September 29, 2014 Cape May to Bohemia River, Maryland

we are up and off anchor at 7am, as was about 8 other boats, the larger sailboats are too tall to go under the bridge in the Cape May Canal, and have to do the 12 mile outside around the cape

passing the Coast Guard Station, the water is really shallow here and a few feet out of the channel you will be in a few feet of water

this bridge has a clearance if 55 ft, and we are 49 ft … at low tide, it was mid tide now

you have to transit the canal during the daytime.  It is 100-150 ft wide, and has a controlled depth of 6 ft,  you have to stay in the middle of the canal, and at the exit they were dredging the opening

out into the Delaware Bay, which is also very shallow

there was lots of military aircraft flying over head

aids to navigation

this sure was impressive it could be seen for miles

we travelled outside the commercial channel, and still got the boost from the currant

entrance to the C and D Canal … ( Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay), is 12 miles long, it is a sea level cut and has no locks and no toll

Dutch mapmaker A. Hermann first proposed the canal in 1661, and it won Benjamin Franklin's support in 1788.  It finally opened in 1829 at a cost of $2.5 million, with 4 locks and six-mule teams to pull towboats through.  The canal reduced, by nearly 300 miles, the water routes between Philadelphia and Baltimore.  It now measures at 450 ft wide with a controlled depth of 35 ft.  The maximum allowable length of a self-propelled vessel transiting the canal is 886 ft.  Thankfully we did not meet one that length today.

one of the many bridges we passed under

some were very interesting looking

and a natural gas pipe line running above the canal

TowBoat US rescuing a disabled vessel

we had the current with us and passed by Chesepeake City, it was really crowded any way

some of the things we had to avoid along the way

another disabled vessel

these poles lined the canal, but did not seem to have a purpose

aid to navigation for the barges 

our run for the day  71 nm … 10 1/4 hours

averaged 7 knots, a record for Modaki, which our top speed is 5.5 knots

we again had the weather in our favour, Joe planned to run the currant from Cape May to the C and D Canal, and we did … then when we got there the tide was turning again and we ran it thru the canal, to Bohemia River … if we weren't running out of day light we would continued

most of the boats in this huge anchorage was Canadian, 6 or 7 boats