Delaware Bay-A near death experience!

     We started early, lifting the anchor and moving by 6:30 am. The national weather service was predicting another idyllic cruising day. There was a "weak front" supposed to pass through during the afternoon with a possibility (50%) of an afternoon thunder shower.  No big deal. we have had a few thundershowers before and there is a 50% chance that we won't even have rain. We had been cautioned by another captain that the Delaware can"get a little snotty" when the tide goes against the wind, but all were in the same direction today and there basically was not going to be any wind.
     Another lake like cruise, with smooth as glass water and the tide going in our direction for a change.  We easily ran 10 knots up the Chesapeake, through the C and D Canal and we would be catching the outgoing tide down Delaware Bay to Cape May. For once, things were all going our way.

Beautiful homes along the Chesapeake

                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                 
                            Commercial traffic taking advantage of the calm Chesapeake Bay

                                                                                

                                                                                  
     As we got near Chesapeake City a beautiful 60 foot Jefferson Motor Yacht  approached from behind. Tom and Pam on "Pampered" were heading in the same direction and we decided to"Buddy Boat" down the bay. This usually just means someone to talk to on the VHF radio, occasionally warning of any debris in the water or pointing out interesting sights.  It was to mean a lot more for all of us before we got to Cape May!

                                                            
                                      "Pampered" heading under the Chesapeake City Bridge.          

     We joked along, Beth taking pictures of a nuclear power plant and me making jokes about workers glowing in the dark because of the radiation. What was to happen next was no joke. In fact it was terrifying! It was the closest we have come to losing the boat and quite frankly our lives!

                                                                                
                                                   New Jersey nuclear power plant

   Beth remarked, "Did you see where there is some rain showers down near Cape May?"

 "Ya, doesn't look like much and we are two thirds down the bay. The only anchorage we have picked out in case of inclement weather was behind us and we only have a couple of hours to go." I replied.

     It started with just a few rain drops on the windshield, but we both became alarmed when we looked at the weather system on the internet.  Storms were brewing up all along the coast. We spoke with Pampered and they were continuing on, replying that it was a little rough but manageable and they were just 10 to 15 miles out. 
     Then the VHF cracked to life with a coast guard warning of severe thunderstorm, "All boats should seek safe harbour immediately!" Great, but the nearest safe harbour was where we were headed....along with 3 storm cells...2 passing in front of us and 1 coming down the bay behind us!  The wind picked up.  The last wind speed I saw before the anemometer quit working was 60 m.p.h.!  We could see thick cloud to ground (water) lightning bolts that were so loud the boat vibrated.
      The VHF cracked to life. It was Pampered. "Are you guys OK. We are in big waves with heavy lightning all around us. It's just ahead of you!" Pam blurted as we watched 3 thick lightning bolts snap to the water near them.
      It was raining so hard I couldn't see past the bow of the boat, and as I fought to keep the boat on course the rain became mixed with hail the size of small marbles that bounced off the windshield. Suddenly, the boat bounced and turned completely around as I struggled to just keep the nose into the wind. We heard the Bimini pop and tear.  By this time Beth got the life jackets and put one on me, as I was struggling with the ships wheel, one for Spencer and one for herself. The boat rocked side ways not quite putting the port rail in the water. I tried to reassure Beth that the boat wouldn't roll over, but it was sure tipped until I got the nose into the wind..the problem was the wind was turning us in a circle!....??? a tornado??  waterspout??? Who knows but it was ROUGH! actually TERRIFYING!
     The worst part is that we were coming down a ship channel with large container size ships travelling in the channel, and I couldn't even see these monsters on my radar! Fortunately, we had the foresight to travel outside the channel markers because suddenly out of the abyss appeared a ship coming up the channel and within 30 minutes, as I was looking out the side door for a channel marker to confirm my position, a huge ship was passing me going in our same direction down the channel!

" Where the hell did that come from? Why didn't I see that on the radar?" I exclaimed loudly. These ships in perfect weather throw off  as much as a 12 foot wake! You can imagine what it was like with 6 foot waves on top of this!  The damned captain of the ship didn't even answer my call on the VHF...I just wanted to know if anymore ships were near by, because we had to cross the ship channel to get to port.
     It was comforting to hear from Pampered that they made it to port, but unnerving to think that we still might have worse weather ahead.. We checked and rechecked the weather system.  If we slowed down to let the electrical storm pass in front of us, would the storm coming down the river catch us?
We had no choice.  I couldn't speed up because of the big waves now rolling in from the ocean, but at least the wind was decreasing, and the rain was easing such that I could see at least a mile ahead . The radar was now able to pick up the channel markers and other ships.
      We crawled forward with Beth sitting on the floor holding a terrified trembling Spencer.
 "If I can just get by this light house marking the shoals, we can turn in and the ride should get a little easier," I told Beth.
     She looked up at me with that, I'll believe it when I see it look in her eyes.  When I thought there were less steep waves I increased the speed to help get us around the shoals...this caused us to bury the nose of the boat in a large wave that came too quickly for me to cut back throttle.  Crash! things were falling and smashing all around in the boat.(we thought we had everything secured!) We inched around the shoals and as we turned in toward the channel, the ride did get a little easier.  The automatic pilot wasn't quick enough, so I manually kept the boat on track and managed to increase the speed.

 "Just 18 minutes and we will be in the jetties," I told Beth as the boat took another roll to the side.  "Just 15 minutes," I informed her again.

 "That was a hell of a long 3 minutes!" she groaned as the boat repeatedly rolled to the other side.

 "Whew, we made it. " I exclaimed as we entered the protection of the jetties leading to the protection of the ICW.

 Finally, Beth stood up with poor little Spencer in her arms and simply said, "That sucked!"

 We finally inched our way in to a very tight, Utsch marina.  As we cracked open a coldy we looked around the boat. "It looks like a small bomb went off in here." quipped Beth.

 I sighed and took a long pull on the frosty bottle of Coors beer,  "Ya.  That sucked! Do you think we can sell the boat here?" I pleaded.
     We checked with Tom and Pam, and over dinner we commiserated about the rough trip.  Tom handled the weather differently.  He increased his speed to 18 knots raising the nose of the boat and putting his automatic pilot on quick response. ("You can do that! Man I have got to read the manual! I thought silently.
     They were planning on leaving the next morning at 7 to make the outside trip to Atlantic City since the front had already blown through and it was giving good weather tomorrow.  Beth and I just looked at each other and smiled. I knew what she was thinking. Is there a boat dealer here?

                                                                              
                                   A snap shot of the "front" we went through yesterday!!!!

     Once again, a lesson learned.  What would I do differently next time?  Just what the coast guard warning suggests...seek safe harbour.  In this case it might have been wiser to immediately pull into shallower water and set the anchor with as much chain out as possible.  At least we would have been far out of the ship channel.  Of course, even better would be to get to a protected anchorage, but waiting out the storm would have been safer. Also we found out that a lot of the boaters try to get to their next destination before the winds come up in the afternoon.  One sail boater we talked to said,"Oh yes. We try to be in a marina or anchored by 2 in the afternoon at this time of year here, because of the afternoon thunderstorms!"  Great! Why don't they put that one in the guide books!