We decided that we needed to see what ocean sailing is like, so we decided to do the Del-Mar-Va loop. Knowing how bad the Delaware Bay and river can be, I decided to go counterclockwise knowing that it might take a few extra days in the Chesapeake since the prevailing winds this time of year are from the South. We did have a few days in the Chesapeake when we had good winds we could use, but we also were waiting for a favorable ocean forecast for the 24 hours that we would be out there with southerly wind that would keep up in the Delaware Bay and river. We left July 18 with our first stop being Tilghman Creek where we overnighted. Nice sail down with some light northerly winds. The next day we headed down to Solomons - again, light winds, which eventually died out altogether. Found a nice anchorage in Solomons as we got there before the crowd! The screwpile race was going on and we got to see a lot of the participants and the boat parade out and back in.
Started off on the morning of the 20th to head down to Dividing Creek, but after getting out past Cedar Point, we decided it was just too rough to be plowing and we returned to Solomon's for another overnight. We took the dinghy and went in to the Tiki Bar using the public landing... we also walked around a bit.
Left Solomons on the 21st and headed to Dividing creek where we had an beautiful anchorage all to ourselves. The next morning we headed out and down to Deltaville Yacht Center where we spent 3 days. I had noticed that Bubbles seemed a bit slow - not reaching her normal 5+ knots when motoring and sailing... so I had her hauled and the bottom cleaned. Big Difference. Also replaced the missing zinc!!
On Thursday we moved from the Yacht Center around to Jackson Creek preparing for our imminent departure out into the ocean. We stayed for two days and dinghied around visiting the museum and the Saturday farmers market. We were targeting Monday to be our ocean passage. We left Jackson Creek on Sunday the 28th and were planning to either stay at Cape Charles Marina (they wouldn't answer email, VHF or phone) or Kiptopeke Beach but we were making such good time we decided to head on out. Hit the Atlantic at 2:35 pm with all sails up. Lost the Autopilot about 1 am so we had to hand steer the rest of the way (taking 1 hour shifts at the first mate's insistence). Dropped anchor in Breakwater Harbour in the Delaware Bay at 5pm and got a good nights sleep.
Tuesday the 30th we had a fairly wild rice up the Delaware - started out OK, but things deteriorated quickly and it was terrible around the power plant up to the entrance to the canal. Since we were riding the incoming tide all the way, we were able to get all the way down to Chesapeake City where we dropped anchor at 8pm... a 12 hour sail.
Wednesday the 31st we had planned to get all the way back to the marina, but a nasty storm blew up down south of the Bay Bridge which stirred the water up to a vertical washing machine - so we ducked into swan creek for the evening and then finished up our loop on Thursday August 1st about 1pm. On the days we weren't moving, we were exploring the area in our dinghy, paddling around and just really enjoying life on the water. A great trip - we both learned a lot!