Delaware Traffic

According to some recent information, I am assuming that the trip up the Delaware can be feast or famine regarding the shipping traffic.  As we discovered on our first trip, there was much traffic to watch out for, the flies multiply out of nowhere and the river is so wide at the southern end, you can barely see the shore on either side.  There are shoals scattered all over the Delaware which requires a shipping channel to be dredged that runs smack dab in the middle of the river.  There is not much to look at along the way.  Let me rephrase that, there is nothing to look at.  It's kinda like being offshore in brown water.  Not particularly pretty.  However, the water was calm and the winds light, so we could't complain about that.

Cape May Lighthouse 

How'd you like to live in this house?

One of several ships that passed by

Fighter jets

This mega yacht towing a full size fishing boat got busted by a passing ship because he was a foreign registered boat over 200 tons and didn't have a pilot on board.  According to the passing ship, there is a $25,000 fine for not having a pilot on board.  A pilot, is a licensed captain that escorts ships (or mega yachts) in and out of harbors and shipping channels like the Delaware.  By the way, the thirty foot fishing boat behind the yacht is being towed and is the yachts "dinghy".

This barge was a MONSTER!  We counted 3 layers of 12 containers deep by14 containers long.  That's 504!  These were actually full size semi truck trailers.  Simply amazing!

Another tug pushing the monster as a 'regular' container ship passes on the other side.  This time, we moved outside the channel to allow these guys plenty of room to pass without having to worry about little ole us.

The Delaware looked beautiful in this light 

We arrived at the C&D (Chesapeake & Delaware) Canal in the dark at 8 pm.  There were tons of blinking navigational lights everywhere as 2 rivers merge into one at this point.  We dropped the hook and were tidying up the sails and getting the girls ready for bed when I hear "sailboat near the C&D Canal, this is ship so and so's captain" in a booming voice over the VHF.  I said out loud, hoping to get confirmation from someone in my  family "was he talkin' to meeee?"  I waited and then decide to speak back "aahhhh, this is sailing vessel Anything Goes, yes, we are anchored near the C&D Canal".  I wanted to make the 'anchored' part very clear.  He replied with something to the tune of "Are you south of the canal?  I'm coming in and you look like you are in the way".  What?  Yikes?  I thought we were in a designated anchorage?  Oh crap, what do I do now?  All this was running through my mind when I meekly replied "we just dropped anchor north of the canal in the general anchorage area".  He says, ok, no problem.  Phew.  Then someone else pipes in and says "sailing vessel that the ship was just talking to (no joke, he really said it just like that), this is the dredging boat.... crackle..... you..... crackle.... way..... crackle..... over"  What did he say?  We had a bad connection and decided to ignore him.  Tee Hee.