Well sadly Old Glory did not survive the strong winds we went through getting up Delaware Bay. I was thinking of retiring it before the storm made my decision for me.
We had to retire Old Glory after the storm tore it up
We enjoyed our two night stay at the Granary Marina in Fredericksburg, MD.
MV Simple Life was safely tied in her slip
MV Simple Life at Granary Marina
The marina was empty as it was mid-November.
Granary Marina Empty in Mid-November
The sun was setting on the Sassafras River so that meant it was Happy Hour @ the Granary Restaurant.
It was a cold walk and Kelly was telling me to hurry it up. Restaurant has a great outer deck overlooking the marina & river.
I loved that someone bolted an old dead tree to the top of a marina piling and put an eagle’s nest on top.
Rather than getting underway before sunrise we slept in and took our time leaving.
Soon we were making our way down the sinuous 10 mile stretch of the Sassafras river to the Chesapeake Bay.
Beautiful Home on the Sassafras River
When we came in the river at night we had to dodge these fish weirs that extend out from the banks. Easy to spot this morning…
I wonder how well these weirs work?
Heading down the Chesapeake we passed a huge car carrier called the Triton Leader.
The dogs were happy that today’s leg of our journey was calm and flat.
Soon we were passing under the famous Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
two bridges side by side
Soon we were anchored behind the Navy Bridge. We had the whole anchorage to ourselves.
W02L006 (Leg 6 of our second winter living aboard) looked something like this.
We anchored in Cape May at night and the wind was whipping. We tried to tuck in behind the Cape May canal Jetty to get some protection but alas the boat was a rocking.
I finally had to get out of bed, weigh the anchor and re-drop as close as I could get to the jetty. It worked. Well it worked a little. We did not sleep much.
Next morning we left before sunrise because I just was not sleeping anyway. The gale warning winds were nipping at our heels as we worked our way North up Delaware Bay.
The blue dot is MV Simple Life and the red-purple are 30-40 MPH winds
A quick check on the weather back in Warwick, RI showed it was even colder than what we were feeling in Delaware Bay.
Warwick, RI Nov 15th Temps
The water in Delaware Bay was cold. Not something you want to fall overboard into.
Delaware Bay Sea Temp
Traffic was hard to find. This Chiquita banana container ship passed us as we slipped out of the channel to give her space. I think only 2 other boats passed us on this gusty, snowy, foggy day.
Container ship passing us in Delaware Bay
As we made our way up Delaware Bay the wind and waves were on our beam. The wind alone was giving us quite a list to port. A beam sea is never fun in a flybridge trawler with a 400lb dingy and two kayaks on the flydeck. eek.
As the fog crept in on us it was time to turn on our Khalenberg automatic fog horn. If you are ever near MV Simple Life in the fog you’d think a giant tanker was bearing down on you. What made me laugh was… it stopped working in the freezing snow. With each blow of the horn it iced up more and more until it just stopped working.
Wind on the beam, Fog closed in around the boat Fog Horn wasn’t frozen yet.
Once the Fog horn froze up and stopped working it was time to go to my backup fog horn. Yes, my VHF’s loud hailer fog horn played but in the wind and snow I’m sure nobody was hearing it. Heck, there wasn’t another boat out on this day anyway.
Function + 8 plays the ICOM VHF fog horn
The fog had closed in so tight to the boat that we could only see a single boat length in any direction. Thankfully, we have a 4′ open array Digital HD radar with overlay right on our chart plotter that helps us identify boats from buoys. We also rely heavily on AIS (Marine Automated Identification System) to make sure we show up on the chart plotters of other boats as well as us having all the details about the boats around us (boat name, course, speed, MMSI#, etc.
We soldiered on with the idea that once we made it into the C&D canal that the weather conditions would improve. They did!
The visibility returned and the winds and waves were held at bay by the high canal hill sides.
Soon we were passing marinas where the boats were covered in snow.
Snowy Catamaran
When we exited the C&D canal into the head of the Chesapeake Bay the wind was whipping up a following sea so we decided to anchor in the Bohemia River. Great plan until the depth alarms went wild when the depth dipped below 6 feet. This was not good concidering we were only minutes away from high tide. Not wanting to run aground or get stuck waiting for high-tide to return we decided to push on further to the Sassafras River.
The sun set and we watched as the last light disappeared as we entered the Sassafras River. It’s a long trip up the river to the Granary Marina but we decided with the strong winds and rain it would be nice to sleep tied to a dock. Neither of us wanted to spend another night trying to brace ourselves in the bunk.
The dockmaster left for the night and left us directions on how to find our assigned slip. That plan failed when we could not find our slip using our searchlight. The wind and the rain were coming down sideways and driving from the pilothouse in the dark is not a place you want to be poking down random fairways trying to find a slip. So we decided to grab any open slip and call it a night.
Docking alone in that wind was difficult enough but when I jumped out of the pilothouse to tie up I almost slipped on the snow and wound up going swimming.
My boat hook was buried in snow
Soon we were tied up and I was changing out of my work pajamas, kicking my snow filled crocs off my frozen feet and thawing my toes by the heater while enjoying a well-deserved IPA
After 13 hours at the helm, this IPA tastes great 😉
MV Simple Life 
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