Philadelphia and the transit to Annapolis

Continuing our tour of east coast cities, our next stop after New York City was Philadelphia. We sailed out of New York harbor—past the Statue of Liberty, behind some moored cargo ships, and under a big bridge. We stayed a few miles off the coast of New Jersey and had an easy and fast sail to Cape May—120 nm in around 17 hours. We entered the inlet at Cape May a little after sunrise and anchored off the Coast Guard basic training base. I was serenaded by the Star Spangled Banner as I stood on the bow and dropped the anchor.

Cozy in the cockpit as we sail south along the New Jersey coast.

Matilda woke up with a fever; Freja spiked a fever a few hours later. Hans and I were tired from the overnight sail so we were happy to relax on the boat with the kids. The next morning it was my turn for the fever. The kids and I spent most of the day in the v-berth watching movies, listening to audiobooks, and napping, while Hans made a few runs into town for cough drops and soup. It only took a couple days of exploring around a big city, surrounded by more people than we’d seen in probably two years, for our bodies to catch all the germs.

The combination of strong currents and shallow depths make the waters surrounding Cape May notorious for usually being a sloppy, uncomfortable mess. Trying to avoid the washing machine affect, we left on a morning with no wind and a favorable current. Hans sailed and motorsailed us up the Delaware River while the kids and I worked on days 3 and 2 of sickness. We passed the C & D canal, the canal that connects the Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake Bay, and we kept sailing north.

It was fun to sail back into Philadelphia—watching the planes landing at the international airport, seeing the hulks of the old ships at the Navy Yard, sailing under the Walt Whitman Bridge, and then going up the final stretch past Ikea, Walmart, and the SS United States. We pulled into Penn’s Landing Marina and found our slip for the next ten days. It was definitely a little classier than the marina we lived at for five years while Hans was in medical school—located next to the Hilton, the Spruce Street Harbor Park, and the Independence Seaport Museum, we certainly felt like tourists.

To no one’s surprise, Hans got sick the next day, but he rallied so he could spend time with friends before he had to leave for work. We filled the next ten days with schoolwork, tourist activities, and spending time with friends. Meme came to visit from Vermont for a week—she was excited to visit Philadelphia again since she spent so much time with us there when the kids were babies. It was definitely a trip down memory lane as we revisited our old stomping grounds; and it was energizing to see old friends. We meet so many new people in our nomadic lifestyle, and our social life certainly isn’t lacking, but we miss out on the ease and depth of conversations you get when spending time with friends who have known you for years and who’ve shared the ups and downs of life.

Philadelphia's Magic Gardens--a truly magical example of visionary, self-taught art.

Meeting good friends for a massive dim sum lunch.

Pres is out on the table during a school brain break.

Hans was scheduled to work from September 24 to October 6, his usual two weeks blocked together at the end of a month and beginning of the next month. I initially planned on staying in Philadelphia for the entire two weeks, but when we called ahead to make the marina reservation, the harbor master informed us that the marina was closing on October 1st in order to start dredging. (This is definitely needed as we were sitting in mud a few times during our stay.) Hans changed his return ticket from Philadelphia to Baltimore and the kids and I made plans to sail PW down to Baltimore to pick up Hans. After our rather stressful first experience with solo sailing in the Virgin Islands, I was somewhat reluctant. But, I also know I need to push myself to be comfortable and competent handling the boat by myself and decided this would be a good time to work on increasing my boating skills.

Hans's commute for two weeks.

The remnants of Hurricane Ian delayed our departure by a couple days, but I ended up leaving Philadelphia on a Monday morning in pouring rain. The rain wasn’t forecast to stop for a few more days and between needing a few days to get to Baltimore and timing the trip with favorable current, I had to leave in the rain. Thankfully I have good foul weather gear! Since I’m decidedly not comfortable moving the boat around in marinas or at docks, Hans turned PW around in the dock for me before he left so I just needed to untie the dock lines and go forward. A neighbor came by in the pouring rain to help with the lines and I was off. Hans found a webcam and was able to watch me leave the marina and turn south down the Delaware. Nothing like big brother watching you! I spent the day alternating between standing out in the cold rain and sitting in the doghouse. Thank goodness for the doghouse—10 hours standing outside in cold and wet would not have been very much fun.

Goodbye Philadelphia.

Going through the C&D Canal. The bridge was assuredly tall enough for us at over 125', but it still is a little nervewracking to go under bridges.

Passing a freighter on the Delaware River.

I entered the C&D Canal fully expecting to have two knots of current on the nose, but it was with me the whole time. I made at least 8 knots the entire way though the canal, shortening my estimated passage time by two hours! When I came out of the canal and entered the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay, I checked the roll call on the Kids4Sail Facebook group (I highly recommend joining this group if you sail with kids!), and saw that friends we met in Maine on the catamaran Hasten Slowly were anchored on the Sassafras River. We pushed on for an extra hour (including some time spent with steady 25 knot winds), and anchored next to them. I was wiped out by the time we got the anchor down and after one hot rum toddy, we had dinner and I went to bed.

We spent the next two days on the Sassafras, doing school and hanging out with Hasten Slowly. I weighed anchor on Wednesday in the early afternoon once the kids had completed their schoolwork. I had hoped the rain would have stopped but I ended up motoring for four hours in no wind and a steady rain. Anchor down and the sky cleared. I watched a bald eagle and a heron fight for territory and had a glass of wine while seeing a clear sunset for the first time in almost a week.

Sailing in wind and rain from the Sassafras River to a creek a little further south. And also posing because I needed to provide a photo of me sailing for the seminar in Annapolis. Despite over two years of living and sailing on PW, I have very little photos of myself. So Matilda was my papparazi and snapped a couple pics.

I left the next morning to complete the final leg of my solo sail—a mere 15 miles to Bodkin Creek where I would meet Hans. I followed the red and green channel markers into the very residential creek, looking for a good spot to anchor. Freja came outside and groaned, “ugh. It’s so boring and America-y looking. Can we just go straight to the Bahamas?” To be fair, at only 11 years old, she’s certainly seen a lot of different places and I guess suburban America is not her cup of tea!

Finally sunshine! Motoring south for our last leg to pick up Hans.

The kids did their schoolwork, made a welcome home banner for Hans, we tidied up the boat, and watched Scrubs until Hans arrived at the nearby marina in an Uber. We dinghied over to get him and the hugs were long. He’d only been gone for two weeks, the usual amount of time, but for some reason the time felt longer and we were very happy to have him back.