New Territory

Monday morning, after returning the rental car we left the dock at Solomons headed north. The Chesapeake Bay narrows at the north end and it felt like a much smaller body of water than it had in the fall, before we had sailed "big" water.
Around 3, we passed the Thomas Point Light, fondly remembering our first sail south from Annapolis. Everything north of this light, until we reach Brewerton NY on the Erie Canal will be new cruising ground for us. We missed all of this area southbound when we trucked the boat, due to the damaged and closed Erie Canal. The Erie Canal was scheduled to open today, and we have heard that it in fact opened two days early.

Today our plan is to sail to the top of the Chesapeake Bay, and enter the first part of the C&D Canal. This canal, first proposed in 1661 and opened in 1829, links the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, shortening the water route between Baltimore and Philadelphia. The canal has since been enlarged considerably, and our guide book now states that the maximum allowable length for a self-propelled vessel transiting the canal is 886 feet! Though we hope not to pass a huge ship in the channel, their wakes can be tremendous and reverberate off the rock walls for quite some time, we know we will see many large vessels, and have found a website that shows commercial traffic in the area.
Though you won't be able to see us, you can check out who we might see by checking this website: marine traffic.com and zooming into the area between the top of the Chesapeake and the top of the Delaware.
Off we go.....