ANNAPOLIS

A sail up the Delaware Bay,motor through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and sail down the Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis was all that we needed to complete our magic cruise of the North Atlantic.
Except for the shipping channels the Delaware is muddy, shallow and uninviting. The run up the bay is easy if the conditions are right but if the wind is against the tide it can be hell, as George Washington discovered in his crossing many years ago, now immortalised in a painting hanging in the National Museum of Art.
To get it right we left Cape May at 0430h and sailed to the entrance of the Delaware. The short cut through the Cape May Canal was not an option for us as the bridge clearances were not adequate for our mast height. We scraped the muddy bottom leaving the marina but once out had no problems navigating our way in the dark.
The run up the Delaware was a dream with the tide and wind running with us all the way. We passed a prominent nuclear power plant and arrived at the entrance to the C&D canal at 1500h (a distance of 80 nautical miles). Motoring through the canal was easy and we were able to anchor in the boat basin at Chesapeake City by 1700h. Without an anchor windlass we took care to get the anchor set right first time. We were anchored in a perfect position. Hurricane Noel was moving up the coast from Florida and forecast to bring strong winds to the whole area for the next few days but
we were well protected and far enough inland to worry too much about it. We listened on our SSB radio to messages of panic from a catamaran heading to Bermuda and caught in the hurricane's full force. The owner pleaded in a trembling voice for our friends on Ketchup 11 to phone his wife and tell her he loved her. He obviously doubted if he would see his wife again. "This is the worst night of my life", he said. We spoke to him ourselves and told him we had survived a similar storm when sailing to New Zealand and that he would survive this one too. "Just keep eating and get as much rest as you can", Bruce encouraged. They did survive and arrived in Bermuda with a lengthy repair list.
Our short 3 day stay in historic Chesapeake City with its well maintained old buildings was made even more delightful by Buddy the Dockmaster who went out of his way to help visiting yachties by driving them to the supermarket or anything else they needed. We were told we had to meet Nick, the local New Zealander who had an accent like ours. Nick was a delightful character who had married a local girl and like many New Zealanders knew a lot about boats. His advice was invaluable.

We needed advice at that stage as we had started to feel very homesick and the thought of being away from our family and friends for another two or three years had become a blot on our enthusiasm. We were finding the long passages and the loss of sleep on overnight sailing was getting more difficult and we had not been successful in finding someone willing to crew for us on our next big leg to the Caribbean. We made a bold but very difficult decision. We would ship the boat back to Australia and take the family on short sailing trips in our dotage. Had we realised the difficulties that would entail we might have decided otherwise.

On Sunday November 4, we retrieved our anchor by hand at 0430h and sailed under near perfect conditions to Annapolis, arriving at Clements Creek community marina at 1500h. Our very good friends the Melchners had arranged a marina berth there for us to use and it was great to be greeted as we berthed by John who took our lines. Annapolis was like a second home. The help and support we received from our yachting friends there will never be forgotten. We were feted, dined, taken for medical treatment and housed in wonderful style. Thanks John, Carol, Hank, Fran, Sandy, Lyn, Bob, Matthew and Sheila for all you did for us.

We had mixed feelings. We had just completed a near perfect cruise of the north Atlantic following John Melchner's excellent recommendations but we were abandoning our dream of sailing through the Panama and across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. The thought of being reunited with our grandchildren earlier than originally planned weighed heavily in the balance as we tried to integrate our thoughts and feelings.

Autumn was well advanced and we still had much to do.