Worton Creek

We get up at 7:15 as the sun is peeking through the early morning mist. We are the last ones to leave the anchorage in the river. 

Sunrise in the mist

Sunrise

The first thing I do is drain the water in our fuel filter trap. We had just fueled up at Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey and they decided included a half cup of water. Had a similar problem last time we got gas for the outboard the last time here.

The next issue is the windlass fails to pull up the anchor. This windlass has been on borrowed time for a couple years. I was going to replace it a couple years ago, but it would of required to remove it with a metal cutting saw. After 20 years with a little salt, the drive shaft and coupling become bonded together, so I babied it along for another couple years. The gear box worm drive has failed. So I have the fun of hand cranking up the chain and stopping every 8 feet to wash of the mud.

Bright Ayes

Once we get back out on the upper Delaware we have a nice sunny day without much wind. Looking at AIS targets on our plotter I notice “Bright Ayes” just off to our port side. I pullout the binoculars and confirm it is them. Betty notices us too and calls us on the VHF radio. Excellent sailors that they are, they left Barnegat at 3:00 AM to perfectly catch the current up the Delaware later in the morning. They follow us into the C&O canal that connects to Delaware to the Chesapeake.

 

C&O Canal Bridge

 

Barrage being pushed by tug in C&O Canal

We head to Worton Creek where we have stopped once before. Rather shallow creek, but we had no problems entering last time. This time we do. A shoal has moved beyond one of the channel markers and the charts show another shoal in what is the actual channel. Anyway we get off the bottom and continue our way to the marina. We get to the Marina at 5PM after closing and have to dock ourselves. Linda gets the passwords and combinations from a British couple who keep their trawler in one of the covered dock sheds.