The Stretch Between: Life Since Leaving New York

The boys have been great about writing posts for the blog, but trying to capture everything in the moment has proven….ambitious. To get everyone caught up, and to make sure we have a written record of this whole adventure for memory’s sake, I’m jumping in with a recap of life since we left NYC.

We departed Atlantic City on November 3rd and made the 30nm run to Cape May, NJ. As Theo said in his last post, it was “nuucking windy and wavy” and he was not wrong. That stretch is notoriously bumpy, and of course we managed to hit it on one of those days. This trip hasn’t exactly delivered perfect weather windows, so we couldn’t be too picky. We went over the forecast, agreed it was safe (if not comfortable), and decided to just bite the bullet. Long story short: we learned very quickly what needed to be lashed down. The boys don’t get seasick easily, but even they glued themselves to the couch and tried to sleep through it. School was definitely canceled. The big rose of the day was spotting a huge whale (we think a humpback) off our starboard bow just before turning into Cape May Inlet. Absolutely incredible.

We pulled into Cape May safely and grabbed a slip for two nights at Utsch’s Marina while we waited on the next weather window to tackle the Cape May Canal, Delaware Bay, and the C&D Canal.

On November 5th we left at 0545 and made the 63nm trip to Schaefer’s Marina on the C&D Canal. The next morning we pushed on to Annapolis, where we spent five nights anchored right off the Naval Academy.

While in town, we got to reconnect with friends/boat neighbors who keep their boat right next to ours at the Navy base in Newport. They treated us to an amazing dinner at the Annapolis Yacht Club and generously let us use the club while we were there. Kevin and Katherine—thank you! Dinner is on us this summer at NYYC.

One of my favorite parts of this whole trip is the people: old friends we get to see along the way, the incredible hospitality from friends and family, the new friendships forming as we move south—and even the familiar boats we keep passing but don’t actually know. It feels like a little moving community.

Back to Annapolis: the boys and I toured the Naval Academy, and Theo has officially decided he’s applying. We visited the crypt of John Paul Jones and learned the wild story of how our first naval hero ended up back in the U.S. We also met up with my high school friend Keelan, who gave us a VIP tour of the new Hopper Hall. We checked out the test tanks for the Surface and Underwater Robotics Facility and took in the gorgeous view from the rooftop.

The next day we rented a car and drove into DC for some sightseeing and to meet up with our nephew Jack at Catholic University. The boys were disappointed that the government shutdown closed most of the museums they were excited to see, but we’ll get a redo on our way north in the spring.

We also hit up a Whole Foods and a Target and even had a few Amazon packages shipped to our friends there. For land-based humans this may not seem thrilling, but in cruising life this is basically Christmas!

After our time in Annapolis, we continued on toward Norfolk, with stops in Deltaville and Solomons. Ben and Theo got some rollerskiing time in the neighborhoods of the Solomons.

On Thursday, November 13th, we pulled into Norfolk and were completely in awe—massive commercial traffic, Navy ships everywhere, shipyards… it’s an incredible entrance.

Now that we’re a little more caught up, Theo will jump in over the next couple of days with the lowdown on the ICW.