Juno 423: June 8-9 Favorable Currents in the C & D Canal and the Delaware River Make for a 90 Mile Day

Timing is everything when dealing with 3 knots of current in the C& D Canal and in the Delaware River. If the current happens to be flowing with you in the canal, it can enhance your speed by as much as 60%. If against you, well, you might as well stay put and not even bother trying to fight it. So on Wednesday morning, June 8th, we timed our departure from Still Creek, MD so as to arrive at the entrance to the canal connecting the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay to the Delaware River such that the 3-knot current would be in our favor. Because the currents in the Delaware River were going to be against us during the afternoon until sunset, we decided to stop for the night at the eastern end of the C&D canal where it joins the Delaware River and wait until morning when the current would be in our favor.

We arrived at the C&D Canal around noon, and soon our speed jumped from 5 knots to 8 knots. Because it was still relatively early in the day and the canal is only 15 miles long, we knew we had some time to kill so we attempted to stop at Chesapeake City, mid-way through the canal as we had heard it was a nice place to visit. However, upon the narrow turnoff from the canal into the docks at Chesapeake City, we ran aground, not once, but twice! Fortunately it was just a muddy bottom so we were able to easily get ourselves free. We concluded that we would would have to visit Chesapeake City by car and moved on to the Delaware River, dropping anchor around 3 pm in the 90 degree heat.

Thursday morning at sunrise we had some thunderstorms with strong winds come through but temperatures and the humidity dropped to a comfortable 70 degrees. With current in our favor and winds now about 15 knots out of the WNW, we sailed down the Delaware. With three knots of current and a very favorable wind, we were moving at an incredible 9-10 knots over the ground while avoiding the narrow channel when big tankers moved through. The assist from the favorable currents however diminished as we approached Cape May, NJ at the mouth of the Delaware River. We got around Cape May. Not long after getting around Cape May, the winds (somewhat unexpectedly) increased to 20-25 knots and were still WNW. With little wind forecast for Friday, we decided to take advantage of the wind and continue sailing on to Atlantic City, another 30 miles. We finally dropped our anchor in Atlantic City around 11:30 pm after sailing an 90 miles in one day. We both second guessed the decision to stop for some rest when we climbed into bed and heard the water tank below our bed sloshing since the boat was still rocking heavily with all the wind. But being horizontal always feels good and we wasted no time falling asleep.