From our anchorage at Still Pond, Chesapeake City is about twenty one miles away. It only took us a little over two hours. The big deal about this trip is the canal. “The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal is a 14-mile-long, 450-foot-wide and 35-foot-deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland .” It also has a strong two knot current that we must time correctly or we would have a long slow day. I used my tide and pilot book and figured if we left by 9am we would get the two knot push. Our plan is to stop about three miles into the canal at Chesapeake City docks.
We had no issues with our trip and as we came close to the dock, I called the dock master to inquire if there was room and where we should go. He told me to pick a spot along the wall and yes there is room. We came in and tied up at the only spot available for our size between some smaller boats just hanging out for the day. There was a steady flow of small boats coming and going a round us, as well as to the private marina in the small harbor. Once we were secured, I saw a sign that there is a $15 charge for power, and a $5 charge for water. So much for free. We could have not used the power, but we needed water since we have been at anchor for some time now. I figured since we were here I might as well hook up to the power too. The power pedestal next to us only had thirty amp power, and we use fifty amps. Not to worry though- I have a twin thirty amp adapter to convert to the fifty. I plugged it in and the breaker tripped immediately. Ughh. The pedestals look new, and the new systems have super sensitive ground faults. This basically means we can’t use any new power pedestals (until I figure out where the ground ‘leak’ is on our boat) and we found this out months ago when we were still in Michigan. This has happened only a couple of times in the past eleven months. Oh well- we just won’t use or have to pay for shore power.
We took Frank for a walk around the downtown and figured it was time for lunch. There is a restaurant across the canal at another marina- Schaefer’s Canal House– which Lauren had scoped out and the menu looked good. It was decided we would order and I would go across and pick it up. Our order was placed and off I went. As I was crossing and coming close to the dock I noticed a pontoon boat floating in the middle of the canal. The current was slack, which means It wasn’t moving fast in either direction, so he was just floating there. I also noticed a dock hand with a line in his hand somewhat even with the boat, but the boat was out in the middle of the canal. “Does he need help?” I asked. “Yes- could you take this line out to him?” Of course I wasn’t going to let them float helpless, but the line wasn’t going to reach him. I took the line with me and motored up the the pontoon. “I’m dead in the water!” the captain told me. He already had a line and handed it to me to see if I could pull him in. Unfortunately my engine isn’t strong enough and the draft isn’t deep enough to pull a boat straight so that wasn’t going to work. I did know I could side tie to him though and that would work. I got beside him and was making headway toward the dock when another power boat pulled up and offered to help. Before I could respond, the captain of the pontoon tossed him a line and he was now pulling the pontoon and me! I quickly disengaged and hung back a bit to make sure they were getting in okay. The power boat now helping could not get the pontoon to come up to the dock as the current was slowly picking up. I posititioned the bow of the dinghy on the side and pushed the pontoon to the dock. They were close enough now that the dock hands were able to get the lines and pull them in. My job was done here, so I tied up and went to pick up our lunch. Upon returning to the dinghy the dock hand was super thankful and offered some complimentary fuel for the dinghy, but I declined. I didn’t have the necessary oil with me to mix and I wanted to get back and eat lunch! I made my way back and related the story to Lauren as we ate. The pontoon captain did thank me, but the dock hand showed the most gratitude. After lunch we took the bikes and rode around the small historic downtown. We pretty much saw it all on our walk, so we thought we could ride to a store to get some supplies. Once we got out of the historic part, we found ourselves on a major highway. We rode a little bit then decided this wasn’t worth it so we turned around and went back. When we got back to the boat we noticed we had new neighbors in a small sailboat. They were having trouble with their power too, so I told them they could try the pedestal next to us. He mentioned that they had a fifty amp on their pedestal and he needed a thirty amp. This clicked in my head and I felt silly I didn’t even look there earlier. I took our power cord and ran it down the dock, plugged it in and it worked! Now we have power for the rest of the night to make dinner and charge the batteries without bothering our neighbors with the generator. The marina next to us had the patio open and live music and people partying like they’ve been cooped up for too long. Boats were coming and going and it was a lively evening watching and listening to the party.
We are now at the point we have to make a decision- New Jersey is next and we have to decide to take the ‘outside’ ocean route or take the notoriously shallow ‘inside’ route. We had pretty much decided we will be doing the inside route but there isn’t much information on where to stop. All of our guide books say to take the outside route unless you have a shallow draft boat- which we don’t- but we want to ‘see’ New Jersey and don’t want to sail on the ocean if we don’t have to. We reached out to our Great Loop Forum for suggestions…