Sunday, May 26, 2013

By the Numbers, Fort Lauderdale to Salem



Dep Ft Lauderdale   April 2
World Trade Center with New Spire and Crane

Arrive Salem           May 19

Nautical Miles     1679 nm

Statute Miles       1847 mi    

Engine Hours      247.7 total 

Mean Speed         6.8 knots

Fuel Est      1150 gal total *
                 =   .68 gal/ nm       
                 =  1.46 nm/ gal
                 =  4.64 gal/ hr 

Total Time        48 days
Lady Liberty on a Dreary Morning

Lay Days          22 days

Passage Days    26 days

Avg day     64.6 nm/ day
                   9.53 hrs/ day

* Inc generator use

Friday, May 10, 2013

Waiting

It's been a long, and seemingly continually growing period of waiting since we left Annapolis__ after a delightful week there, for me at least, while Paul was away in Cincinnati__ we headed across and up the Chesapeake Bay to Tolchester Marine to have a few service items completed before we resumed our trip north.



As luck would have it, the beautiful weather we enjoyed in Annapolis, which would also have been great traveling conditions, turned into a stretch of rainy days. While rain seldom stops us, the sea conditions along the NJ coast were definitely show stoppers. We began looking for places to hang out for a few days, with a little more excitement than Tolchester provided, deciding on Delaware City, which put us further north on our path and would be a new place for us.




We spent a quiet Thursday and Friday in Delaware City, docked in the narrow canal that runs
diagonally through the small grid of streets that make up the town. I will say this about Delaware City: while there's not much there, I can hardly think of another place that seems to be trying so hard to stay alive. Crab shacks of various degrees of elegance are the main attraction. Whoever owns Wiso's has a sense of humor and a commitment to recycling!





Our original plan called for only two nights in Delaware City, but our three trusted weather forecasts all showed wave heights growing to 8 or 9 ft.  We usually think it's reasonable to travel when forecasts  are 3 ft or below, maybe a bit higher depending on the direction. This obviously called for more waiting, as we just didn't/ don't really feel like getting beat up again on this trip!

So despite the scenic attractions of Delaware City, we decided to continue our wait up the river in Philadelphia.




That was a week ago tomorrow, when we hope to leave and resume our trek, but Philadelphia was a very good idea. We've enjoyed the city from Penn's Landing, in the same small marina as Admiral Dewey's* flagship, USS Olympia, which Paul finds quite thrilling! Although the weather still doesn't look quite as favorable as we'd like, we're ready and anxious to go.

Next stop on land, Salem.

* From Wikipedia, a little info on Admiral Dewey. He is famous for his victory at Manila Bay in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. For those of you with a Boston bent, during his long and illustrious career,  he also commanded the USS Constitution (1867-1870).