After our fun visit with friends in Marblehead, it was time to move further south. Our travels first took us past Boston and through the Cape Cod Canal. We spent our first two nights at anchor near the town of Onset, MA. Our layover day enabled us to get some boat chores done, and Anne also had a lovely walk in a nearby Massachusetts Audubon preserve.
When the wind and weather were right, we left Onset. We decided to made a multi-day jump offshore along Rhode Island and New Jersey, ultimately stopping two days and 1 hour later in Cape Lewes, Delaware, at the mouth of the Delaware River after traveling 275 nm from Onset.
We’ve gotten much more comfortable with multiple nights underway, just the two of us. In addition to extending our watches so we can consolidate sleep when we are off watch, all of the safety precautions have become second nature. We rig jack lines, straps attached to the boat that we can clip to if we have to go on the foredeck. We also have more offshore PFDs that can easily attach to the jack lines. Finally, we lash the anchor firmly to the boat to ensure it won’t somehow bounce loose.
In addition to planning watches and prepping safety gear, we also plan our meals underway. It’s nice to share a hot meal in the evening, and it’s good to have something quick to prepare and easy on the stomach in case of rough seas. It’s comforting to have tasty, healthy food!
After our overnights offshore from Onset to Lewes, we caught up on our rest with a solid overnight sleep at anchor and then headed up the Delaware River.
The Delaware River can have a strong current. We were able to time it so the tide pushed us rapidly up the river to the Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D) canal, and then continued pushing us through the canal and into Chesapeake bay. With the help of the current, we traveled 73 nm in 11 hours, and got settled in on anchor just in time to watch a pretty sunset.
The next morning we got up bright and early, and made a quick hop to Annapolis. When we arrived in the Annapolis city mooring field, we saw 3 other Antares catamarans there already. Those boats were planning to stay through the sailboat show in mid-October, but we don’t intend to stay that long. Still, it was fun to be in a row with 3 other Antares cats, and it certainly draw questions from other boats in the mooring field.
Annapolis is a fun town for us to visit. We’re familiar with the town and have friends, Pete and Marlys, who live in Annapolis. It was fun to check out some fun spots in town with other Antares owners and to spend time with Pete and Marlys.
