We finished up the Chesapeake Bay by staying in Chesapeake City, which is in the C&D canal. We passed several ships in the C&D. Tuesday morning we left Chesapeake City and completed the C&D canal. We entered the Deleware River and then into the Deleware Bay. The wind and waves were on our starboard quarter and/or on the beam. This was the worst part of the trip up to this point. The "Pelican" can take a lot more than I'm interesting in riding through. After a long day we arrived in Cape May NJ. We motored up the NJ ICW and spent the night in Wildwood NJ. As in other parts of the trip we are running about two weeks ahead of things opening up. However we found a nice marina that was in walking distance of a grocery store.

We stayed in Wildwood an extra day as the wind and rain was not favorable for traveling. Because we have been traveling with new spring (MUCH POLLEN) we spent the day cleaning the inside of the boat, grocery shopping and cooking a big pot of chilly. It was good to have a day of rest and relaxation. I actually took two naps. The weather is in the low 50's and windy. I really do appreciate the heater on the Pelican.

We departed Wildwood, by the NY ICW. The reputation of being shallow soon came to a mean a lot more than a reputation. I started the day, after about 30 minutes of travel, farming. In other words the "Pelican" became a plow as we were running aground and plowing through the shoaled areas to find deeper water. We were aground for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. After the incoming tide helped us find some deeper water we had a great cruise up the New Jersey ICW to Atlantic City. One of the impressive sights was wind generators producing electricity for Atlantic City. The casinos were also very impressive arriving by water. It is still off season so we got a good rate at the Trump Marina Hotel Casino docks. We plan to stay in Atlantic City for a couple of days and be tourist. I have already visited the Trump Casino and still have all my money. It was intersting to walk through and look at all the people playing the slot machines. We did get a good meal at a reasonable price.

Annapolis & Baltimore

This is Baltimore Inner Harbor. We spent Sunday in the Inner Harbor with thousands of other people. To much noise and to many people for me. We did tour the Baltimore Aquarium. We departed this morning and are in Chesapeake City on the C&D canal. If the weather permits we will be in Cape May NJ Tuesday night.

This is a light house in the Chesapeake Bay.

This is the entrance to Annapolis harbor. It was a mad house getting into the city docks. I was proud of the Pelican. She did not hit any other boats.

We are tied up along the city dock and the Pleican did not fit. There were a lot of "go fast" boats, hight dollar boats and the Pelican. Lots of people.

In one of my earlier blogs I said we watched Coast Guard rescue excercises from the Pungo River. It was actually the Bay River.

Later,

Carl

Chesapeake Bay

We are having fun in the Chesapeake Bay. Lots of boats, interesting people and nautical sights to see. We crossed the Chesapeake from the Rappahannock River Thursday morning. We went into Tangier Island. It was a windy and rather rough crossing. The wind was on our beam and/or on our port quarter. We rocked and rolled. The "Pelican" handled the Bay very well.

When we arrived in Tangier Island we docked at Parks Marina and met Milton Parks, the owner. He is 78 years old, was born on Tangier and has been a waterman all his life. Milton is quite a character. He had quite a few saying and one stuck with me. " Good is short lived and bad last forever". This is something to remember to live by. Tangier restaurants were not open so we had crabcake sandwiches at a little sandwich shop. There were lots of locals eating there and we met the owner of a Buy Boat that is still in operation. He knew Bill Hights from Urbanna. The supply boat came in and brought supplies to the only grocery store. It closed from 12:00 until 2:00 while they unloaded the groceries from the supply boat and put them on the shelf. At 2:00 the golf carts and 4 wheel vehicles came from everywhere to get fresh groceries. The store was full of ladies purchasing groceries and a lot of the groceries were purchased on credit. The husbands are away crabbing and I expect will pay the grocery bill when they return from crabbing down near Cape Charles.

Tangier Island is one of the most unique places I've ever visited in the world. I love this island and its life style. There are approximately 600 residents on the island and they are very strong in their religion. Two churches on the Island. They also seem to be very family oriented. What a great place!!!!!!

We left this moring and came accros Tangier Sound into Crisfield, Maryland. We are staying at the Somers Cove Marina. There are over 400 slips and 99 % are empty. We are the only transit boat here. We purchased fuel, for the first time and paid $2.08 per gallon. It took 90 gallons to get here from New Bern. NOT BAD..... If the weather permits we will leave Crisfield Saturday moring and go to Solomons, back accross the Bay.

Urbanna Va./Town the Pelican was built in

Well we left Deltaville this morning around 7:30 and arrived in Urbanna around 11:00. It was a nice run up the Rappanannock River and into a beautiful little town of Urbanna. I met Bill Hight who was very helpful providing information about Joseph Conboy, the builder of the Pelican. Bill actually sold supplies to Conboy back in the late 70's and early 80's. The boating people I met in Urbanna seemed to be excited to see a Joseph Conboy boat back in town. I was unable to find out if Conboy is still alive. He moved to Florida and local people have lost contact with him.
Dalton and I plan to go to Tangier Island Wednesday, if the weather is nice. We will spend a couple of days eating and enjoying the Tangier Life Style, then we will go to Cristfiled and enjoy some hard crabs. We are eating our way up the Chesapeake Bay.
We truly are having a great time.

This is Sunday the 19th. Dalton and I have made it to the Great Bridge Lock on the North end of the Dismal Swamp. The Dismal Swamp was beautiful, as always. We will pass through the lock Monday, pass through Norfolk and into the Chesepeake, if the weather allows us to do this. Hopefully we will be in Urbanna Virginia by mid week. I want to get information on Joseph Conboy, the builder of the trawler we are traveling on.

Drew was as great cook

Finally under way!!!!!!

Well, the Pelican and I are finally underway. We were to leave Eastern Carolina Yacht Club at 7:00 AM Thursday. We had several electrical opportunities which held us back. We did not get away from ECYC until 3:00. We spent the first night in Oriental. We left Oriental at 6:30 AM Friday and stopped at the Alligator River Bridge Marina around 6:oo PM. Drew Willis is with me and he is doing the cooking. I'm living right. We had scollops Thursday and shrimp Friday night. What a way to live!!!! We had beautiful weather in the Alligator River Friday. The river was slick. We left Alligator River Marina around 6:30 and crossed the Albemarle Sound. It was a trip. We rocked and rolled with seas on the beam. We found it easier to tack than to roll with the waves. Have had a great time tied up to the Elizabeth City Docks. Then are very open to transit traffic. Great experience, would suggest any one in the area visit this location.

When we came around Maw Poing and into the Pungo River, last Friday, the Coast Guard and Pedro, the hellicopter, were doing rescue recovery training excercises and we watched them recover people from the river. That was quite an exciting observation.

Tomorrow we plan to do theDismal Swamp Canal.