Position           39:30.081N 075:34.33W

Date                1700 18 June 2013

Days Run-       32.6nm – 36nm over the ground in 5hrs 10mins

Pride comes before a fall, as they say.  Having not had any problems with anchoring for a considerable time a thunderstorm around about midnight seem to upset us.  Fortunately the anchor alarm went off, I was awake anyway, and we were able to get the boat under control and the anchor up before we dragged into the boat behind us, originally 100 m back.  At least when we anchored again we stayed where we started.

The morning came up fair and we did not have to leave until just before noon when the tide became favourable.  We were duly flushed through the canal, the current at times hit 4 knots.

The Pilot Book does advise that you may encounter commercial traffic in the canal.  What we did not expect was 200m of car carrier.

Breath in everyone and squeeze past.  Contrary to popular belief, power cannot give way to sail.

We anchored some 3 miles south of the exit to the canal in the Delaware River behind Reedy Island.  Once again this was an anchorage that we used with Andrew and Celia 2 years ago.  Reedy island and its associated mud banks and obstructions are on the Western side of the Delaware and where there is a buoyed gap that appears to carry at least 3 m at low water and which allows you to anchor with the protection of the island keeping the not inconsiderable amount of commercial traffic away.

It was tempting to go further down the Delaware but that would have involved fighting an adverse current and we could not have got to anywhere more sensible within daylight.  I particularly wish to go into our next anchorage with the benefit of seeing where I am going.