Free Dock

Stop Touching Things

We awoke on anchor and I started the genset to recharge our house battery bank. Standing there in the pilothouse, I could not resist getting into the setup of the Magnum Energy Inverter Charger controller. There are just so many electronic gizmos aboard each with a plethora of controllable settings. Just then the power went out. Coincidence or should I stop randomly changing controller settings to observe the effect?

It took me a while of searching but I found the culprit…

a tripped circuit breaker. My guess… we are running the reverse cycle heat on the 240V AC compressors and the startup of the compressor draws a lot of juice.

Nuclear Power

Our trip up Delaware Bay sent us by the Salem & Hope Creek nuclear power plants. Their cooling tower belching puffy steam clouds set against a blue sky. There are two different nuclear power generating plants next to one another. Salem which has two pressurized water reactors (PWR) and Hope Creek which has one boiling water reactor (BWR). The main difference between a BWR and PWR is that in a BWR, the reactor core heats water, which turns to steam and then drives a steam turbine. In a PWR, the reactor core heats water, which does not boil. This hot water then exchanges heat with a lower pressure water system, which turns to steam and drives the turbine.Together these power generation stations share a large artificial island at the head of Delaware Bay. With it’s combined output of 3,572 megawatts, the Salem-Hope Creek complex is the largest nuclear generating facility in the Eastern United States and the second largest nationwide.

C&D Canal

When you reach the head of Delaware Bay, there is a man-made land-cut called the the C&D Canal (shown as the red line in the picture on the right).

The Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D) Canal connects the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay. The C&D Canal system provides a continuous sea level channel (ie. no locks needed) connecting the Port of Baltimore to the ports of Wilmington (DE), Philadelphia, and the northern trade routes.

I believe the canal originally opened in 1829. I have included a picture of the steamship Penn as it traversed this early version of the C&D Canal.

Circa 1829

This canal is currently a government 1935 authorized project given to the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE).

The waterway channel is 35 feet deep and 450 feet wide, extending from Reedy Point on the Delaware River, about 46 miles below Philadelphia, PA, through a land-cut westward to Elk River and onto deep water near Pooles Island in the upper Chesapeake Bay.

Delmarva

I suppose it makes the DelMarVa (DELeware, MARyland, VirginA) peninsula more of an island? The Delmarva is a peninsular region 180 miles (290 km) long in the eastern US that includes Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and a small strip of Virginia; it separates Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic Ocean.

As turned to port and entered the C&D Canal. There were many locals walking the banks of the canal.

The towns have set aside the area along the bans as conservation land. It’s a peaceful area with the land high above you blocking the wind as you walk the banks waving to passing yachts.

We toot our air horns and receive waves from the locals as they stroll along.

We planned to dock at the free town dock in Chesapeake city. The town set this small dock aside for boating visitors to their town. Simple Life’s 58′ LOA makes her tougher than her previous namesake to slip into open space at a face dock. As luck would have it… We found an opening and eased her up to the dock and had to lasso the cleats from on board as our decks are too high to simply jump down onto the dock.

Chesapeake Town Dock – Are those Xmas lights?

Downtown

We quickly jumped off and wandered the pocket-sized downtown area.

Where to Grab Dinner?

We walked into a restaurant called Prime 225 that a friend told us to visit but sadly… it was a 3 hour wait!

A block away we discovered a quaint local hangout call The Tap Room. I grabbed a burger and T had the chowder. Food was good but it wasn’t the right vibe and their Goose Island IPA is OK but not my favorite.

Where to next?

When we landed on the town dock we could see a marina restaurant just 400 feet away on the tiny harbor. We walked in that direction till we saw…

The Deck

As we passed beneath the sign we were greeted with the sounds of a live band singing some Fleetwood Mac – Dreams.

We band was good and the IPA was better 😉 As the band played we played “Name that tune” while I shot out to a quick lead with Fleetwood Mac it seems the band conspired with Teresa to play her music and I believe she won by a landslide in the end.

The walk back to Simple Life was short and we where thankful for that.

La Mañana Siguiente

The town dock is free but if you plug into electricity like we did you must pay the town hall just 1 block away. So off I went to stuff an envelope of cash through their mail slot as it was Sunday.

Leg Seven

The seventh leg of our journey south looked something like this…

Breakfast in Delaroche Creek, griddle style. YUMM!

We don’t know if we are gaining or losing weight? We don’t have a scale onboard. I’m sure cooking my favorite breakfast this morning is not helping but how can you say no to hash-n-eggs with wheat toast?

Our trip today took us from Delaroche Creek (about the middle of Cumberland Island, GA) to Jacksonville, FL.

On our way into Cumberland Sound the VHF radio crackled with a warning from the US Navy. There was a warship in the area and they advised all vessels to heed the 500 yard perimeter around the ship. M/V Simple Life does not have guns or armor plate so we made our way cautiously into Cumberland Sound with two other boats, “S/V Whiskey Me Away” and “M/V Redtail”.

M/V Redtail (pictured below) appears to be a 42′ Kadey Krogen which is similar in size and style to our 43′ North Pacific raised pilothouse. Kelly and I love the classic lines of a Kadey Krogen.

As we approached Kings Bay, this Navy patrol boat with blue lights flashing moved out of my way after we hailed them on 16. (Note the machine gun on the bow)

We passed some sort of observation tower (maybe connected to the Navy base or the nearby plant/factory?)

Next it was into the Amelia River near Fernandina Beach. As we made our way South along Amelia Island, the current was strong and there were many sights to see.

The mast pictured above was the only thing sticking above the water of this boat.

This sailboats keel was missing as she laid on the shore.

Below this Amelia Research and Recovery vessel was jacked out of the water on pilings. Note the black marine day shapes on her pilothouse roof. They are signaling her as “restricted in her ability to maneuver”.

Pictured below is a guy on some kind of tiny single chair dingy with a cooler. He seemed to be enjoying himself just cruising around.

The barge below passed us with what looks like vessel debris from Atlantic hurricane season 2017 and especially hurricane Irma which hit Jacksonville hard.

Three simultaneous hurricanes active on September 8, with Katia (left), Irma (center), and Jose (right), the first such occurrence since 2010.

Below is a boat that landed on the shore. She appears in good shape but I would not want my propeller and thru-hulls sitting in the mud like that. Especially when the tide comes back in and the wakes are rocking the boat.

A Tip of the Hat: Navigating around the shallows in this area was made easier by the .gpx downloadable routes provided by Mr. Robert Sherer. Bob and his wife Ann have a great Fleetwing sailing blog that I follow. Bob has been cruising the ICW for a few years now and helps other sailors avoid running aground.

Even the crab pots seem to find themselves aground at low tide.

When we arrived at our planned anchorage, it was clear that it was far too narrow for us to be able to anchor in for the night. We pushed on and tried several other anchorages but they were either full like the free-docks in Jacksonville or just extremely exposed to current, wakes and wind. We made the decision to go up the St. John’s River as the sun was setting. I quickly realized that this was not a good idea when I felt the strong current that was running against us. There was also large commercial traffic moving swiftly down current. This tug and barge that hailed us by name before the captain ever saw us. The captain was able to do this because of the AIS (Automatic Identification System) that Kelly & I installed. You don’t want to be stuck in that current in the path of something like this when the current is pushing her hard at you.

AIS made us aware in time to stay out of her path.

We did not want to wind up like this poor motor yacht along the shores of the St. John’s River.

We scoured the charts looking for a good location that would protect us from this strong current and picked the backside of an unnamed island near Jacksonville center.

The only challenge was there was not enough water for us to enter. It was too shallow. With the sun quickly setting, we probed to find a way in. The first two attempts had the bow pushing into a soft silty shoal. The third attempt and we found a way over the shoal with an inch or two to spare. We quickly found our way into deeper water behind the island. We anchored up and it turned out to be a wonderful peaceful anchorage for the night.

Tag: Free Dock

Chesapeake City