New Jersey Gets Old.

    Finally. After weeks slogging down the coast of New Jersey, and days waiting for the weather, we've done it. The three fates have conspired with our three sirens and brought us up and out of that purgatory of a state.
    Monday saw SomeDay's engine part come in, by noon it was installed and the old OMC Zephyr was purring like a kitten. Or, perhaps more accurately, growling like an overweight house cat who is trying to eat. We settled up with the yard for dockage, then headed out, through the Cape May Canal and into the Delaware. The day was largely uninteresting and not too long. As night approached it was clear we wouldn't make it out of the bay before the tide turned, so we navigated our way through crab pots into the Cohansey River, and Cohansey Cove. All in all, a nice, quiet anchorage with decent holding, but no real measure of wind protection and no wave protection from the South. Luckily it was a light-air night from the north.The next day we left just ahead of the incoming tide hoping to ride it into the C&D canal to Chesapeake City. I was about half an hour early in my estimation, so most of our travel was at slackwater. We pulled into the free docks at Chesapeake City MARYLAND just after dark and set about finding something to eat. As the little town of Chesapeake City is nothing but touristy historical homes, everything was closed and being young and foolish we decided to walk to the nearest McDonalds, about six miles away in Elkton. After having devoured nearly a dozen sandwiches between the three of us we called a cab and got a ride back to the boats.
    The following day my sister, Christine, stopped by for a few hours. She'd been visiting a friend in New Jersey and had a little time to kill before going home. Much to my surprise Tuesday was to be a day of chance meetings. Just as Tine and I decided we'd had enough of the cold and wanted to get into the car to get warm I heard a familiar voice referring to the port of call on Cassandra's stern.
 "Hey, I was just in Baldwinsville"
It was the voice of Ken, an affable and charismatic individual whom we had met in Castleton. I forget if I mentioned at the time or not, but he was the person who paid our dockage in Castleton in exchange for helping him rig his boat.
    Ken was there to meet another cruising couple we had met along the way. Steve and Nancy if memory serves. I'd only met them in passing, but they were on their way up the C&D that very day to meet Ken in Chesapeake City. He took Tine and me to breakfast while we waited for the other boat, and we chatted. To make a long story shorter,  I got to see my sister, whom I missed more that I realized, I got to catch up with a friend I thought never to see again, and made two new friends in Steve and Nancy. SomeDay and Cassandra spent another night on the wall so we could leave alongside our newly refound friends, but that was not to be either.
    Jackson chose that next morning as a day to be stubborn, it was six hours of troubleshooting before I found the cause, the kill-switch had filled partly with seawater and weakened the spark enough that he couldn't run. So I stayed another night on the 24 hour limit wall. SomeDay took off sometime that afternoon after I'd assured them I wouldn't need a tow and could certainly have Jackson running in no time. Their engine also chose to sputter out along the way, and they had to pull into a marina not 5 miles from where I was. They reolved their issue and I mine, and when the rain and wind let up I left Chesapeake City, motored nine miles and tied up at the very marina I am writing this from. I have the place practically to myself. Showers, wi-fi, lounge, electric, cable, and all for $30 a night. I couldn't say no.So here I sit, content after downing an antipasto salad, and a dozen wings while I while away the evening catching up on the bits of internet I may actually care about. SomeDay will likely catch up sometime tomorrow if the weather cooperates and we can move on again.
    I have to replace the 12v plug on my solar panel when I find the part, coming up the Delaware it put out too much power and blew the 1Amp fuse, also melting the interior of the plug's housing somewhat.
 So, those are my adventures for now. I'll keep going, becoming more confident in my boat and myself as I go. I never imagined I'd actually sail in the Chesapeake Bay, and now here I am. Life is interesting for certain.