie, with their friends, Susie and Michael, were gracious hosts, entertaining and very supportive as we worked to service and repair Crystal Blues.  We grilled in the yard, drank wine at sunset on the waters edge, played badminton on the lawn, watched rabbit, deer and squirrel play on shore and generally felt very spoiled by the American hospitality.

After way too long in port we finally (sadly) made a break for the ocean, but are already looking forward to our next visit to Greenport.

Click on the link below for some images of beautiful Greenport homes and environment.

Chesapeake Bay to New York City - Just Cruising

The Lady Maryland, Sunrise Off New York City

We departed the city mooring field in beautiful Annapolis on Monday morning, heading north up Chesapeake Bay. The bay narrowed as we moved north, and we found ourselves surrounded by beautiful wooded countryside and rolling farmland, a sea of green.

Bridges On The C&D Canal

 At the top of the bay we turned to starboard, running east through the C&D Canal. As required, we lowered our sails for that section, concentrating on the (truly) beautiful scenery along the canal shoreline.

This canal carries quite large ships, car carriers, tugs and barges, traffic of all types, but we had a quiet passage and exited just in time to anchor in the Delaware River before dinner.

Where the canal exits, the Delaware River is a massive tidal estuary, at times miles across.  We set out at 5:00am with a run-out tide, seeing 9.4 knots SOG at times, and traveled over 50 nautical miles before reaching the Atlantic Ocean once again, right at Cape May.

The Delaware River - Tankers, Container Ships, Tugs & Barges, plus Nuclear Power Plants

Beautiful Cape May

Cape May has a fierce reputation as somewhere to keep well clear of, however we found calm conditions, sunshine and blue skies, and were able to cut across the (very shallow) inshore shoals at Cape May to hug the shoreline as we turned north towards New Jersey and New York City.

Charting Caution - Cruisers should note that the Navionics chart data card we purchased for our Raymarine chart plotter, only weeks ago here in the USA, was woefully incorrect through that area of shoals - clearly that sand moves around a lot. However the Navionics Sonar Chart data on our iPads was absolutely spot-on accurate. I really do need to update the chart plotter card with the latest data from the iPads ..... it seems that Navionics crowd sourced depth data, known as Sonar Charts, is paying dividends. It also seems that buying a new data card at West Marine, or any chandlery, doesn't mean the chart data will be "fresh".

Update, September 7, 2017 - check the story here for our updated (disastrous) experiences with Navionics Sonar Charts - we won't ever use them again!

From Cape May we continued north west along the New Jersey shoreline, passing Atlantic City and its network of high rise towers just before dinner time. Over night we motor sailed on, in company with the schooner Lady Maryland, arriving off the entrance to New York Harbour just after sunrise - it was a fine welcome to New York. After breakfast we motored in to the Sandy Hook Channel and found a very sheltered anchorage in the Shrewsbury River.