The Sun Also Sets

The mission was to move my 1972, 26-foot Bristol (hull 147) sailboat from the Tinicum Delaware River Marina to the Chesapeake Bay. The old Bristols are strong, heavy, lead-ballast boats made out of woven fiberglass. The rigging looked new and came with a roller fuller and lines leading back, but no fancy electronics. The yellow boat color was odd. I had spent the previous year checking her over while in the water, and now felt it was time to go to a better sailing location with a marina that could get the boat on the hard for the winter.

The Sun Also Sets
I had to set sail at 1 p.m. on April 17 at slack tide to have any hope of getting out of the marina safely. The dinghy was put on top to help get out of the marina. I loaded fuel for the 8-hp Nissan. The depth sounder seemed to be working. I moved out with my Boston Terrier BoBo at 1 p.m., cleared the marina without incident, and headed south with the tide. The current on the Delaware runs up to four knots, which makes dock maneuvering a challenge, but sailing south with the tide it would be welcome, as it is a long motor down the Delaware with the winds from the south.
All was going well, but I began to see many large ships. These ships make big wakes (four feet plus) and give concern, but the old Bristol with 2400 pounds of ballast did well when cutting in to the wake. At Wilmington a large barge came out fast from the Christina River and forced me to make a U-turn to avoid a possible collision. No harm, but a foul in my book. The barges do not seem to give any care for other (small) boats.

 The author's 26-foot 1972 Bristol.

The depth sounder gave out! So we had to stay in the shipping lanes and continued south by chart and buoy. On the chart it looked as if the marked anchorage area south of Delaware City was as good as any and further away from the main shipping channel than the other options. I moved as close to the shore as I dared. That depth sounder would have been a big help. I planted the hook and then the other, so with two anchors set I watched my location. All seemed good, and BoBo seemed fine, too, in spite of not understanding were the head was located.

 The author under way.

Things That Go Bump in The Night
The anchorage areas on the Delaware River are right next to the shipping lanes. In this case there was a small shipping lane from Delaware City to the main channel just north of my position. I figured there would be little shipping traffic from that direction if any. I put out an LED light shining up on the blue tarp and kept the inside lights on.
At night this area is surreal with the flashing lights from the numerous towers and the hellish glow from the Delaware City refinery, along with the sound of gigantic diesel engines coming from the docked red oil tanker. The added white lights at the Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D) Canal entrance and the flashing lit buoys made things seem a lot like something out of the “Apocalypse Now” Do Lung Bridge scene.
I finally got to sleep at about 1:30 a.m. At 3:12 a.m., I woke up to the sound of water moving. As I got out to look around, I found that the anchors had given way. I was a long way south and dragging the anchors towards the C&D Canal rock jetty. I could just make out the flashing light on the buoy 3G of which, earlier, I was located just west. It looked like a half mile away.
Motoring at night was not in the plan, but either that or a certain grounding, so I went forward and pulled up the hooks and got back to the engine before the boat moved onto the jetty shoal. The dinghy at the front of the boat became an unwanted obstacle. The engine started on the first pull, and all seemed saved, but on the way back I saw the light on the 3G buoy go out! A large barge and tug had failed to stay in the shipping lane and were now moving over the location where I had been anchored. This was something I did not take lightly. Maybe the captain would have seen my boat and taken action? On the other hand, maybe the tug boat could not keep the barge in the shipping channel because the same current that broke my anchors was also pulling the barge out of control?

 The big ship headed south and not through the canal as the author had feared.

There were a number of unknowns, but it was reasonable for me to believe I would have been killed in my sleep had the anchors not failed. I got no sleep the rest of the night. I could not get the anchors to set and continued dragging and motoring back to stay in the anchorage zone over and over for the rest of the night. ‘Wait this out,’ I thought. ‘Dawn will be here soon,’ and as Hemingway wrote, “The Sun Also Rises.”

 BoBo checks out the action in the cockpit.

Call Me Ismael Not Fish Meal
Slowly dawn broke. And as irony would have it, now the anchors set. This was welcome news and would give me some time to get ready before moving though the C&D Canal. The dinghy had been making access to the lines at the front of the boat a pain, so up and over. The fiberglass dinghy was quite heavy and awkward with a lot of water in her. I used the hand bilge pump to get the water out.
The C&D Canal is long, and having the tide with you can cut the time in half, so I hear. I had been in the canal before from the Chesapeake side to Chesapeake City in my 22-foot 1976 Catalina years ago. This time it was from the other side and much farther.
It was too bright to sleep, and the instant coffee was bad. I heard and saw the big red oil tanker begin to move out, the one that had the engines running all night making me feel closer to one of the lower levels of Dante’s Inferno. I began to motor to the C&D Canal entrance at about 10 a.m. to avoid another possible collision. I came to the mouth of the C&D just ahead of the big red ship that was heading south and not through the canal as I had feared.

 The C&D Canal.

The current at the mouth of the canal was very strong and going against me. At this point I was making only about one knot an hour, but slowly moving to and past the first bridge. As you know, sailboats are displacement hull boats and can only move at the boat’s displacement speed or the speed the hull of the boat can push the water around it. The bigger the boat, the faster it can go, so they say, but I do not get that fully. I do know my boat has a top speed of about five miles per hour.
I had not washed or slept, but I was not tired. BoBo was well, too. She must have found the head. Speeds did pick up nicely. We arrived at Chesapeake City at about 1 p.m. The restaurant guests at the waterside tables gave a wave as we passed, to BoBo more than me, I think. Here, I came across the only two barges I met that day and to my good fortune, it was in a no-wake zone.
Finally, I could see the open Bay! What a sight. Beautiful, as was the day with the warm April winds kicking up from the south. It had been many years since I had been in this part of the Chesapeake, and it did not look as if much had changed. I thought about a glass of champagne, but I did not have any. The ice cold water went down well. BoBo agreed.
Now it was all gravy, follow the markers, and make the turn into the Bohemia River at red buoy 6. We approached the marina and saw the mooring balls out as promised. Now just to pack up and load the dinghy. BoBo did very well and stayed centered on the little boat that is quite unstable, but rows fast. To end the trip, I lost my footing and took a fall into the mud. BoBo was smart enough to stay in the boat. Still the Bohemia River is a wonderful place to end a trip.
There are three anchor zones on the Delaware side of the C&D Canal. They are all likely dangerous. I know the one near Delaware City is very dangerous. I figure the current can pull large shipping out of the marked channel and into the anchor zone, and at night, I can only hope your anchors fail.

by Joseph McCarthy