39:20.13N 76:08.46W

Friday 14^th September

The very photogenic mist at dawn became a dense impenetrable fog by 0800 hours but fortunately this had cleared by 1000 hours which was the magic moment when we had to leave in order to catch the tide up to the Chesapeake and Delaware canal and benefit from the favourable current along the canal heading west to Chesapeake Bay.

We were awake at dawn due to the sound of repeated rapid gunfire which was not exactly what we wanted to hear given that we were barely half a mile from a nuclear power station and only a couple of days after 9/11. We can only assume that this was actually duck hunters and that thought alone makes us rest a bit easier….  So with the fog clearing and the tide in our favour, we raised the anchor and again had to negotiate our way sideways through the break in the submerged dyke with a full flood tide ripping across the gap.

30 minutes later we were turning into the C & D canal and heading west along with a few other boats. Progress was delayed a third of the way along when the VHF burst into life with the Railroad bridge announcing that they were lowering the bridge for a maintenance inspection. This meant a clearance of just 45ft which is not much good to us as our mast is 68ft tall. In due course the inspection was completed, the bridge raised to around 100ft and we, along with several other yachts continued on our way.

By mid-afternoon we were out into Chesapeake Bay and at around 1630 hours we dropped our anchor in Still Pond, which is a fairly wide expanse of protected bay, but the whole area is only barely 3 metres deep – and we draw 2.2 metres. Welcome back to the shallow Chesapeake!

We watched a Golden Eagle fly across in front of us as we settled down to a relaxing evening, with just a handful of other boats joining us before dark.